The New Pan-Africanism Movement

(IPS/GIN) -

Pan-Africanism is in one sense a united movement of countries on the African continent, but in the wider sense, encompasses a collective consciousness of all peoples of African descent.

Many Pan-Africanists look to the teachings of Jamaican national hero Marcus Garvey, who advocated closer links with Africa as far back as the early 1900s and rallied thousands with his messages of black pride and empowerment, at a time when black people were anything but empowered.

"Marcus Garvey, as the father of Pan-Africanism, always tried to forge that link -- that's why he started the Black Star shipping line," said Mutabaruka. "Politicians, people don't see the necessity to deal with Africa because they say Africa is not a place of development."

"They have always been looking at it as an underdeveloped continent so the need to form links wasn't as important. The Rastafarians have always been saying that it is necessary to always look to Africa," asserted the artist, whose dub poetry, that is, poetry performed to Jamaican reggae music, strongly affirms the African experience.

Globally there has been a renewed focus on Africa over the past few years. Much of the media attention has been grabbed by developed countries pushing ambitious agendas -- most prominently that of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who set up a Commission for Africa charged with finding ways of improving the quality of life on the continent.

But on a much smaller scale, other steps are being taken to forge stronger links within the African diaspora. The small countries of the Caribbean are now eager to strengthen the historical and cultural links that have always existed between the region and the African continent, and to translate them into more meaningful collaborations in an age of shifting trade alliances and increasing challenges for developing nations.

The idea is to deepen and strengthen existing areas of collaboration, such as that established through the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, which negotiates trade deals with the European Union.

At a recent conference organized by Caribbean countries and the African Union, delegates recommended that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) confer observer status on the African Union, and vice versa, and that an Africa-Caribbean Commission be established to centralize efforts to build the relationship.

Ralph Gonzalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has an overarching vision for a new era of cooperation between the Caribbean and Africa, which would also encompass Brazil, home to the largest number of black people outside the African continent.

He wants to see vastly increased trade and travel links, as well as cooperation in cultural, sporting, educational and health programmes. Realization of these objectives should start with the establishment of a "permanent commission between Africa, the Caribbean and Brazil."

"It is right (to do it) now," Gonzalves says. "First of all there is a new leadership in Africa. There is a leadership within the Caribbean, which is receptive to those ideas. There is Lula in Brazil (President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva), and the international circumstances are such (that) we need the space. It's a response by people who have been locked out of the system."

While it is very important to increase the linkages between the continent and the Caribbean, it is also vital to view the issues in a practical light, says South African Arts and Culture Minister Zweledinga Pallo Jordan.

"It's very easy to let sentimentality and feel-good notions dominate," he told IPS. "But...those (linkages) are dependent on a whole number of factors, which have to do with practicalities."

"You don't easily establish air links and shipping links unless there's something to carry. You don't want to have empty planes between the Caribbean and Africa so those are inter-meshing issues."

"To the extent that there are trade links, business links, sporting links, cultural links, travel links, tourism links between the continent and the Caribbean, so too (air and shipping) will grow organically, you won't be able to just to wish it into existence," he cautions.