Portal:Pan-Africanism
IntroductionWelcome to the Pan-Africanism portal!
Bienvenue sur le portail panafricanisme! Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous peoples and diasporas of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Americas and Europe. Pan-Africanism can be said to have its origins in the struggles of the African people against enslavement and colonization and this struggle may be traced back to the first resistance on slave ships—rebellions and suicides—through the constant plantation and colonial uprisings and the "Back to Africa" movements of the 19th century. Based on the belief that unity is vital to economic, social, and political progress, it aims to "unify and uplift" people of African ancestry. (Full article...) Selected articleThe Organisation of African Unity (OAU; French: Organisation de l'unité africaine (OUA)) was established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with 32 signatory governments. It was disbanded on 9 July 2002 by its last chairperson, South African President Thabo Mbeki, and replaced by the African Union (AU). Some of the key aims of the OAU were to encourage political and economic integration among member states, and to eradicate colonialism and neo-colonialism from the African continent. Although it did achieve some success, there were also differences of opinion as to how that was going to be achieved. Selected biographyMusa Ngum (or Musa Afia Ngum, born 1953 in Fatoto, the Gambia; died 11 October 2015 at the Dantec Hospital, Dakar, Senegal) was a singer and songwriter who was very popular in Senegal and Gambia. He was one of the pioneers of mbalax music, and "helped to define the mbalax style of popular music in the Senegambia" and "had a strong influence on Youssou N'Dour and other mbalax pioneers". He was "something of a cult icon back in the Senegambia region, and a pioneer of the mbalax fusion style". The mbalax, which originated from the Serer religious and ultra–conservative njuup music tradition sang during Ndut rites by circumcised boys (also referred to as “Kassak” songs) was the foundation of Ngum's music career. He mastered many of the njuup classics and built a name for himself whilst at the same time developing his voice. Throughout his music career, Ngum advocated for Pan-Africanism, and in particular the unification of Senegal and Gambia under one president. Selected historyThe Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage, and existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The vast majority of those who were enslaved and transported in the transatlantic slave trade were people from central and western Africa, who had been sold by other West Africans to Western European slave traders (with a small number being captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids), who brought them to the Americas. The South Atlantic and Caribbean economies especially were dependent on the supply of secure labour for the production of commodity crops, making goods and clothing to sell in Europe. This was crucial to those western European countries which, in the late 17th and 18th centuries, were vying with each other to create overseas empires. The Portuguese were the first to engage in the Atlantic slave trade in the 16th century. In 1526, they completed the first transatlantic slave voyage to Brazil, and other European countries soon followed. Shipowners regarded the slaves as cargo to be transported to the Americas as quickly and cheaply as possible, there to be sold to work on coffee, tobacco, cocoa, sugar and cotton plantations, gold and silver mines, rice fields, construction industry, cutting timber for ships, in skilled labour, and as domestic servants. The first Africans imported to the English colonies were classified as "indentured servants", like workers coming from England, and also as "apprentices for life". By the middle of the 17th century, slavery had hardened as a racial caste, with the slaves and their offspring being legally the property of their owners, and children born to slave mothers were also slaves. As property, the people were considered merchandise or units of labour, and were sold at markets with other goods and services. Selected culture
Haitian Vodou (/ˈvoʊduː/, French: [vodu], also written as Vaudou /ˈvoʊduː/; known commonly as Voodoo /ˈvuːduː/, sometimes as Vodun /ˈvoʊduː/, Vodoun /ˈvoʊduːn/, Vodu /ˈvoʊduː/, or Vaudoux /ˈvoʊduː/) is a syncretic religion practiced chiefly in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Practitioners are called "vodouists" (French: vodouisants [voduizɑ̃]) or "servants of the spirits" (Haitian Creole: sèvitè). Vodouists believe in a distant and unknowable Supreme Creator, Bondye (derived from the French term Bon Dieu, meaning "good God"). According to Vodouists, Bondye does not intercede in human affairs, and thus they direct their worship toward spirits subservient to Bondye, called loa. Every loa is responsible for a particular aspect of life, with the dynamic and changing personalities of each loa reflecting the many possibilities inherent to the aspects of life over which they preside. To navigate daily life, vodouists cultivate personal relationships with the loa through the presentation of offerings, the creation of personal altars and devotional objects, and participation in elaborate ceremonies of music, dance, and spirit possession. Vodou originated in what is now Benin Republic and developed in the French colonial empire in the 18th century among West African peoples who were enslaved, when African religious practice was actively suppressed, and enslaved Africans were forced to convert to Christianity. Religious practices of contemporary Vodou are descended from, and closely related to, West African Vodun as practiced by the Fon and Ewe. Vodou also incorporates elements and symbolism from other African peoples including the Yoruba and Kongo; as well as Taíno religious beliefs, Roman Catholicism, and European spirituality including mysticism and other influences. Selected imagesOrganisationsAll-African People's Revolutionary Party · African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent Africa · African Unification Front · African Union · African Queens and Women Cultural Leaders Network · Conseil de l'Entente · Convention People's Party · East African Community · Economic Freedom Fighters · Global Afrikan Congress · International African Service Bureau · International League for Darker People · Organisation of African Unity · Pan African Association · Pan-African Congress · Pan Africanist Congress of Azania · Rassemblement Démocratique Africain · Pan Africa Chemistry Network · Pan African Federation of Accountants · Pan-African Freedom Movement for East and Central Africa · Sahara and Sahel Observatory · UNIA-ACL · ZANU–PF
See also
& FestivalsPublications
Films and TVAudios and videosDid you know...that the colours of the Flag of Benin (pictured) allude to the Pan-Africanist movement and pay tribute to Ethiopia, the oldest independent country in Africa?
Selected quotesIn addressing imperialism at a Salisbury (Southern Rhodesia) meeting held on 9 April 1962, the former President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe delivered the following speech:
Pan-Africanism topicsCategoriesSelect [►] to view subcategories
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