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Politics: The Next Wave of Pan-Africanism

Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)

March 24, 2005
Posted to the web March 24, 2005

Dionne Jackson Miller
Kingston

For Jamaican dub poet and Rastafarian Mutabaruka, the question of whether Pan-Africanism is still relevant is almost incomprehensible, so obvious is the answer to him.

"It must be relevant because most of the Jamaican population is of African stock, and we have never been able to forge that link between the motherland and the Caribbean," he told IPS. "It's very important to decide on our next step (to develop) a South-South relationship because we've always been looking to the North."


Pan-Africanism is in one sense a united movement of countries on the African continent, but in the wider sense, encompasses a collective consciousness of all peoples of African descent.

Many Pan-Africanists look to the teachings of Jamaican national hero Marcus Garvey, who advocated closer links with Africa as far back as the early 1900s and rallied thousands with his messages of black pride and empowerment, at a time when black people were anything but empowered.

"Marcus Garvey, as the father of Pan-Africanism, always tried to forge that link -- that's why he started the (shipping line) Black Star liner," said Mutabaruka. "Politicians, people don't see the necessity to deal with Africa because they say Africa is not a place of development."

"They have always been looking at it as an underdeveloped (continent) so the need to form links wasn't as important. The Rastafarians have always been saying that it is necessary to always look to Africa," asserted the artist, whose dub poetry, that is poetry performed to Jamaican reggae music, strongly affirms the African experience.

Globally there has been a renewed focus on Africa over the past few years. Much of the media attention has been grabbed by developed countries pushing ambitious agendas -- most prominently that of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who set up a Commission for Africa charged with finding ways of improving the quality of life on the continent.

But on a much smaller scale, other steps are being taken to forge stronger links within the African diaspora. The small countries of the Caribbean are now eager to strengthen the historical and cultural links that have always existed between the region and the African continent, and to translate them into more meaningful collaborations in an age of shifting trade alliances and increasing challenges for developing nations.

The idea is to deepen and strengthen existing areas of collaboration, such as that established through the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, which negotiates trade deals with the European Union.

At a recent conference organised by Caribbean countries and the African Union, delegates recommended that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) confer observer status on the African Union, and vice versa, and that an Africa-Caribbean Commission be established to centralise efforts to build the relationship.

Ralph Gonzalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has an overarching vision for a new era of cooperation between the Caribbean and Africa, which would also encompass Brazil, home to the largest number of black people outside of the African continent.

He wants to see vastly increased trade and travel links, as well as cooperation in cultural, sporting, educational and health programmes. Realisation of these objectives should start with the establishment of a "permanent commission between Africa, the Caribbean and Brazil."

"It is right (to do it) now," Gonzalves says. "First of all there is a new leadership in Africa. There is a leadership within the Caribbean, which is receptive to those ideas. There is Lula in Brazil (President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva), and the international circumstances are such (that) we need the space. It's a response by people who have been locked out of the system."

While it is very important to increase the linkages between the continent and the Caribbean, it is also vital to view the issues in a practical light, says South African Arts and Culture Minister Zweledinga Pallo Jordan.

"It's very easy to let sentimentality and feel-good notions dominate," he told IPS. "But...those (linkages) are dependent on a whole number of factors, which have to do with practicalities."

"You don't easily establish air links and shipping links unless there's something to carry. You don't want to have empty planes between the Caribbean and Africa so those are inter-meshing issues."

"To the extent that there are trade links, business links, sporting links, cultural links, travel links, tourism links between the continent and the Caribbean, so too (air and shipping) will grow organically, you won't be able to just to wish it into existence," he cautions.

At the same time, the shifting global trading arrangements that have impoverished many developing countries have made increased cooperation more important, he says.

The increased desire for collaboration is an indication of a deeper process, he says, noting that the base of the Diaspora's identification with the African continent has been demonstrated over the years.

"There wasn't a single nation or country with people of African descent and Africans which did not celebrate Nelson Mandela becoming president (in South Africa), because there was such a strong sense of identification with that," Jordan notes.

"(But) it wasn't just identification, it was based on the fact that everyone in the entire African community across the Atlantic had participated in one way or another, some in big ways, some in small ways, but everyone had made a contribution, that's why people felt it was their victory."

Although the political landscape has changed, serious challenges remain that necessitate collective action, he argues.

"Given the sort of power that is mustered by the people who stand opposed to us or that we have to contend with, I don't think any individual African country or Caribbean country can take it on its own. We need to use our collective strength in order to face these problems," Jordan says.

"A small country like Jamaica trying to take on developed countries on its own because of unfair trade relations doesn't stand a hope in hell, but if you've got collective strength of the entire African continent and all the countries of the Caribbean and others with you, it's easy to take on that particular challenge"

And although daunting in scope, the work needs to be done, he says.

"The Chinese say a thousand-mile journey begins with on step, you have to take that first step. You might slip on a banana peel, you might trip, you might step on a thorn but you have to take that first step, so we shouldn't be scared because of the challenges that it entails."

SOURCE: http://allafrica.com/stories/200503240917.html