Tomorrow, Saturday, August 8, August parliament will host the inaugural Pan-African National Congress. The meeting will bring together Rwandans from various sectors of society: politicians, academics, civil society, religious leaders, trade unionists, youth, women, the private sector and many others. 

The occasion will also be the official launch of the Pan-African Movement-Rwanda (PAM-Rwanda).

A week later, Kenya will be host to a three-day inaugural Pan-African Congress for Eastern Africa.

This, too, will bring participants from across the social, political and economic spectrum from eleven countries.

They will seek to define the liberation, unity and development agenda for this region.

Pan-Africanism is once again in the air.

Pan-African Movement – what’s that? You might hear some ask, especially among the young, most of whom have never heard of such a thing.

Those who may have an idea, probably look on it as a historical curiosity, one of those once-upon-a- time stories. Even among older folks, some have forgotten that Pan-Africanism still exists or that it has any relevance today.

These attitudes might appear strange, but they are easy to understand. For well over a quarter of a century and much longer, not much has been heard in this respect. That’s more than a generation.

So does Pan-Africanism matter enough to drag it out of hibernation back into the light?

Yes, it does and as Saturday’s meeting shows, it is alive and well, or at any rate being resuscitated back to health. There are a number of reasons why it matters.

As an idea and later as a movement, it is significant. Pan-Africanism was born out of the belief that Africans, on the continent and in the Diaspora, have a lot in common – interests and challenges that can best be protected and addressed if they were united.

And so it sees unity and solidarity between Africans as key to their empowerment and progress.

In this sense, the earliest Pan-Africans created a consciousness of a common identity that needed coordinated and unified action to find full expression.

This consciousness involved a rejection of injustice in all its forms and a quest for just, fair and equal treatment. It galvanized Africans into action – to demand freedom and a rightful role for them in the world.

And so, if for no other reason, the Pan-African movement should at least be recognised for its role in the history of Africa and all other people of African descent.

This goes back to some of its earliest exponents such as Henry Sylvester-Williams and Edward Wilmot Blyden who organised the first Pan-African Congress in London in 1900. Their work was picked up by activists like Marcus Garvey and W.E.B Du Bois.

African leaders, including Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere, took Pan-Africanism to another level and used it to liberate the continent and as a driving force for continental unity.

Present day advocates like President Paul Kagame and others are carrying on in this long tradition.

Pan-Africanism is relevant today as it was when emancipation from slavery, liberation from colonialism and attempts at unity were the burning issues of the day.

That is why it must be revived and reconstituted. But first, we must understand why it has been in hibernation for so long.

Like most things that aimed to liberate, unify and empower Africans, it fell foul of forces that have always sought to dominate Africa.

And so, the early independence leaders who wanted to unify the continent and make its people self-reliant, and therefore posed a threat to imperialist interests, were quickly removed from power and replaced by largely ignorant, incompetent and brutal dictators.

These tyrants lacked a world view that went beyond their villages. Where they purported to have any, they were often expressed in self-aggrandisement schemes. The result was that Pan-Africanism was held in abeyance for the duration of the rule of the tyrants.

Another weakness was that it was almost exclusively the preserve of the political elite and academics, or starry-eyed revolutionaries. For many, it was a movement given to intellectual and theoretical discussion of issues.

Because of this, it never really became a movement of ordinary people.

There is a lesson in this for us today. If Pan-Africanism is to have any meaning and impact, it must be rescued from this restricted and exclusive group, and its ownership extended to the rest of the people.

PAM-Rwanda seems to have recognised this and invited a cross section of people to Saturday’s meeting and launch of the chapter.

Similarly, the movement will be more relevant if it goes beyond intellectual debate and focuses on proposing concrete actions that can advance African independence, progress and unity.

Tomorrow’s meeting at parliament should address these issues and come up with proposals that should be presented to other Pan-African meetings, including the next continent-wide Pan-African Congress to be held sometime next year.

There is a lot going for Africa. African economies are some of the fastest growing in the world. Our countries are firmly on the road to greater integration.

More African professionals and capital are increasingly crossing borders and operating in many different countries across the continent. The trend will increase, not reduce. But the earlier obstacles to unity still exist and must be overcome.

More efforts at unity, not less are needed and therefore reviving the Pan-African Movement is imperative.

And there is no doubt a revival is on. A new generation of Africans is taking it upon itself to continue on the journey started by our forbearers all those years ago.

Their mission is to carry the continent as far as they can go and preferably complete the journey.

The revival is more proof that great ideas don’t die. Nor do they fade away. They remain alive and wait for the right time and people to activate them.

Jorwagatare@yahoo.co.uk