Hrārā/S-tut/Qeṭ: Re-conceptualizing Pan-African Studies in the Era of Globalization Using a Mixture of Ancient Egyptian, Diopian, Mazruiana, Mbitian, and Asanteian Approaches

Abstract

This chapter by Abdul Karim Bangura concerns the challenge to the conventional conceptualization of Pan-Africanism, which is as follows: “the idea that peoples of African descent have common interests and should be unified. Historically, Pan-Africanism has often taken the shape of a political or cultural movement. There are many varieties of Pan-Africanism. In its narrowest political manifestation, Pan-Africanists envision a unified African nation where all people of the African Diaspora can live. (African Diaspora refers to the long-term historical process by which people of African descent have been scattered from their ancestral homelands to other parts of the world.) In more-general terms, Pan-Africanism is the sentiment that people of African descent have a great deal in common, a fact that deserves notice and even celebration” (see, for example, the Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020). Bangura posits that this conceptualization is being challenged by globalization as its power continues to weaken boundaries of statehood and many young people in Africa and the Diaspora are increasingly becoming aware of their own political and economic environment. He then argues that it is in this context that Pan-Africanism has found a viable niche for renewal in the twenty-first century among educated Africans.