The tenacious fight of the African people against colonialism in the eighteenth century is where pan-Africanism got its start. Pan-Africanism did not emerge as a powerful political force until the twentieth century, led by African-Americans who resided outside of the continent.
In 1990, Henry Sylvester Williams organized a conference in Westminster Hall to protest racial injustice and other problems affecting Black people. Kwame Nkrumah who was the first leader in independent Ghana called a meeting in 1958 in the capital city, Accra, of all independent African states for them to come together wholly to support independent for the rest of the continent.
Strong voices of authors like Wole Soyinka, gave woes to issues that were easily recognized in the whole of Africa. By 1963, there were 31 independent nations in Africa like Tunisia, Morocco, Ethiopia and the rest; some were championing for the continental political union while the others were for slowing down steps towards unity.
The movement aims to promote African race and its achievement with creating equal and just societies where everybody lives a life of meaning. Salma Maoulidi says Pan-Africanism gave rise to civil rights movement in the US and anti-imperialist movement in Africa. It was due to the relationship between Pan-Africanism and civil rights in America. Currently, the young people should be challenged by the acts of the Pan-Africanist leaders. They left a legacy, and that should steer them towards creating a healthy future in Pan-African ideas. People should take the advantage and go to the right direction instead of taking the countries backward. It is the role of young leaders to inject new blood into the system and come up with new implementable ideas for development.
