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| Marcus Garvey: Father of USAfrica, First President of Africa |
Dilemma X
A United States of Africa is not a new vision. In fact the creation of a continental union of Africa’s countries into one country has its origins dating back long before Muammar Gaddafi’s vision of a United States of Africa.
The Europeans had long held trading forts along the African coast. They would trade with the African nations and empires for natural resources, goods and enslaved humans. Europeans even engaged in battles between one another to maintain control over these major economic trading ports. But, the Europeans dare not venture into interior Africa, with some exceptions: northern and southern Africa.
Many people, especially those living outside of Africa, tend to forget that the independent nations of Africa today have political borders that are a result of the lines that were drawn on a map at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. No Africans were included in this meeting. The border lines were drawn with a total disregard to the existing ethnic groups, a disregard to the existing kingdoms, empires and city states and a disregard to the existing cultures of the continent of Africa. The European Scramble for Africa began at its most aggressive pace.
African nations began to gain their independence from European powers during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1975 Angola gained its independence from Portugal. In 1980 Zimbabwe gained its independence from its white Bristh-African Apartheid government. Finally, South Africa gained independence when in 1994 Apartheid officially ended as law and the majority black native African population could vote.
Today, some view that the Scramble for Africa now has expanded to India, China and the United States, with Europe always keeping pace.
History has shown that Europe’s wealth has supported the European diaspora once European nations began to depart from some of their traditional class systems. India’s modern wealth has boosted the wealth of Indians in the diaspora, China’s modern wealth and Japan’s modern wealth also supports the populations in each of their diasporas. Of course there are many who do not shared in the economic benifits. Just as in the United States where many are middle class. Yet, there are still many who are in the economic under class in the United States regardless of the nation’s wealth.
Would a United States of Africa begin to provide more economic wealth for Africans and for the entire African diaspora? Is a United States of Africa a threat to those wanting Africa’s natural resources?
See the recent timeline of events creating the United States of Africa below.
Video: African Union Anthem
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Let us all unite and celebrate together
The victories won for our liberation
Let us dedicate ourselves to rise together
To defend our liberty and unity
O Sons and Daughters of Africa
Flesh of the Sun and Flesh of the Sky
Let us make Africa the Tree of Life
Let us all unite and sing together
To uphold the bonds that frame our destiny
Let us dedicate ourselves to fight together
For lasting peace and justice on earth
O Sons and Daughters of Africa
Flesh of the Sun and Flesh of the Sky
Let us make Africa the Tree of Life
Let us all unite and toil together
To give the best we have to Africa
The cradle of mankind and fount of culture
Our pride and hope at break of dawn.
O Sons and Daughters of Africa
Flesh of the Sun and Flesh of the Sky
Let us make Africa the Tree of Life
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Video: Berlin 1885: The Division of Africa
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Video: Marcus Garvey -The uplift of African people and Pan-Africanism
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Video: Marcus Garvey on African people of the world
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Video: Marcus Garvey and the United States of Africa
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Video: W.E.B. Du Bois – Rivalry with Booker T. Washington, a graduate of Hampton University and founder of Tuskegee University
Marcus Garvey aspired to open an industrial and agricultural training school modeled on Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute. Garvey was invited by Booker T. Washington to come to the United States. Washington died in 1915, however, before Garvey could leave Jamaica.
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Video: W.E.B. Du Bois – Pan-Africanist
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Video: Kwame Nkrumah -who led Africa to freedom
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Video: Kwame Nkrumah’s dream of a United States of Africa
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana from 1951 to 1966. Overseeing the nation’s independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana.
Eze Afrika
