The #AfricaMyHomeMyFuture campaign has become so prominent across the continent in different spaces in how it relates to Pan Africanism and the role young people play within the development of our beautiful continent.  It got me thinking about what Pan-Africanism is and more importantly what it is not and within this blog, I will explore the concept of Pan-Africanism from the lenses of the #AfricaMyHomeMyFuture campaign.

 The perfection in speech and unmatched intention in the body language of any African leader while preaching the gospel of Pan-Africanism would move an unarmed battalion against Hitler’s men at their peak. And while you listen to them, you think and believe, the impediment is us, not those leaders, those whom the African black-blood boils in their veins. Yet it is clear from some of the actions that our leaders take that what they speak about is definitely not what they practice.  The burden therefore falls on the young generation to define what Pan-Africanism is beyond speech but in actions.  We have learnt We must dare to invent the future as young people, (Thomas Sankara, Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983-87). Sankara was one great Pan-Africanist who left a mark in Burkina Faso and throughout the continent through his ideology that spoke to the lived realities of the poor Africans. Even today as we converge under the youth congress we must dare to invent the future we want and the continent we desire to see.

Sankara’s strong stance against corruption and high living by government officials reflected another side of his outlook. In such a poor country, frugality and integrity were the new watchwords. Public trials sent scores of dignitaries to jail for corruption or fraud. Sitting government ministers had to drive small and inexpensive Renaults or Peugeots. This is what Pan-Africanism should mean to us, an end to corruption, poor governance and natural Resource abuse. In many ways we have learnt through our leaders that pan-Africanism relates to a doctors and teachers working for peanuts which at times come belated, to youths forsaking their rights and not demanding government accountability. We have been configured to think that resource-based loans to Chinese and illicit financial flows should go unquestioned by the citizens who are languishing in poverty, but is this what Pan-Africanism means? My opinion is it means accountability, fairness and amplifying voices of the people in the trenches in the face of socio-economic and political injustices. 

Why did Sankara leave this lasting legacy? Why do oppositional youths in Burkina Faso – and elsewhere in Africa – continue to raise Sankara and his ideas whenever we speak about African Patriotism and Pan-Africanism. Undoubtedly, much of the explanation lies in the dissatisfaction with the way things are today: hunger, poverty, widespread abuses and corruption, electoral ‘democracies’ that bring little real change, elites that incline more towards External capitals be it West or East than to their fellow citizens. For some across the region, singing Sankara’s praises or wearing a T-shirt with his image can symbolise their alienation and defiance, a political–cultural expression comparable to the ubiquitous portraits of Che Guevara and Bob Marley. In Burkina Faso specifically, the message conveyed by brandishing Sankara’s name or image is especially pointed. Not only was he a home-grown rebel, but the person seen as responsible for his martyrdom still sits in the presidential palace. What better way to visibly express rejection of the established order? 

But the broad objective of this blog is not to reject the established order but to be clear on what Pan Africanism is and what it is not, especially when it relates to power and privilege of those who rule towards the ruled. It is to establish the core values of Ubuntu that define our moral being as Africans in all the things that we do. It is to have citizen driven and Action oriented advocacy that speaks to us and points us to the continent we want. Like Thomas Sankara would say, “Our revolution is not a public-speaking tournament. Our revolution is not a battle of fine phrases. Our revolution is not simply for spouting slogans that are no more than signals used by manipulators trying to use them as catchwords, as code words, as a foil for their own display. Our revolution is, and should continue to be, the collective effort of revolutionaries to transform reality, to improve the concrete situation of the masses of our country.” What else speaks to us as Africans than to have home grown solutions to our perennial problems and staying grounded in our African pride and principles. The current generation must not betray Africa which is their home and their future. We must be the Pan Africanist of our time and we should define the Pan Africanism we want and shape the narrative.