The Unfinished Revolution: Pan-Africanism and the Post-Colonial State

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In 1884–1885, European leaders met in Berlin to carve up Africa, a meeting that
would become one of the most consequential in world history. Convened by German
Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the Berlin Conference didn’t aim for the prosperity
of Africa’s people. Instead, it was a disruptive partition of their land, resources, and
labor among imperial powers. The “Scramble for Africa” that followed
institutionalized conquest and dispossession, producing borders that still fracture
communities, identities, and economies today.

Decades later, in October 1945, a very different gathering convened in Manchester,
England. The Fifth Pan-African Congress brought together a new generation of
African leaders and intellectuals, including Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, and
W.E.B. Du Bois. Their agenda was not partition, but liberation. Their vision was not
for foreign powers to decide Africa’s fate, but for Africans to unite across borders,
dismantle colonial rule, and reclaim their agency.
These two moments—the Berlin Conference and the Manchester Congress—capture
the opposing trajectories of modern African history. One imposed division and
dependency; the other envisioned unity and self-determination. Yet, nearly eight
decades after Manchester, Africa continues to wrestle with the legacies of Berlin.

The Unfinished Decolonization
The decolonization process, though celebrated in the mid-20th century, was in
many respects incomplete. Leaders of newly independent states inherited the
colonial state apparatus but often lacked the vision—or the will—to transform it
fundamentally. Kwame Nkrumah warned as early as 1963 that “the independence of
Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African
continent.” Post-independence governance, however, too often entrenched
authoritarianism, elite capture, and narrow nationalism rather than building a
common project of continental renewal.
As a result, Africa remains structurally constrained: borders inhibit trade and
cooperation, economies rely on raw material exports, governance systems are
unresponsive to citizens, and voices in international forums are fragmented. The
promise of liberation was stalled by a “Monrovia compromise,” a preference for
sovereign silos over the “Casablanca vision” of a borderless Africa.

Pan-Africanism: The Singular Philosophy

Despite these setbacks, Pan-Africanism endures as the most coherent intellectual
and practical philosophy for Africa’s emancipation. At its core, Pan-Africanism
insists that democracy and human rights cannot be gifted from above. They must
be claimed from below through people exerting their agency, holding leaders
accountable, and transforming governance to serve citizens’ interests.

The Pan-Africanist tradition continues to resonate because it directly confronts the
very logic of Berlin: division, dependency, and domination. It insists that Africa’s
future cannot be negotiated piecemeal or outsourced to external actors. As Du Bois
declared in Manchester, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the
color-line.” Today, that line manifests not only in race, but in global inequities in
trade, climate justice, digital access, and political representation.

From Berlin to Ouagadougou
This is why figures like Ibrahim Traoré in Burkina Faso have electrified a generation.
At just 36, Traoré speaks a language young Africans recognize: sovereignty, dignity,
and resistance. His speeches denounce neocolonial exploitation with a bluntness that
cuts through decades of hollow rhetoric. He doesn’t pretend Africa can find
salvation in Paris, London, Washington, or even Moscow and Beijing. He says,
simply and clearly, that Africans must fight for themselves—together.
Is he controversial? Of course. But that is precisely the point. Traoré has gripped
worldwide attention because he has dared to reopen the conversation our so-called
“liberators” closed too early. He channels the Pan-Africanist fire of Nkrumah and
Thomas Sankara, reminding us that unity is not an option—it is the only weapon we
have.

Towards a New Moment of Clarity
Africa’s contemporary crises—youth unemployment, migration, resource conflicts,
democratic backsliding—are symptoms of the absence of a coordinated, common
response. The Berlin Conference was, in essence, a coordinated European response
to Africa. The tragedy is that Africa has yet to produce an equally coordinated
response for itself.

Kwame Nkrumah’s call for a Union Government of Africa remains unfinished
business. Julius Nyerere’s insistence that “without unity, there is no future for
Africa” echoes with renewed urgency. As contemporary thinkers argue, Pan-
Africanism must be reborn not as elite rhetoric, but as a people-centered project—
one that harnesses Africa’s demographic dynamism, economic potential, and
cultural renaissance into collective power.

A Call for Discourse and Action
The Berlin Conference imposed a vision of Africa as an object to be divided. The
Manchester Congress projected a vision of Africa as a subject of history, capable of
shaping its own destiny. Today, we stand closer to Berlin than Manchester:
fragmented, reactive, and vulnerable. Yet, the intellectual and moral resources of
Pan-Africanism remain alive.

What Africa needs is not another summit, but a return to the spirit of Manchester—
rooted in unity, accountability, and people’s agency. Pan-Africanism is not nostalgia;
it is necessity. It is the singular framework capable of igniting a continental voice
strong enough to break the silence imposed since Berlin and bold enough to meet
the demands of the 21st century.

As Kwame Nkrumah reminded us: “We face neither East nor West; we face forward.”