Latest news with #PanAfricanism
Russia Today
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Africa: Legacy of the Great Leaders
RT Presents a Project Featuring Descendants of Mandela, Lumumba, and Nasser RT presents a project about the leaders of Africa's anti-colonial struggle On Africa Liberation Day, May 25, 2025, RT is releasing a special video project titled African Legacy (Africa: Legacy of the Great Leaders) dedicated to the continent's leaders whose fight against colonialism and efforts to unite African peoples changed the course of history. The children and grandchildren of legendary figures, including Patrice Lumumba, Nelson Mandela, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Samora Machel, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Oliver Tambo, and Steve Biko, share stories about their ancestors and their contributions to Africa's liberation and development. They also speak about the importance of preserving historical memory as modern Africa once again faces various challenges, and how the new generation must continue the work of their great forebears in order to move forward, toward prosperity and unity. 'Today history repeats itself. The same powers that once dictated to Africa whom it should call friend and whom it should call enemy are trying to do so once again. They paint Russia as a villain, just as they once did with the Soviet Union. But we must remember the lessons of the past. Those who truly supported Africa's liberation are not the ones who plundered our lands, who assassinated our leaders, or who imposed crippling debts upon us,' says Roland Lumumba, son of Congolese national liberation movement leader and the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba. Participants of the project note that Russia has always supported their peoples' struggle for freedom and justice, and that the USSR played a pivotal role in helping African nations break free from colonial dependence. Today, partnership with Russia opens new opportunities for the continent's countries based on shared values, respect for sovereignty, and a vision of a multipolar world. 'With Russia, we see opportunities for trade, technology exchange and development that will help Africa grow independently and sustainably. By working with Russia, we can secure support that respects Africa's right to shape its own destiny and economic future,' states Ndileka Mandela, granddaughter of the legendary anti-apartheid fighter, former South African president, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nelson Mandela.
Zawya
24-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Tanzania's New Foreign Policy Reaffirms Pan-African Leadership and Vision for Intra-African Cooperation
In a landmark diplomatic step, Tanzania has launched a revised National Foreign Policy that reinforces the country's leadership in African diplomacy. The updated policy embraces Pan-African values, supports the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and advances regional peace, integration, and sustainable development. The launch event, held at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC) in Dar es Salaam, was officiated by H.E. Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania. It was also attended by Dr. Hussein Ali Mwinyi, President of Zanzibar and Chairman of the Revolutionary Council, members of the Diplomatic Corps, senior government leaders, and private sector representatives. Rooted in the vision of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Tanzania has historically championed unity, liberation, and non-alignment in African diplomacy. Under Nyerere's leadership, Tanzania became a moral compass for the continent and a founding member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). 'This policy speaks on who we are as a nation—firm in our values, proactive in our diplomacy, and committed to constructive partnerships that advance peace, security, and shared prosperity,' President Samia said during the event. The new policy reflects this legacy while responding to contemporary priorities like trade, migration, regional infrastructure, climate action, and digital transformation. It aims to deepen Tanzania's engagement with continental bodies like the AU, SADC, and EAC while emphasizing Kiswahili as a tool for regional integration. President Samia noted that the revised policy was shaped through a broad-based participatory process involving Tanzanians from all walks of life. 'It was high time we revised the policy to cope with global shifts in various spheres,' she said, citing the global scramble for strategic minerals and trade disruptions caused by ongoing conflicts as key motivators. A core feature of the updated framework includes economic diplomacy and the creation of a Special Status for Tanzanians in the diaspora. The policy promotes legal reforms that would allow non-citizen Tanzanians abroad to own land, register businesses, and invest back home. To strengthen implementation, President Samia called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation to engage retired diplomats in training current officials, ensuring that Tanzania's envoys are equipped to promote national interests globally. President Mwinyi welcomed the revised policy as a catalyst for unlocking social, economic, and political potential. 'Tanzania continues to position itself globally, and the revised policy aligns with evolving global needs,' he said. He urged the Ministry to encourage more countries to open consulates in Zanzibar and called on all Tanzanians to embrace and defend national interests through the policy. 'This policy will benefit both Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar,' he emphasized. President Samia's regional outreach began early in her presidency. In April 2021, she visited Uganda, where she and President Yoweri Museveni signed the Final Investment Decision for the $10 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). In May 2021, her visit to Kenya revitalized bilateral ties, followed by trips to Burundi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia, and Egypt, resulting in cooperation on trade, energy, security, and innovation. At the June 2021 SADC Summit in Mozambique, Tanzania reaffirmed its commitment to regional peace by supporting the fight against insurgency in Cabo Delgado. In Ghana, she received the Africa Road Builders–Babacar Ndiaye Trophy for leadership in infrastructure development. In Senegal, during the IDA20 Summit, and at COP27 in Egypt, she positioned Tanzania as a leader in climate resilience, presenting an $18 billion renewable energy plan. From 2023 to 2025, she maintained strong continental engagement through AU summits, the BRICS Summit in South Africa, and diplomatic visits to Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, and Morocco. A key milestone in Tanzania's growing international stature was the invitation to the Lobito Corridor Development Project high-level meeting in Angola—part of the G7's Global Infrastructure Initiative. Although Tanzania was not originally a member of the project, its geographic and strategic relevance was recognized as critical to the corridor's success. In February 2024, President Samia unveiled a statue of Mwalimu Nyerere at the AU Headquarters in Ethiopia—a symbolic act that underscored Tanzania's foundational role in the Pan-African movement. As Chair of the SADC Organ, she presided over the 2024 Troika Summit in Zimbabwe, advancing peace and security initiatives and supporting Raila Odinga's candidacy for AU Commission leadership. On May 18, 2025, Professor Mohamed Yakub Janabi was elected as the next Regional Director of the WHO African Region, a milestone widely credited to Tanzania's rising diplomatic influence. His nomination followed the untimely death of Dr. Faustine Ndugulile in 2024. Janabi's appointment will be formalized by the WHO Executive Board later this month. According to Ambassador Mahmoud Thabit Kombo, the revised policy focuses on ten strategic pillars: Economic Diplomacy Peace, Security, and Stability Ratification and Implementation of International Treaties Participation in Regional and Global Bodies Promotion of Kiswahili as a Diplomatic Tool International Resource Mobilization Blue Economy Development Diaspora Engagement Human Rights and Good Governance Environmental Protection and Climate Leadership This updated policy reflects Tanzania's commitment to Pan-African unity while embracing innovation, inclusion, and global partnership. It sets the stage for the next chapter in Tanzania's regional leadership and sustainable development. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Tanzania Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation.
Mail & Guardian
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Mail & Guardian
Malcolm X at 100: Our shining prince
The March on Washington on 28 August 1963 agitated for civil and economic rights for African Americans. Photo:On 19 May 2025, we mark 100 years since the birth of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, known to the world as Malcolm X. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, the boy who would become Malcolm X lived many lives, each transformation marked by a different name. He was Detroit Red on the streets of Harlem, Malcolm X in the Nation of Islam and, finally, Malik El-Shabazz as he evolved into a revolutionary Pan-Africanist. These were not disguises. They were declarations. There was not a trace of deception in Malcolm X's life. His openness about his past, his flaws and his transformation was the source of his ethical power. Malcolm X's political philosophy did not arrive fully formed. It emerged through personal trauma, intellectual inquiry, spiritual transformation and, ultimately, true internationalism. His life was a testament to the possibility of radical change and the capacity of one human being to confront and outgrow deeply held dogma in pursuit of a larger, more principled truth. He moved from a narrow racial nationalism to a radical humanism that embraced the global struggles of oppressed peoples. His political thought is not a static doctrine but a process of transformation, a restlessness of mind and spirit that never ceased to interrogate the world and his place within it. Malcolm's own world was shaped by terror. His father, Earl Little, a follower of Marcus Garvey, was murdered by the white supremacist Black Legion. The family home had already been burned down. His mother, Louise Little, a Grenadian immigrant, was committed to a mental institution under the weight of grief and racist abuse. Her children were taken away and placed in foster care. Malcolm's story, like so many Black stories, begins in a system designed to break families and erase dignity. A brilliant student, Malcolm once told a teacher he wanted to become a lawyer. The teacher told him that was no job for a 'coloured'. That moment stayed with him. It echoed what Toni Morrison would later write in Beloved, that for a Black child, there is nothing more dangerous than a white schoolteacher. That danger is not simply physical, but spiritual: the danger of having your dreams shrunk before they can even be formed. As a young man in Harlem, Malcolm became known as Detroit Red. He straightened his hair with chemical relaxers to look more like a white man. 'This was my first really big step toward self-degradation,' he wrote, 'literally burning my flesh.' He sank deep into street life, drugs, gambling, hustling, and was eventually arrested in 1946. Prison, however, became the site of his rebirth. Locked in Charlestown State Prison, Malcolm gained something that few Black men are ever allowed: time to read, time to think. As Toni Morrison has written, 'There is no place more conducive to the development of a young Black man's mind than prison, because that is often the first time he is allowed solitude.' Malcolm devoured the prison library, starting with the dictionary, learning every word, and seeing in language the building blocks of reality and its racism. In his solitude, he forged not only an education, but a philosophy. He wrote: 'In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life. That's saying a lot, but how else is a man going to master his own thoughts, his own personality, if he doesn't have the time to reflect and think?' He began corresponding with Elijah Muhammad and joined the Nation of Islam. When he was released in 1952, he quickly became its most charismatic and effective minister. He grew the Nation's membership from 500 to at least 25,000. He was a brilliant orator, a sharp thinker and a relentless organiser. Despite this, he never denied his past. 'To have once been a criminal is no disgrace,' he said. 'To remain a criminal is the disgrace.' knew that in a system built on racism, incarceration could not be used to discredit Black men. 'You can't be a Negro in America and not have a criminal record,' he noted. 'Martin Luther King has been to jail.' That openness, about his past, his flaws, his growth, was what made Malcolm so dangerous to the American state. He could not be blackmailed, manipulated or reduced. He had seen the worst of the world and made himself anew. His moral authority was rooted not in respectability but in integrity. Even within the Nation, that integrity caused unease. When he discovered that Elijah Muhammad had fathered children with young women in the movement, Malcolm confronted him and broke with the Nation of Islam, despite the personal danger, the loss of income and the deep emotional cost. 'We believed 100 percent in the divinity of Elijah Muhammad,' he recalled. 'I always believed that he believed in himself. And I was shocked when I found out that he himself didn't believe it.' To expose corruption in a system built on racism is one kind of bravery. But to expose the corruption of those you once believed in, that is a lonelier and more dangerous road. It takes a different kind of courage to turn against those who were once your political family. After his break with the Nation, Malcolm founded Muslim Mosque Inc and began developing a broader, more revolutionary vision. He travelled to Africa and the Middle East. He performed Hajj. He saw Muslims of every race praying side by side and began to believe that solidarity across racial lines was possible, if rooted in justice and liberation. He wrote, 'I had met blonde-haired, blue-eyed men I could call my brothers.' He stated, 'I'm not a racist … I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their colour.' This was not a retreat into liberal integrationism but a reorientation. He no longer believed race alone defined moral value or political allegiance. Instead, the defining line was between oppressors and the oppressed. He met with African leaders like Kwame Nkrumah and Gamal Abdel Nasser, and connected the struggle of Black Americans to the anti-colonial movements in Africa and Asia. He founded the Organisation of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), modelled on the Organisation of African Unity, to foster solidarity and link the civil rights struggle to global liberation. He wrote: 'The world's course will change the day the African-heritage peoples come together as brothers!' Malcolm began to understand white supremacy not merely as a Southern American issue but as a global system, one that linked the ghettoes of Harlem to the gold mines of Johannesburg, to the plantations of the Caribbean, and to the bombed-out villages of Vietnam. His shift from nationalist rhetoric to Pan-African, and then humanist language, was not betrayal, it was growth. Malcolm X's politics were not only about systems and structures, they were also about character. His commitment to truth-telling, discipline and integrity stood in stark contrast to the opportunism of many civil rights leaders and white liberals. once said, 'I am for truth, no matter who tells it. I am for justice, no matter who it is for or against.' Even as he began collaborating with other civil rights leaders and speaking to white audiences, he insisted that alliances must be principled. When asked if white people could join the OAAU, he responded: 'If John Brown were alive, maybe him.' Malcolm never stopped being suspicious of liberalism and compromise. He believed the American system was incapable of reforming itself. Unlike King's appeal to the conscience of America, Malcolm appealed to the conscience of the world. His final months were marked by profound clarity. He no longer relied on Elijah Muhammad's theology. Instead, he began building a secular, revolutionary analysis of power. He was assassinated before this could fully develop, but his trajectory pointed toward a fusion of Black nationalism, anti-capitalism and international solidarity. He declared shortly before his death: 'Anyone who wants to follow me and my movement has got to be ready to go to jail, to the hospital, and to the cemetery before he can be truly free.' Today, as racial capitalism deepens, and as the language of diversity is co-opted by elites, Malcolm's clarity is more vital than ever. He reminds us that representation without redistribution is meaningless. He reminds us that the violence of capitalism is not incidental, it is constitutive. And he reminds us that liberation requires more than reform: it demands transformation, discipline, and truth. bell hooks once wrote that Malcolm gave Black people a vision of themselves 'not as passive victims but as active agents of change'. He did more than that. He gave us a language of struggle, fierce, uncompromising, and tender. At his funeral, the actor and activist Ossie Davis delivered a eulogy that is one of the most moving political tributes of the 20th century: 'And we will know him then for what he was and is A Prince. Our own black shining Prince! Who didn't hesitate to die, because he loved us so.' That is what we remember today, not just a man, but a way of being. Not just a thinker, but an example of courage, integrity, and transformation. Malcolm X did not demand perfection. He demanded growth. He never claimed sainthood. He claimed truth. He did not walk away from his past. He used it to light the way for others. As we mark a century since his birth, we do not merely commemorate a set of ideas. We invoke a tradition of bravery. A commitment to principles that cannot be bought, borrowed, or broken. Malcolm X remains the measure by which we judge ourselves: our honesty, our courage, our willingness to change. 'In honouring him, we honour the best in ourselves.' Vashna Jagarnath is a historian, political risk and DEI consultant, labour expert, pan-African and South Asian political analyst and curriculum specialist.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Koyo Kouoh, 2026 Venice Art Biennale curator, dies suddenly aged 58
Koyo Kouoh, the curator of the 2026 Venice Art Biennale, has died at age 58, her home institution in South Africa said in an Instagram post Saturday. The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town in South Africa confirmed the news overnight but gave no cause. The Biennale said it was "deeply saddened and dismayed" to learn of her death. Kouoh was the first African woman asked to helm the Venice Art Biennale. Born in Cameroon in 1967, she was invited to curate the 2026 edition of the Biennale in December. A leading figure in promoting Pan-Africanism throughout the art world, Kouoh had been executive director and chief curator at Zeitz since 2019. Appointed in December 2024 by the board of directors of La Biennale, Kouoh worked "with passion, intellectual rigor and vision on the conception and development of the Biennale Arte 2026," the Venice arts institution said. The presentation of the exhibition's title and theme was due to take place in Venice on May 20. Kouoh also increased her reputation by curating the pioneering 2022 exhibition "When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting." The show's title was inspired by the 2019 Netflix miniseries When They See Us by African-American director Ava DuVernay, which focuses on how Black youth are seen as potential criminals and thus as a threat. Related "When We See Us": Swiss museum showcases 100 years of Black figurative painting "Her passing leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art and in the international community of artists, curators, and scholars who had the privilege of knowing and admiring her extraordinary human and intellectual commitment," the Biennale said. It extended "its deepest sympathies and affection" to Kouoh's family and friends, and "all those who shared with her a journey of research and critical thought on contemporary art." In a statement, Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed her "deepest condolences" for Kouoh's "premature and sudden passing," noting it "leaves a void in the world of contemporary art."
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Koyo Kouoh, 2026 Venice Art Biennale curator, dies suddenly aged 58
Koyo Kouoh, the curator of the 2026 Venice Art Biennale, has died at age 58, her home institution in South Africa said in an Instagram post Saturday. The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town in South Africa confirmed the news overnight but gave no cause. The Biennale said it was "deeply saddened and dismayed" to learn of her death. Kouoh was the first African woman asked to helm the Venice Art Biennale. Born in Cameroon in 1967, she was invited to curate the 2026 edition of the Biennale in December. A leading figure in promoting Pan-Africanism throughout the art world, Kouoh had been executive director and chief curator at Zeitz since 2019. Appointed in December 2024 by the board of directors of La Biennale, Kouoh worked "with passion, intellectual rigor and vision on the conception and development of the Biennale Arte 2026," the Venice arts institution said. The presentation of the exhibition's title and theme was due to take place in Venice on May 20. Kouoh also increased her reputation by curating the pioneering 2022 exhibition "When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting." The show's title was inspired by the 2019 Netflix miniseries When They See Us by African-American director Ava DuVernay, which focuses on how Black youth are seen as potential criminals and thus as a threat. Related "When We See Us": Swiss museum showcases 100 years of Black figurative painting "Her passing leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art and in the international community of artists, curators, and scholars who had the privilege of knowing and admiring her extraordinary human and intellectual commitment," the Biennale said. It extended "its deepest sympathies and affection" to Kouoh's family and friends, and "all those who shared with her a journey of research and critical thought on contemporary art." In a statement, Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed her "deepest condolences" for Kouoh's "premature and sudden passing," noting it "leaves a void in the world of contemporary art."
