Pan-Africanism – the First Ideological and Political Movement in Africa: Origin and Development at the End of the 19th – First Half of the 20th Century

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the first ideological and political movement in Africa – Pan-Africanism, its origin and development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its geographical and chronological framework has been clarified. It has been proven that Pan-Africanism originated from the initiative of the African diaspora in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The 18th century is rather a stage of the awakening of Pan-African thought, the emergence of trends, within which a complex of ideas began to take shape, which later formed the conceptual core of this movement. It is emphasized that the ideological framework of Pan-Africanism began to be constructed precisely in the United States. Attention is paid to the influence of abolitionism and emigrationism on the development of the ideas of Pan-Africanism. Attention is drawn to the fact that, despite the diversity and debatability of definitions, most researchers tend to see Pan-Africanism as having at least two interpenetrating components: an intellectual tradition and a socio-political movement.

The decisions of the London Pan-African Conference of 1900, which will forever remain a landmark event, during which the goals and values of the movement were declared, as well as the Pan-African Congresses (1919, 1921, 1923, 1927, 1945), which contributed to raising international awareness of racism and colonialism, and laid the foundation for the political independence of African nations, are characterized. Attention is paid to the literary, philosophical and political movement “Negrity”, which became a certain branch of Pan-Africanism and was aimed at the cultural self-affirmation of all people of Africa and people of African descent.

It is concluded that Pan-Africanism became the “positive nationalism” on a continental scale that allowed African countries and peoples to realize the need for unity and cooperation for the sake of liberation from colonial oppression and further development.