Global Influence of Nkrumah And the Pan African Movement

Many problems were remedied during the Pan African movement, but the intense imbalances in the quality of life between these places is still an issue today, even after independence. And once again, these problems have been represented as natural characteristics, displayed as if the continent were beyond hope, and thus less worthy of anyone's real attention.

Though W.E.B. Dubois is often credited as the father of Pan Africanism, it was one of his younger rivals, Marcus Garvey, who led its largest movement to date. After traveling to Europe and Africa from his native homeland of Jamaica, he returned with a resolve to improve the conditions of life for black people of the Diaspora, as well as the black people of the then colonized African countries. "For Garvey, the black man was oppressed globally on the basis of race and no other grounds, and thus any program of emancipation would have to be built around the question of 'race first'."

Marcus Garvey, not only embraced a focus on the betterment of the African American psyche, but also called for transportation of black people of the Diaspora to Africa. In 1919, Garvey's ideas of black separatism and independence were materialized in the form of the three cargo ships purchased by the UNIA, the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Viewing economic independence as the first step toward black self-reliance, he started the Black Star shipping company. Though the ships of the

Black Star Line were of relatively poor quality, they and their all-black crews served their ultimate purpose by providing a much needed aura of pride:

The Pan African Movement was started at the turn of the 20th Century in hopes of eliminating the ravages of the transcontinental slave trade on all African peoples, as well as the still-lingering effects of slavery on the African American psyche. The French and British colonization of Africa did more than inhibit the progression of the people of Africa. Without a sense of unity between different ethnic groups, land and other natural sources of Africa and its people, would have continued to be exploited and mistreated. However, the shared experiences of oppression by Europe and America were what would unite Africans all over the world. The first Pan African Convention took place at a town hall of London in the summer of 1900, and was attended by W.E.B. Dubois. Dubois spent the majority of his life fighting to stop the racism and oppression that ran so rampant in his time. He repeatedly stressed that the problem of the twentieth century would be the "problem of the color-line ... will hereafter be made the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization." He was also one of many who recognized and expressed the calculated and horribly unbalanced nature of the colonial system supported by European nations:

Perhaps the worst thing about the colonial system was the contradiction which arose and had to arise in Europe with regard to the whole situation. Extreme poverty in the colonies was a main cause of wealth and luxury in Europe. The results of this poverty were disease, ignorance, and crime. Yet these had to be represented as natural characteristics of backward peoples. Education for colonial people must inevitably mean unrest and revolt; education, therefore, had to be limited and used to inculcate obedience and servility lest the whole colonial system be overthrown?

The Black Star Line captured the imagination of Negroes everywhere. Before long there were about eight hundred branches of the UNIA in the United States and another three hundred abroad. In 1920 Garvey claimed a following of four million people, but his numbers were not reliable. The members who paid dues numbered in the thousands rather than millions -with estimates ranging from about eighteen thousand to more than eighty thousand. Whatever the exact membership, several million black people sympathized with Garvey and his UNIA was the world's largest organization of Negroes.

Unfortunately, the business failed only years after the purchase of the first ship due to instances of poor management and organization, bad relationships with other scholars like Dubois, and FBI efforts to deport or discredit Garvey. Garvey was also jailed for a time over alleged counts of fraud, after which he was freed but then deported. The initiative for the Black Star Line may have been an economic failure, but it is remembered as a spiritual triumph worth much, much more than its economic cost.

As the middle of the century drew closer, a scholar emerged who would ultimately light the fuse that would result in the end of African colonialism. Throughout his career, he held much confidence in his former teachers, and highly valued the fruits of education. "Kwame Nkrumah learned about the plight of the African, in the context of global racial disharmony and inequality from Mr. Kwegyir Aggrey, an Assistant Headmaster of Achimota College, the premier second cycle education institution, where he was a student." Nkrumah's high value in education led to him becoming a highly accomplished professor himself. His dream of having the entire continent of Africa to be unified as one nation drew much attention when he helped to organize the Pan African Congress of 1945.

Nkrumah played no small role in this Pan-African gathering and held the official title as a Regional Secretary of the Pan-African Federation during the Congress' preparatory phase. During the organization of this activity he revealed himself to be a tireless worker, an able organizer, and a conscious revolutionary. By the conclusion of the conference it was clear that he was to be the recipient of the baton that DuBois had carried since the Pan-African Congress of 1919.

In 1957, Ghana was the first African nation to seize its independence. By the next year, 17 other nations had followed suit, and were now free of colonialism. Nkrumah's focus was now to maintain what he was able to obtain for Ghana as the country's first president. He continued his work in his position for nearly a decade, but while out of the country his presidency fell victim to a U.S. sponsored coup d'etat that not only removed him from power, but forced him into exile as well.

"An all-out offensive is being waged against the progressive, independent states," he wrote in Dark Days in Ghana, his 1969 account of the Ghana coup. "All that has been needed was a small force of disciplined men to seize the key points of the capital city and to arrest the existing political leadership."

Despite this, the rest of the African continent soon gained their independence, and remain free of colonialism. However, the state of many of these African governments currently suffer from instability. Some leaders are simply corrupt or inept in their positions, while many others fall into a trend of suspicion or paranoia of their power suddenly being stripped from them through coups or threats, resulting in a number of citizens jailed without justifiable reason. Even so, there are still many that hold on to the concept of black unity. In a recent interview commemorating Ghana's 50th anniversary, Nkrumah's son, Gamal Nkrumah shares what Pan Africanism means to him; "... the whole continent would be united into the United States of Africa. And that includes both North Africa and Africa south of the Sahara. It also means that the African Diaspora would have the right to return and to have African citizenship, if they so wish."

Colonialism may be gone, but the thievery of Africa's resources remains to be a problem. For Pan Africanism to become stronger, Africans all over the world need to see Africa as more than the lost cause frequently depicted in the media and be more active in connecting with our homeland.

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