From Race to Space: Pan-Africanism Through the Lens of Double Consciousness and the African Personality

Abstract

The African Union has called for a 21st century Pan-African renaissance to realize it’s plan for continental development – Agenda 2063 -- predicating the success of Agenda 2063 on incorporating the African diaspora into its Pan-African project. Despite continued attempts, the African diaspora remains on the periphery of the AU’s Pan-Africanism today. This thesis informs debates and questions about diasporan engagement and the relationship between the African diaspora and a continental Pan-Africanism. These problems which plague the AU manifested themselves between the 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress and the 1958 All African Peoples Conference. A comparative framework presented here places the 1945 Pan-Africanism defined by the ideology of diasporic “double consciousness” alongside the 1958 Pan-Africanism defined by continental qualities of the “African personality”. This reveals an ideological incompatibility between diasporan and a continental Pan-Africanism that the AU should more fully consider in pursuit of Agenda 2063.