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In Defense of Pan-Africanism and Socialism
Hon. Minister Chen Chimutengwende (Zimbabwe)
May 08, 2005

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Centuries after the abolition of slavery and decades after the end of colonialism in most parts of the world, black people all over the world remain more oppressed and exploited than any other peoples of the world. Africa, the main centre of the Black World, is one of the richest regions of the world and yet most of its people are the poorest on earth. As a result, Africa remains a social, cultural, political and economic catastrophe which is continuously and dangerously getting worse!

The reason is that Africa's resources are used mainly for the benefit of European and North American capitalist whites and their local African quislings. In most African countries today, this system operates mainly through the western local quislings or puppet allies who are the collaborationist, oppressive, corrupt and capitalistic African ruling elites. These elites include politicians, business people and professionals who consciously or unconsciously, and directly or indirectly support the global white system of anti-black racism, capitalism and imperialism.

The answer to slavery, racism and colonialism was what may be termed as the First Liberation Struggle of Africa and the Black World was based on Pan-Africanism and was victorious. But the enemy came back with more sophisticated forms of racism, neo-colonialism, imperialism, class exploitation and globalisation. The only answer to all this is for black people to continue the struggle in the form of an equally sophisticated Second Liberation Struggle of Africa and the Black World. This should be based on revolutionary Pan-Africanism and socialism as advocated by Kwame Nkrumah.

The immediate objective of the Second Liberation Struggle should be the urgent establishment and the speedy socio-economic development of a Socialist United New Africa which is sometimes referred to as the United States of Africa. This will transform Africa into being the main base for the total liberation of the rest of the Black World. Africa should also serve as a major and secure base for the new global socialist revolution. Its past and present circumstances give it a great potential for playing such a historic and revolutionary role.

If black people want to be progressive and move forward, they should not forget their past which is rich in revolutionary experience, heroism, wisdom and dedication. It also fully exposes the evils of capitalism and imperialism. Black people should therefore fully use their past as a source of knowledge, wisdom, identity, confidence and inspiration. It is always wise for human beings to learn from their past experience. Lessons from past experience are useful when planning for the future.

Black struggles in Africa and all other parts of the world have always been inter-linked and inseparable-hence the existence of and the need for Pan-Africanism which is mainly concerned with global black unity and liberation. International imperialism and capitalism of the modern era require a Second Liberation Struggle which is aimed at transforming the continent of Africa into a fully liberated zone. This will be a powerful and dependable base for both the current and future struggles for total global liberation from racism and capitalism. This takes into account the fact that the enemy of black liberation is both internal and external.

In the black liberation struggle, Pan-Africanism is there to continuously re-inspire and re-energise the process. It continuously inculcates the spirit of international black nationalism among black people as a discriminated and oppressed people internationally. This is essential to their unity in the struggle. Pan-Africanism served as the dynamic and driving force for the black liberation struggle during the colonial era.

If revolutionary Pan-Africanism is fully adhered to, it can also be a very effective guide and mobilisational instrument for the current and future struggles against anti-black white racism, neo-colonialism and imperialism in Africa and the Black World. This struggle will bring about economic and cultural independence from western imperialism, and it should also be for socio-economic human rights, democracy and socialism.

The Second Liberation Struggle gives strong and active support to, and also seeks effective and maximum solidarity from the international movement of anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and socialist forces. It also needs to give unwavering solidarity to anti-imperialist governments in any part of the world like those of Zimbabwe, Cuba and Venezuela. It should strongly fight against the demonisation, ostracisation and the regime-change measures by the West which are targeted at such governments.

The proposed Socialist United New Africa will fully incorporate and involve Diasporan Africans in its organisational structures, socio-economic development processes and all other programmes of action. But these have to be people who are committed to revolutionary Pan-Africanism and anti-imperialism. The same criterion should also apply to continental Africans who work for or are involved with the African Union.

Africa needs Diasporan Africans in its liberation and development processes. Diasporan Africans also need Africa as their ancestral homeland and global base. They need such a base at the international level. This global base is essential to their own liberation and socio-economic empowerment where ever they may be residing in the world. Therefore the best way forward to the true and practical Pan-Africanist unity is to increase the regions of the African Union by one or two which would be allocated to the African Diaspora.

Revolutionary Pan-Africanists need to tirelessly and unflinchingly promote the speedy development of the African Union and its transformation into a Socialist United New Africa. The envisaged United New Africa will be powerful, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, socialist, independent, self-reliant, incorruptible, prosperous and democratic.

It will be totally committed to a full comprehensive human rights system which includes cultural, political, gender and economic rights. This is opposed to the capitalist human rights system which is selective and is there to largely protect the interests and allies of capitalism internationally.

In order to reach this revolutionary destination, the Second Liberation Struggle must therefore be based on Pan-Africanism, socialism and class struggle as advocated by Africa's foremost revolutionary and modern Pan-Africanist theoreticians and practitioners like Kwame Nkrumah. His numerous published works are very clear on these issues.

This is why revolutionary Pan-Africanists believe, and correctly so, that total black liberation and comprehensive socio-economic human rights cannot be fully achieved in a country which is under the capitalist system. This is because capitalism, by its very nature, essentially depends on racism, class exploitation, bribery and all other forms of corruption, neo-colonialism, imperialism and militarism for its survival and growth as a system. Therefore true liberation can only be fully achieved under a socialist system that is based on class struggle.


It is true that socialism is the only serious alternative to capitalism. It is also the only force that can defeat neo-colonialism in economic, political, cultural and in all other relevant fields. Socialism is the system which can seriously be engaged in a planned and systematic movement for the speedy reduction and eventual elimination of mass poverty, squalor, unemployment, illiteracy, corruption, injustice, rural neglect and ethnic wars. It can decisively confront HIV/AIDS and other endemic diseases.

Socialism has the capacity and the will to solve these problems because it is based on state or collective planning for the public good. But contrary to this, capitalism promotes and protects selfishness and individualism. It is based on individual planning for personal or private profit. Capitalism has therefore no capacity nor the genuine intention to solve such problems.

Indeed the experience of black people in their struggle against slavery, colonialism, racism, capitalism and imperialism show that Pan-Africanism is essential as a guide and a mobilisational instrument in that liberation struggle. But the issue that arises is how to prevent the exploitation of blacks by other blacks after the First Liberation Struggle, that is, during the post-colonial era. The blacks who exploit and oppress the rest of the black population are the ruling elites which control the state machinery and are therefore protected by that state machinery. They operate usually as allies of international imperialism which also protects them at the international level.

After independence, the question of a black capitalistic class controlling the state and exploiting the people for its own benefit and that of international imperialism has to be addressed. The objective is to ensure that liberation remains true liberation. The nature of capitalism as a permanent enemy requires a permanent revolutionary process and that permanent revolutionary process can only be socialist.

Some of the issues that are central to socialism are the ownership and control of the means of production, distribution, exchange, and who controls the state and the socialisation process, and for the benefit of which class interests. Socialism also upholds the principles of class struggle and proletarian internationalism.

These issues are crucial in any society but they are not handled by Pan-Africanism because of its nationalist focus which is for the unity of all classes against the external enemy. At the same time, and in this age of racism and imperialism, Pan-Africanism and socialism are complementary to each other in the black liberation struggle. Pan-Africanism, for historical reasons, is a necessary stage in the black liberation process. In other words, Pan-Africanism must lead to socialism if liberation is to remain a true and permanent liberatory process.

Where Pan-Africanism does not lead to socialism, capitalistic elites will be free to take-over the state, empower themselves and consolidate their power to oppress and exploit their own people. This is what has happened in most African states. These elites govern the countries concerned usually with the support and protection of western imperialists.

Indeed some will say that socialism is a discredited and an out-dated ideology. Historically, such people have never said anything positive about socialism. It shows who they are and on what side they are. Obviously socialism has been ruthlessly vilified by its enemies who are capitalists and advocates of capitalism. Naturally, true socialists do not listen to or take the advice of capitalists and their allies and puppets.

It is also the duty of socialists themselves to continuously and thoroughly expose the evils of capitalism. However, it is important to note that capitalist forces currently control more mass communication media systems internationally than socialists. This is indeed a temporary historical phase which is advantageous to capitalists. But this will certainly come to pass sooner or later.

There are some leaders or countries which at one stage or another may have described themselves as socialist. But they may have failed to implement socialism. This may be because they were defeated by internal counter-revolutionary forces and/or external imperialist forces, or it may have been due to other circumstances beyond their control, or because some of them were simply pseudo-socialists who, in the first place, were never sincerely committed to scientific socialism. It is therefore totally illogical to say, as a principle, that if some other people failed in doing something in the past, nobody else can succeed in doing the same thing in future.

If a socialist leader or a country fails, or is made to fail to implement socialism or simply betrays it, that does not mean socialism itself as a system has failed or that it is an ideology which is impossible to implement. Socialists take all that as battle defeats which does not mean the whole war has been lost. The socialist journey is indeed a long march with many ups and downs, deviations, betrayals and battle defeats. But that does not stop the march of socialism. In fact it is the very existence itself of racist oppression, exploitation and imperialism that guarantees the victory of the socialist war against capitalism.

Therefore the collapse of the Soviet Union and the change of course by some other countries or leaders is taken in this context. It is also important to note that an extensive re-grouping and the resurgence of socialist forces world-wide are currently taking place. They are re-strategising for major global revolutionary initiatives.

But it must also be emphasised that like with any other system, socialist theory and practice need to be continuously developed and adapted to the ever changing times or circumstances for socialism to remain alive and relevant. It is therefore not meant to be a dogmatic ideology.

It is important to carry out extensive research, debate, networking and mass communication work dealing with both theoretical and practical lessons which should be learned from the negative and positive experiences of the international socialist movement. There are many organisations all over the world like the United New Africa Global Network (UNAGN) which are seriously concerned with these issues. (Please visit its website at: www.unitednewafrica.com)

Many black people seriously suffer from mental colonisation. They need to be freed from this bondage so that they may be able to make an objective analysis of and thus be free to accept Pan-Africanism and socialism. This means a strong fight has to be mounted against colonial mentality or the brainwashing of black people by the West, especially the "educated".

Colonial mentality results in self-hate, inferiority complex, lack of confidence, political hopelessness, apathy, cynism, confusion, conscious or unconscious pro-white puppetism and political parroting. This makes them support capitalism consciously or unconsciously. Propaganda, brainwashing and colonial mentality are an essential instrument of the West in the oppression and exploitation of black people, all peoples of the developing countries and the working and professional classes internationally.

It also makes it difficult for them to understand who the enemy is and the nature of that enemy, which is capitalism. It further makes it difficult for them to understand and accept the real alternative to capitalism which is socialism and the need for Pan-Africanism. Colonial mentality simply makes them have a mental blockage when it comes to these issues. The blockage has just to be removed. This must also to be done as one of the starting points of the Second Liberation Struggle.

The only answer to mental colonisation is a process of mental de-colonisation which requires a massive re-education exercise together with specific information and mass communication campaigns in Africa and internationally.

This also requires the urgent creation of a powerful, pro-black, patriotic, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and socialist mass media system which will be exclusively funded and controlled by revolutionary Pan-Africanists internationally, and without any involvement or influence of the West or the white "donors". The proposed Pan-Africanist media system will have to be well-funded and highly sophisticated in order for it to be able to effectively counter the propaganda of the anti-black white racist, capitalist and imperialist international media.

It is crucial that the African Union should support the Second Liberation Struggle. The African Union has to play a role that is supportive of this struggle if it is going to be part of the solution. It is important for the African Union to work in conjunction with the effective, numerous, varied and independent groups, organisations and institutions which are Pan-Africanist and anti-imperialist.

It is out of such Pan-Africanist and anti-imperialist forces that a global movement for the Second Liberation Struggle for Africa and the Black World will emerge. It will be an independent movement of independent movements. This will also need a highly efficient international research outfit as a back-up structure and a secretariat which will encourage and facilitate research, the flow of information, communication, networking and co-ordination.

*Hon. Minister Chen Chimutengwende can be contacted chenchim@yahoo.com

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