United States of Africa: The History of African Unity
Early Pan-African Roots Delegates at the Second Pan-African Congress in Brussels (1921), an early gathering of African and diaspora leaders pushing for unity. In the early 20th century, Black intellectuals and activists from Africa and its diaspora began meeting to demand an end to colonial rule. They believed in a shared destiny: as one historian notes, Pan-Africanism rested on the idea that “the destinies [of Africa’s peoples] are interconnected”. By 1921, delegates from dozens of African nations and the diaspora gathered in Brussels (pictured above) to strategize for liberation. The idea of a united Africa even cropped up in poetry: Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey wrote a poem in 1924 titled “Hail! United States of Africa,” imagining a grand continental federation long before colonialism ended. Nkrumah’s Vision of Unity Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s independence leader and a leading Pan-Africanist, championed a united […]