ADEKEYE ADEBAJO: Prophets, poets and philosophers of the pan-African pantheon
Pan-Africanism can be defined as the efforts to promote the political, socioeconomic and cultural unity of Africa and its diaspora. I recently edited a 38-chapter volume on The pan-African Pantheon: Prophets, Poets and Philosophers (Jacana, 2020). With chapters by 37 African, Afro-Caribbean and African-American scholars on 36 major pan-African figures, the book seeks to contribute to curriculum transformation efforts globally.
Pan-Africanism was historically a reaction by Africans in the diaspora to the twin European plagues of slavery and colonialism. The 400-year transatlantic slave trade caused 12-million to 15-million Africans to be forcibly transported to the Caribbean and Americas. This was followed by eight decades of colonial rule in Africa. Fifteen years after the notorious Berlin Conference of 1884/1885 at which the rules were set by European imperialists for the partition of Africa, the pan-African movement was born when Trinidadian lawyer Henry Sylvester-Williams c...
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