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Mackenzie Glaser

Pan African Expository Essay

February 28th 2019

The Pan-African conference here at Minnesota State University, Mankato is just a small

fraction of the vision of the Pan African Congress and a way to promote Pan Africanism. As said

by (Makalani, 2011), “Pan Africanism actually reflects a range of political views. At a basic

level, it is a belief that African Peoples, both on the African continent and in the Diaspora, share

not merely a common history, but a common Destiny”. This term is especially prevalent in all of

the events that I did attend at the conference as well as applicable to the Pan African Congress.

This term talks about solidarity between people of African descent, and was the backbone

of the entire conference. Through the diverse events, it was a great way for people to come

together and learn about things that were effecting this community. It also was a way to meet

with other people and reach common ground on struggles facing this community. One example

of this was during the viewing of the Black Panther documentary when we talked about the

growing incarceration rate of minority women. This conference was the necessary platform in

which to address these issues. Bringing up these issues serves to educate and help us band

together in order to address these issues. Also during the conference, it served to unite people

from different places, as the name implies. During the discussion, it was brought up how

someone from a different background could join and share the information that they gained

during this conference. This conference helped expand the term Pan Africanism to include all

people willing to spread knowledge and speak up against injustice. In these ways, this

conference has promoted Pan Africanism.

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The term Pan Africanism also is exemplified in the Pan African Congress. The Pan

African Congress is a meeting between Africans in order to address and discuss inequalities in

their community. They also do this in order to educate people because some of the time

knowledge about these issues are kept in the dark and great steps are taken in order to keep

knowledge from getting out. For example, in the first ever Pan African Congress, they had the

goal that, “Africans should take part in governing their countries "as fast as their development

permits" until, at some unspecified time in the future, Africa is granted home rule”. (BBC) This

sort of knowledge and the spread of it is promoting the bringing together of people of African

descent in order to help. This congress is extremely powerful in that it promotes solidarity in this

group. It does this in order to promote change and motivates people to work together to change

things.

Throughout the conference Pan Africanism and its goals was prevalent in every event as

well as the conference itself. When going to the discussions or the presentations solidarity was

extremely present as well as a sense of pride in culture. This atmosphere at the conference was

extremely infectious and radiated the term of Pan Africanism and seems as if it would only be

more so at the Pan African Congress.

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References

Africana Age, African & African Diasporan Transformations in the 20th Century, (n.d.).,

Pan-Africanism, Retrieved from http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-

pan-africanism.html

BBC, (n.d.)., The Pan-African Vision, Retrieved from

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/13chapter5.shtml