GHANA: Pan-Africanism in the Classroom

In the year 1957, after a successful fight for independence, the leader of the independence movement and future president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, stated that Ghana’s independence would only achieve its full import when tied to the liberation of the entire African continent. With these words he became the leading voice of the Pan-African movement, which aims to increase solidarity among African countries and to connect African countries to each other and the world. This ideology is based on the conviction that the futures of all Africa’s nations are intertwined and that equality is of critical importance for their economic, social and political advancement. Nkruma’s vision was a kind of “United States of Africa”.

However, Africa is still not fully independent today. Nkruma's dreams still echo across the continent. His vision is especially well remembered in Ghana. The feeling of being part of a bigger Africa is very much alive here. One of the manifestations of Pan-Africanism is Panafest (Pan African Festival) which the Ghanans have been organizing since 1992. The themes include the political, social and economic advancement of African peoples (including those in the African dispora). It is aimed at the strengthening of the ideals of Pan-Africanism, the development of the African continent, and the expression of African history through art and culture. 

A much less noticeable, though no less important testament to the »Pan African Identity« are the cover pages of the notebooks of our students, which we saw both in Butri and Azani. African heroes and fighters for the rights of Africans are pictured on them: among those pictured is the aforementioned President of Ghana Kwama Nkrumaha, the President of South Africa and Apartheid Fighter Nelson Mandela, and the American civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs).

Leta 1957, po uspešnem boju za neodvisnost, je vodja gibanja in poznejši ganski predsednik Kwame Nkrumah poudaril, da bo ta mejnik dobil težo šele ko bo povezan z osvoboditvijo celotne afriške celine. S temi besedami je postal vodilni glas pan-afriškega gibanja, t.j. gibanja, ki se zavzema za povezovanje ter solidarnost Afričanov pa vsem svetu. Ideologija temelji na prepričanju, da se usode afriških narodov med seboj prepletajo, ter da je enotnost ključnega pomena za njihov ekonomski, družbeni ter politični napredek. Nekrumahova vizija so bile nekakšne “Združene države Afrike”. 

Čeprav Afrika še danes ni popolnoma neodvisna, Nkrumahove sanje še vedno odmevajo po celini. Predvsem v Gani je njegova dediščina zelo močna. Pripadnost širši, afriški skupnosti je tu namreč zelo živa. Ena od zunanjih manifestacij pan-afriške identitete je Panafest (Pan African Festival), ki ga Ganci organizirajo že od leta 1992. Teme odražajo politični, družbeni ter gospodarski napredek afriških narodov (tudi afriške diaspore). Namenjen je krepitvi idealov pan-afrikanizma, razvoju afriške celine ter pričevanju o afriški zgodovini skozi umetnost in kulturo.

Veliko manj očitno, a zato nič manj pomembno pričevanje "pan-afriške identitete" so naslovnice šolskih zvezkov, ki sva jih zasledila tako v Azanejo kot v Butri. Na njih so afriški heroji, borci za pravice Afričanov: med drugim zgoraj omenjeni ganski predsednik Kwama Nkrumaha,  predsednik Južnoafriške Republike ter borec proti aparthaidu, Nelson Mandela, ter ubiti ameriški borec za pravice afro-američanov, Martin Luther King (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs).

Sonja

Children's notebook covers from Azani