The Future of Pan-Africanism
Identity politics have become a staple in conversations surrounding inequality. For those living on the African continent, one form has grown particularly ubiquitous: Pan-Africanism. For decades, Pan-Africanism has served as the philosophical blueprint for efforts to improve the lives of black people around the world and overcome the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and racism. While these endeavors have garnered noticeable successes, the approach has also revealed deficiencies, such as the internal tensions surrounding queer sexualities and the unequal treatment of LGBT people on the continent, which result, in part, from the inherent flaws of identity politics.
Pan-Africanism is a political ideology based on the belief that all African people share a common history, and that the best path toward their collective success is through unity. Pan-Africanism was originally developed in response to slavery in the Americas, colonialism and imperialism on the African continent, and Apartheid in South Africa. The first Pan-Africanist ideas can be traced back to the mid-19th century, and were developed by African descendants in the Western Hemisphere like Henry Sylvester-Williams, Martin Delany, Alexander Crummell, and Edward Wilmot Blyden. Following the contributions of other notable African-Americans like Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois in the early 20th century, Pan-African ideas became popular on the continent, most notably by important political figures like Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, and Haile Salasi.
Today, many of us in South Africa have come to think of “Ubuntu” as a major dimension of Pan-Africanism. “Ubuntu” is a Nguni term, which translates to “humanity” in English, and in my home language, isiXhosa, we normally say “Umntu ngumntu ngabantu” (A man is not an island). This reflects the Pan-Africanist belief that we Africans should stand united in addressing the issues we face because they affect us all.
This movement and way of thinking have been enormously beneficial. Pan-Africanism played a central role in the decolonization of the continent in the mid-20th century, and helped form the political philosophy of many newly independent governments (e.g. Ghana). This sense of unity also contributed to ending South African apartheid after growing international pressure was placed on the government from countries both on the continent and around the world. The African Union, which quite literally embodies these notions of African unity, has been credited with much of Africa’s recent economic and political success. Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, and Rwanda, for example, have some of the fastest-growing African economies, which suggests that efforts to relocate global resources and make Africa a more robust competitor and trading partner have been fruitful.
Yet, Pan-Africanism does have some major limitations. As a form of identity politics, it relies on the assumption that all members of the group share some kind of common core, and it prioritizes the concerns considered to be most relevant to that core over individual interests. This is a problem not only because it fosters division between identity groups, but also because the people and priorities of Africa as a whole are difficult to define.
This shortcoming has been particularly detrimental to the lives of queer Africans, whose rights and interests on the continent have often been ignored, dismissed, or denied. In (South) Africa, Pan-Africanist leaders have prioritised dismantling racism over other issues like queerphobia and sexism, which are deemed less important to the overall group. The result is that much of Africa is overtly hostile to sexual minorities. As I wrote in “A Peculiar Kind of Haven”, more than half of Africa’s 54 countries still consider same-sex relationships illegal, and some presidents have even gone so far as to pass laws that discriminate against LGBT people on the grounds that homosexuality is “un-African”.
This form of anti-queer Pan-Africanism illuminates the intrinsic flaws of identity-based politics, as it rewrites the boundaries of belonging to Africanness. The reason that Pan-Africanist arguments can be bent so easily to arbitrarily shut out certain people is because it’s simply a matter of moving the line of what "African" is, to exclude them. In this case, sexuality is used as a means of supposedly defending and preserving “African values” (whatever those are supposed to be). Sadly, in practice this has legitimized violence against those seen in opposition to these values, all in the name of “African pride”. In a nutshell, Pan-Africanism’s reliance on identity politics fails to acknowledge the individuality and freedom of African people by attempting to restrict group members to a finite list of qualities that all are expected to have.
This leads me to a burning question: can Pan-Africanism be reimagined to function in a more encompassing and accommodating way?
The short answer is: I don’t know. Pan-Africanism has gotten us this far, but I am not convinced that it can get us the rest of the way. Liberal arguments based on individuality and freedom may be more well-suited for the job.
In a country like South Africa, where race still remains a highly contentious issue, I am aware of the pitfalls of colour-blindness that so often accompany liberal thought. For this reason, I am intrigued by the notion of colour-conscious liberalism that Jamaican philosopher Charles W. Mills outlines in his essay “Racial Liberalism”, which promotes the recognition of historical injustices grounded in race and supports the pursuit of their correction within a liberal framework. As one South African journalist Christi Van Der Westhuizen argues, “Extending this idea to other differences such as gender and sexuality, this translates into a liberalism that actively acknowledges and advances the correction of historical racial, gender and other injustices.”
Perhaps, in an attempt to reimagine Pan-Africanism and overcome its shortcomings, we could start by shifting away from the idea that tradition and culture should override an individual’s human rights. This, of course, is not to say that Africans should give up the Pan-Africanist goals of correcting historical injustices. But the monolithic nature of identity politics sidelines important issues facing the LGBT community. An approach based on classically liberal values would better serve the goals of Pan-Africanism.
Published May 1, 2020
Updated Dec 19, 2022
Published in Issue VI: Identity
