Kwame Nkrumah hosted the First Conference of Independent African republics in Accra, Ghana, in 1958, which was attended by eight independent African republics. The 15th of April was designated as “Africa Freedom Day,” to commemorate the ongoing development of the liberation fight and to signify the desire of the people of Africa to be free of foreign dominance and exploitation. On May 25, 1963, thirty-one African heads of state met in a summit conference to establish the Organization of African Unity (OAU). They altered the name of Africa Freedom Day to “African Liberation Day” and moved the date to May 25th.
On Thursday, The Revolutionary Socialist League, together with other Pan African organizations held an event to commemorate this day. The primary theme underpinning the day’s observance remained Africa’s freedom and liberation; freedom from the political bonds of the Global North’s imperialist powers, and liberation from the economic enslavement of international monopoly capitalists.
There was a flurry of activities including documentary screenings, entertainment from artists and panel Discussions. Panelists of the day were Ezra Otieno from the Revolutionary Socialist League, Sefu Sani from the Communist Party of Kenya and Faizal Ahmed, A Journalist from Sudan.
Here are the resolutions from the event:
The Revolutionary Socialist League expresses its sympathy with the Sudanese people in their continuing revolution against the reactionary class. We recognize their battle for social justice, equality, and Sudanese emancipation. We resolve to work together and share our experiences to further the cause of the African working people and the revolutionary struggle.
Our task in 2023 is to ensure that Africans everywhere understand the threat that imperialism and neo-colonialism pose to our efforts to achieve liberation. What then is to be done? The game plan is found in the Pan-Africanist objective of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party. That objective is the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism. Let’s consider why this is an effective approach.
Scientific Socialism
Scientific socialism must guide and govern Africa’s economics. Many Africans not only fail to include scientific socialism as part of their agenda, they also don’t even know what it is. It’s really not as complicated as it sounds. Any country is always faced with a basic question: “How are we going to deal with the nation’s money and resources?” If those answering the question believe in a capitalist approach to economics, they will say: “Let’s put the wealth of the nation in the hands of a small elite group. This group can determine whether the broad masses of people will share in this wealth, and if so, to what extent.” Africa has already had many years of experience with capitalism, and the results have not been good.
Among other things, capitalism gave Africa the slave trade, colonialism, widespread poverty, environmental disasters, wars, foreign theft and exploitation of natural resources, corruption, and disease. There is another path that Africa must follow. It is the socialist path. A socialist will say: “Let’s put the wealth of the nation in the hands of everyone. This will ensure that decisions about what to do with it will always be in the best interests of the broad masses of the people. The people themselves will never purposely make decisions that will hurt themselves.” Why, for example, would the people ever decide to allow foreign corporations to come into Africa to steal their oil and most valuable minerals? Socialism just makes good sense. It is a scientific approach to economics because it is based on concrete, practical considerations rather than romantic, theoretical notions about how money and resources should be handled.
Let’s follow the Pan African Path
It should therefore be clear that Pan-Africanism; the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism is the objective that Africans throughout the world must pursue. For those who conclude that Pan-Africanism is the proper objective, there is a need to ensure that as efforts are made to achieve it, those efforts are properly directed and effective. There is no better way to do that than to organize a political party committed to achieving Pan-Africanism.