A Feminist Pan-Africanism for a World in Flux

This is why Africans need to chart their own path. Pan-Africanism offers one option and has always been more than a call for African unity; it is a political project rooted in liberation, self-determination, and the transformation of global power relations. Born from anti-colonial resistance and diasporic solidarity, pan-Africanism envisions a world where African peoples—both on the continent and across the diaspora—can overcome the legacies of slavery, imperialism and racial capitalism to shape their own futures. It is a philosophy developed to directly challenge the status quo of the international order that rendered Africa peripheral and its people expendable. At its heart, pan-Africanism has always been about agency: not just freedom from domination, but the power to set terms, define values, and lead globally on questions of justice, sovereignty and solidarity. In today’s contentious, multipolar world, pan-Africanism is more relevant than ever. Yet, it too must evolve lest it reproduces the same hierarchies it seeks to challenge. In particular, pan-Africanism continues to replicate the same patriarchy of international relations—even with global frameworks intended to prevent this.