Buchi

I don’t know what you anti-Pan-Africanism think Pan-Africanism means. We do not believe a day will come when all Africans suddenly become one people, abandon our identities and come together to sing Kumbaya. We do not believe your identity will disappear and be replaced by some artificial African identity. Those are fantasies. An Igbo person will remain Igbo. A Hausa person will remain Hausa. A Yoruba person will remain Yoruba. A Zulu will remain Zulu. A Xhosa will remain Xhosa. A Twi speaker will remain Twi. A Wolof will remain Wolof. A Somali will remain Somali. A Kikuyu will remain Kikuyu. A Shona will remain Shona. A Tuareg will remain Tuareg. A Fulani will remain Fulani. Our differences are real, and they should and must be respected. Pan-Africanism is not about erasing those differences. It is about recognising that despite them, we share enough common interests to cooperate. Economic cooperations. Collective security. Political cooperation. Coordinated foreign policy. Regional infrastructure. Trade. Technology. Education. The protection of African resources and interests. The point is not to make us identical. The point is to make us capable of negotiating with the rest of the world from a position of collective strength. Europe did not need every European to become French, German or Italian before building institutions for collective economic and political interests. Different identities can coexist with cooperation. You can be proudly Igbo and still understand that Nigeria’s interests matter. You can be proudly Xhosa and still understand that South Africa’s interests matter. You can be proudly Igbo, Somali, Zulu, Wolof or Kikuyu and still recognise that Africa’s collective interests matter. Pan-Africanism does not ask you to surrender who you are. It asks us to stop allowing our differences make us permanently powerless.