Negligence of African languages invites ignorance and misconceptions about Africa. Some professors in their very high institutions of learning call bohali or lobola “bride price” or “bride wealth.” Yet our daughters and sisters have never been up for sale. Eurocentricity finds nothing wrong with calling African traditional doctors or herbalists “witchdoctors.” Can a person be a witch and a doctor at the same time? This is senseless.

The Standing Rock movement has quickly grown as a national symbol of, and call to action for, Native power and sovereignty; the rights of Mother Earth, especially water; and opposition to government impunity and corporate supremacy.

This festival, under the theme of Global Africa 2063, is seeking to rekindle the ideals of African redemption in troubling times. Starting from the goals and aspirations of the African Union in Agenda 2063, this festival seeks to draw inspiration from Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah while ensuring that the conditions and freedom of the peoples of Africa within the wider international community are not left out in the call for freedom and independence of Africans. 

With this issue, Pambazuka News closes another successful year of bold and insightful articles that raise revolutionary consciousness about the peoples’ struggles for freedom and justice in the pan-African world.