quote:Pan-Africanism literally means 'all Africanism'. It is a sociopolitical world-view, as well as a movement, which seeks to unify and uplift both native Africans and those of the African diaspora, as part of a "global African community".
As originally conceived by Trinidadian Henry Sylvester Williams, pan-Africanism referred to the unity of all continental Black African cultures and countries. The concept soon expanded, however, to include all Black African-descended people worldwide, who had been dispersed to the United States of America, the Caribean, Latin America and even parts of the Middle East and South Asia through the trans-Atlantic and Islamic/East African slave trades and, later, immigration.
Pan-Africanism seems to imply solidarity between all Negro peoples (I say Negro instead of African b/c there are other, non-Black ethnic groups in the continent who aren't included, and some "Black" people like Malays and Malaitans are not of African heritage). Yet there is such a wide diversity of ethnic groups, religions, and philosphical systems associated with Black Africans/Negroes (and their descendents). Expecting unity through racial group alone doesn't take into consideration the impact of religion. For example, will a northern Ethiopian of the Islaic faith have more in common with Eritrean Christains, or Arab Muslims? This idea that rcae will outweigh everything else seems to be the major flaw. What do you think?
