The Pan African Union

..... The idea, in sum, is simple, and has in fact been attempted both partially and poorly in various ways during the past century or so. What I am proposing however is something very different and it can be quite successful, meaningful, and open the way to make a new life possible for the hundreds of millions of Africans. It involves providing everyone on the continent access to full suffrage and the ability to have their voices heard by their governments, the wealthy, the corporate and transnational entities that currently hold sway and relieve the continent of the horrific legacy of colonialism, conquest, slavery and the dehumanizing effects of capitalism, religious intolerance, and similar plagues.

.... Although the idea originally concerned the nations of sub-Saharan Africa, the problems of post colonialism are nearly universal in Africa. I, therefore, thought it best that a continent wide approach be the goal, at its heart there are two ideas. The first, iVote, is described on the page this link takes you to. The second part is the ultimate goal of redrawing all the current national borders of Africa to reflect the will, the desire, the needs of all of its many diverse peoples.

.... Although the process calls for the African nations to reorganize themselves politically, first by forming a transnational continent-wide association or union and although I know The Organization of African Unity already exists, what I propose goes much farther than that, ultimately, creating a much more integrated polity than even the European Union.

..... The key to will be including, integrating, and enhancing the role of the traditional social networks of the continent, the First Nations of Africa, or FAN. But why?

..... This continent-wide effort would redress the disconnect of the current political systems from that of the FAN. Many difficulties current on the continent are a direct result of both the colonial and post colonial periods. The colonial rulers and their territorial arrangements had little relationship to the traditional territories of the FAN. During the centuries long occupation, the chaotic rule and rampant racist violence, the role FAN in a given person's life became greatly diminished in import and practicality. One of the more damaging results of the colonial and post-colonial periods were the minimization of the ancient, traditional social orders that once were the basis for self identity. This disconnect continued during the post colonial era when the role of FAN was subsumed in the independence movements that swept colonialism off the continent but which did not create support for the FAN. There was also the concomitant onset of the so called Cold War. All these things, I believe, exacerbated every others social problem. Compounding all that was the international interests who benefited from corrupting Africa's post colonial governments, surrogate wars , and the seemingly unending influence of foreign militaries, philanthropies, NGOs, philosophies, institutions, banks, and a raft of other world organizations, during the decades long cold war. These influences did, overall, delegitimized the FAN, impoverish their peoples, and made it nearly impossible for those living on the continent to prosper or for their societies to evolve as they might wish.

.... While this may be oversimplifying things, surely the trends of history indicate that global systems have not been at all kind to the continent.

The idea, its Challenges and the Process!

.... The essence of the idea then is to provide a deeper, more intimate, connection between the governing bodies on the continent of Africa and the people who live there. To do that I propose a revival of Africa's First Nations and for them to play a governing role in a continent wide system, which will provide a new social order.

..... In this regard the first, and perhaps most difficult challenge therefore, will be rethinking and then adjusting the current borders in order to facilitate the full integration, representation, and participation of the FAN within each of the national governments on the continent.

..... I envision a system modeled after that of England where where the current political parties would have a role roughly equivalent to the House of Commons; while First Nations would be represented in a manner, perhaps, roughly parallel to that of the House of Lords with one important difference this portion of the legislative body would also be organized as the US Senate is, that is to each first nation, or tribe, would have a set number of persons persons representing them, each tribe would make that determination on their own. Once the African Union is established the first goal would be to fully reorganize the territories allowing borders to evolve to become increasingly porous and eventually transparent, as has been happening in the European Union.

..... Overall, the goal would be to connect the citizen to the governmental structures in two ways, via their their First Nation status as well as via political parties.

..... The advantages would be immense. Africa could begin a recovery process from its colonial legacies, garner an important voice in world affairs, protect itself from foreign powers, their intrigues, greed and post colonial infestations.

But what do others think? (A) These first comments have been harvested from the various websites attributed in the links. The first comment is found at the following link: http://theconversation.com/sobukwes-pan-africanist-dream-an-elusive-idea-that-refuses-to-die-52601 Is Africa really for Africans? American commissioner to Africa and abolitionist  Martin Delany asked this question a century and a half ago following his sojourn in Africa and Europe. Attempts to answer it spawned pan-Africanism - an idea that refuses to die. This question is asked in memory of South African leader Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, a doyen of pan-Africanism who died in February 1978. What became of Sobukwe is a consequence of a myriad of factors, starting from his days at Healdtown Comprehensive School. A speech he made as head boy at the school emphasized cooperation between blacks and whites, demonstrating his sense of awareness of the issue of race at a young age. Such awareness evolved into an ideological posture, nurtured and refined by many factors that spawned his Africanist orientation. It was at Fort Hare, a university from which a great many African leaders graduated, where much of this happened. His study of Native Administration as a subject and interaction with a lecturer who taught it, Cecil Ntloko, sharpened his political consciousness. To these add the pursuit to forge synergy of African people's struggles against colonialism as institutionalized in the All-African Convention of 1935; his interest in African politics; and John Galsworthy's play titled Strife - a story of "A struggle between Labour and Capital" While a member of the African National Congress (ANC), Sobukwe embraced its Youth League's definition of African nationalism that emerged during the leadership of Anton Lembede. It was at odds with the mother body. B) The second set of comments come from https://blackpast.org/1963-haile-selassie-towards-african-unity On May 25, 1963 the Organization for African Unity (OAU) was established with a permanent headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, was selected as the first President of the OAU.  His acceptance speech appears below. "This is indeed a momentous and historic day for Africa and for all Africans. We stand today on the stage of world affairs before the audience of world opinion. We have come together to assert our role in the direction of world affairs and to discharge our duty to the great continent whose 250 million people we lead." C) The third salient quote comes from http://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol6no6/6.6-Felix.pdf The search for Africa's political unity has been one of the underlying ideas drawn from Pan-Africanism for several decades. Besides political leaders such as Sekou Toure and Modibo Keita with similar ideas on continental unity, Kwame Nkrumah was the central figure who vigorously championed the cause for Africa's political unity. D) And now for the final arguments in favor of this cause. The following are irrefutable, graphic, images which demonstrably proves the point that a reorganization of Africa is long overdue. Why let the effects of horrific, genocidal colonization persist? Why keep the First Nations of this bountiful, beautiful, and prosperous continent forever enthralled to the slavery of the past? These maps all relate to the issues outlined above and so supports the proposition this page suggests. Now, to drive home the point, in a truly terrible way and so show the need for making use of this idea, I offer a small story. I made a survey of historical atlases on line. I chose ones with animated maps depicting he rise of civilization, nation states, and so forth using colorful areas that would come, grow, and go over the course of millennia. I was inspired and came up with a kind of haiku, which is as god awful as it is brief, to wit: Historical atlas Flip pages; each pixels change in tint Warfare's sanguine hint See a Larger Image Below is a simpler line drawing of African First Nations' territorial regions. See a Larger Image This is a similar map, crafted in 1959, the image, in this case, is the message. See a Larger Image Below is a more colorful version of the map above . See a Larger Image Below is a map of the language families of Africa. See a Larger Image Below is a map of the Classical African First Nations. See a Larger Image Yet another image hinting at the rich diversity of the continent making it a perfect place for the largest democratic polity in the world! See a Larger Image

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.... I am intent upon problem solving and, in association with Creative Ideas Consulting of San Francisco, I am embarking on another means of affecting the warp and woof of our social fabric so as to promote a healthy change in the evolution of the human civilization or community on Earth.

..... Much more is coming but this note provides notice that help is on the way, in the meantime, to make inquiries, see the following link: Email Dan!