“Pan Africanism is Not a Metaphor”: Politics, Power and Africa’s Sovereignty | Dr. Leiyo Singo

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]And he thinking that we can mobilize the continent's private sector and entrepreneurs and they can lead, they can take the driver's seat in driving African social the first generation of Pan-Africanists did. They opposed colonialism.

[00:00:21]They opposed slavery.

[00:00:24]They fought no colonialism. But the current crop of African elites who sometimes give passionate speeches in Ethiopia, in Nairobi, and even in Western capitals. Okay, they are passionate about Pan-Africanism and they even challenge global capitalism and even liberal democracy.

[00:00:53]But in practice, they're promoting capitalism. They don't see any way out.

[00:01:00]There is no alternative to neoliberalism.

[00:01:05]They often act as agents of foreign interests and custodians of inequality.

[00:01:11]They impress the system that historically militated crimes against the African humanity.

[00:01:19]Okay, the system that produced poverty, the inequality that we see in the around the streets of Dar es Salaam and other African capitals and rural areas.

[00:01:29]The system that has produced environmental destruction is impressed as a system provide to provide emancipation of the African people.

[00:01:42]Frantz Fanon warned about 60 years ago that the post-colonial elites might inherit colonial institutions without transforming them, turning independence into mere symbolism.

[00:02:04]And I'm I'm I'm afraid that what the diagnosis that Franz Fanon provided then is even more relevant today. And his his quote merits a direct quotation and I read, "The unpreparedness of the elite, the lack of practical ties between them and the masses, their upper and yes, their cowardice at the crucial moment in the struggle are the cause of tragic trials and tribulations."

[00:02:39]They cannot escape the burden of blame that the problems that faced the African masses are in a big proportion caused by the kind of leadership which in Fanon's uh eyes are unprepared. They weren't prepared and still unprepared to provide solutions. Okay, they talk about African solutions to African problems.

[00:03:10]But we don't see the solutions.

[00:03:21]So, the Afrocrats have become the managers of globalization.

[00:03:26]They ignore unequal global trade structures.

[00:03:31]They can pay lip service to it, but they're not serious about challenging unequal trade structures.

[00:03:41]What you see on the right is Tanzania classic coffee in a German supermarket.

[00:03:53]A supermarket that I used to go so frequently when I was doing my doctorate in Bayreuth and I every time I go through the shelves and I see it is a half kilo of coffee sold by 11 euro.

[00:04:16]You can convert that to that to Tanzanian shilling.

[00:04:20]It is about 70,000.

[00:04:28]Then I have some of my family members who are coffee farmers in Rungwe.

[00:04:38]And maybe some of you are from Kilimanjaro and Kagera.

[00:04:43]And you know the price of 1 kg of coffee.

[00:04:50]How much is it?

[00:05:02]Most likely.

[00:05:06]That is hardly 4 euros.

[00:05:12]And can you do you can do the math.

[00:05:16]This is just one example which is quite troubling to me.

[00:05:23]You can apply this to many other sectors.

[00:05:26]Okay. If it is tea minerals how we market, how much we sell our gold and tanzanite.

[00:05:41]And with the internet you can check prices elsewhere.

[00:05:51]So, the Afrocrats no longer question why the continent is marginalized.

[00:05:59]They don't dare question.

[00:06:02]They're busy thinking that we are left behind, we need to catch up, we need to integrate. To integrate to what?

[00:06:10]A system designed for exploitation.

[00:06:16]And when the masses protest, because as Fanon said, they lack organic link with the masses. They live in completely different world.

[00:06:26]Sometimes people react to extractive policies. When they question when they want to hold them accountable you hear them say Sisi sio kisiwa.

[00:06:42]We are not an island.

[00:06:46]When you're supposed to protect your natural resources your ports and they don't.

[00:07:00]No, we cannot remain isolated. We are not an island.

[00:07:06]So, they defend exploitation, pillaging of resources.

[00:07:14]While levels of poverty, unemployment, and inequality are increasing every day.

[00:07:27]This They also use Pan-African unit to shield elite sovereignty to protect power, not to protect the African masses.

[00:07:43]Even when they miss and they are challenged sometime by their peers or other global actors and you hear them saying, "No, we are sovereign.

[00:08:04]You're interfering to our domestic affairs."

[00:08:12]Well, in fact, you're actually messing up your domestic affairs.

[00:08:20]So, the second class is what I call the Africapitalists who are promoting the private sector, entrepreneurship.

[00:08:33]Entrepreneurship is quite popular nowadays.

[00:08:36]Okay? If you organize a workshop on entrepreneurship in this venue and someone organize another seminar on political economy or history they will hardly receive any participants. I think many students will run to the entrepreneurship seminar.

[00:09:05]Because with entrepreneurship you you shift you don't you don't care about history. You don't care about global structures which are unequal and exploitative.

[00:09:19]Okay? You shift the burden to the people.

[00:09:23]You are poor because not because the price of coffee is way below the average. You are poor because you are lazy. You lack an entrepreneurial spirit.

[00:09:39]You need to work hard and stop complaining.

[00:09:44]>> [applause] >> Lazy people.

[00:09:57]But if I walk across the streets, if you go to Mwenge, if you look at the African women carrying children on their back, carrying banana under the hot sun of Dar es Salaam, toiling, it is an insult to say that these people are lazy.

[00:10:21]So, these fellows rebrand private profit as continental liberation.

[00:10:27]Okay?

[00:10:31]Pan-African blah blah.

[00:10:34]They ignore historical crimes against the African humanity.

[00:10:43]So, Africapitalism, okay, an attempt to Africanize capitalism an unjust system which perpetuate colonial exploitation giving it an African face without necessarily changing the DNA of the system without addressing the capitalist laws of accumulation which produce wealth for a very few, including the Africapitalists, who are very few, less than should be less than 1% of the African population.

[00:11:25]They are rich and are presented as models whom the young people can imitate.

[00:11:32]They were also like you. They were also poor.

[00:11:41]Really?

[00:11:50]If If trade arrangements, which are many. We have so many trade arrangements with almost every other power.

[00:12:00]And the business forums and diplomatic summits do not challenge global white supremacists and structural inequality, then they are not Pan-African.

[00:12:16]They are just marketing strategies.

[00:12:23]Pan-Africanism is not a commodity.

[00:12:28]Get to package business, to package developmentalist strategies.

[00:12:36]It's not a commodity.

[00:12:40]This is a radical, anti-imperial, anti-colonial philosophy of the African people to liberate themselves from white global white supremacy.

[00:12:55]The other movements across the globe, Black Lives Matter, the End SARS, Rhodes Must Fall.

[00:13:08]They embody the same spirit of Pan-Africanism.

[00:13:15]So, if something is comfortable, okay, to the elite, to global corporations, that is not Pan-Africanism.

[00:13:29]It is something else.

[00:13:31]It is a metaphor that has lost the soul, the revolutionary soul soul of Pan-Africanism.

[00:13:39]It demands structural rupture.

[00:13:43]A complete break from colonial capitalism.

[00:13:56]Sovereignty means self-determination, not elite protection.

[00:14:07]And we need to reclaim the revolutionary soul of Pan-Africanism.

[00:14:14]The Pan-Africanism that was championed by the likes of Kwame Nkrumah.

[00:14:25]It was total liberation, demand for total liberation.

[00:14:34]And African revolution is incomplete because it halted at the stage of state formation.

[00:14:40]Okay?

[00:14:41]Without realizing social justice, it remains a critical problem.

[00:14:46]Cultural renewal, and that's why we were talking about Someone was talking about um epistemic decolonization.

[00:14:58]We need to decolonize our mind.

[00:15:03]The way we think.

[00:15:07]Because the problem is people are even be- beginning to internalize oppression.

[00:15:20]Okay? And it's becoming unpopular to challenge oppression.

[00:15:25]To speak truth to power.

[00:15:37]Just to conclude so that we can have some time left for discussion.

[00:15:45]I repeat that Pan-Africanism is not a metaphor.

[00:15:48]It is a mandate for liberation.

[00:15:53]And if we if we agree then let us stop using the language of our ancestors to market the chains of our dependency.

[00:16:11]For that what we need is not I think it is not new visions for Africa.

[00:16:18]What we really need is to reclaim the old vision of Pan-Africanism. Total liberation of the African people and total unity.

[00:16:30]This should be non-negotiable.

[00:16:33]Thank you very much for your attention and I look forward to receive your questions and comments.

[00:16:40]>> Thanks so much. Thanks so much, Dr. Singo.

[00:16:43]And this brings us to the presentations. Now the ball is in your court. Questions suggestions comments on the four panels that have been presented.

[00:17:00]Yes.

[00:17:00]The gentleman at the corner there.

[00:17:34]>> Thank you for this opportunity. I have three questions.