Pan-Africanism and the Intelligentsia: the role of the African Academy in the Pan-African Movement

Abstract

The Pan-African Movement (PAM) has historically been linked with the African intelligentsia who have played pivotal roles in the idea and practice of Pan-Africanism. The historically recognized leaders of the PAM including Kwame Ture, W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Shirley Graham Dubois, Amy Ashwood Garvey, George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah are all part of the Revolutionary PAM Intelligentsia. The African Academy has also played a major role in the evolution of the PAM’s ideological advancement from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to African Studies Institutes in Universities on the African Continent. However, the collective African academy is all but currently absent in the larger PAM. The PAM is dominated by individuals and enervated organisations promoting Pan-Africanism often from a micro-nationalist perspective that is loosely connected to the larger PAM. This is not to assert that there is no Pan-African activity occurring in or around the University campus, but this activity is both disconnected in nature and form, and often characterised by rootless ideological standpoint as well as detached from the larger PAM. Importantly, the paper argues that both the instrumental and intrinsic capabilities of the African Academy are minimally explored. Therefore, this paper interrogates the role of the African Academy in the Pan-African Movement historically and in a contemporary sense. It asserts that a new strategy must be developed for the PAM to mature beyond its current state (or how it is viewed by the masses) as a movement of the past to a fledging movement for transformation and consolidation of Global Africa.