The Relevance Of African Liberation Day
Every year, the 25th of May serves as an important day for all African peoples on the continent and the rest of the world. For many, May 25 is just another date on the calendar, but for millions of people across Africa and the diaspora, it is a day that holds great significance - African Liberation Day (ALD).
The 25th of May goes beyond simply being a commemoration of the birth of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). It is a day that significantly and existentially reminds us of where we come from collectively as Africans; our place in the contemporary global order of imperial and racist domination; and, most importantly, where we are headed as a people fighting for decolonization. The common thread which binds people of African descent across the whole world is the shared history of liberation struggles. And this is where the indispensable salience of Africa Day comes to the fore.
Africa Day, celebrated on May 25 each year, is the commemoration of the foundation of the OAU, which came to life on 25 May 1963. The holiday was formerly recognized as African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day. The OAU was later changed into the Africa Union (AU), which has remained the name of the continental body up to now.
Map of African Union member states
Although the OAU was transformed into the AU on 9 July 2002, the Africa Day holiday is still celebrated on 25 May. Sixty-seven years after the start of the celebration of Africa Day in 1958, the struggle for freedom continues. Black people worldwide still deal with systemic economic inequalities, political instability, systemic racism, and cultural erasure.
Read also: Experience Fad's Fine African Cuisine
The Genesis of African Liberation Day
African Liberation Day traces its roots back to 1958, when Kwame Nkrumah convened the First Conference of Independent States held in Accra, Ghana. April 15 was declared Africa Freedom Day. The First Congress of Independent African States was held in Accra, Ghana on 15 April 1958. It was convened by Kwame Nkrumah.
This meeting followed in the footsteps of the 1900 and 1945 Pan African meetings (in London and Manchester respectively) and was attended by 200 delegates representing 60 organizations from 27 countries, including key leaders like Patrice Lumumba. Within a year of the west African nation’s independence on 15 April 1958, Nkrumah convened the All African People’s Conference - the first meeting of independent African states.
The conference showcased progress of liberation movements on the African continent in addition to symbolizing the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation. The conference set the stage for connecting diverse movements of resistance from different contexts under one banner. In an adaptation of the explosive declaration in The Communist Manifesto, the meeting announced to the world: “Peoples of Africa, Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains! You have a continent to regain! You have freedom and human dignity to attain!” To the colonizers, they boldly pronounced this fundamental demand: “Hands Off Africa!
When Ghana won its independence in 1957, the country’s iconoclastic founding leader, Kwame Nkrumah, defiantly stated that his country’s political self-determination was futile if the rest of the continent was not freed from racialized colonial subjugation.
The wild fires of Pan-African solidarity were palpable during that time; such unity was a shared reality across the continent. The Pan-African Congress of 1958-an idea and reality that first came to life in 1900 diverted its energies and attention towards focusing on the progress of liberation struggles across the continent; with the altruistic vision of ensuring the liberation of all African peoples from racist, imperial domination.
Read also: The Story Behind Cachapas
Kwame Nkrumah, a key figure in Pan-Africanism
This was also the first time that this Congress met on African soil-showcasing how serious, unbreakable, and unrelenting the anti-colonial struggle had become in Africa and across the rest of the world. Important to note is how this Congress planted and cemented the laudable idea in the consciousness of African peoples and liberation leaders that it was absolutely necessary to convene subsequent annual meetings of African heads of states and governments.
When it convened in 1958, the Congress called for the founding of an ‘African Freedom Day’ [on annual basis] in order to “…mark each year the onward progress of the liberation movement, and to symbolise the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation”.
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU)
Between 1958 and 1963, the nation/class struggle intensified in Africa and the world. Subsequent anti-colonial meetings-notably the Casablanca Group and the Monrovia Group-ultimately gave way to the formation of the OAU on 25 May 1963; five years after the 1958 Congress convened by Nkrumah in Ghana.
On the 25th of May 1963, thirty-one African Heads of state convened a summit meeting to found the Organization of African Unity (OAU). By then more than two-thirds of the continent had achieved independence, mostly from imperial European states. At this meeting, the Organization of African Unity was founded, with the initial aim to encourage the decolonization of Angola, Mozambique, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia.
Read also: Techniques of African Jewellery
When the representatives of thirty African nations assembled in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to mark the OAU’s birth, the biggest task at hand was ensuring-an arduous task abetted by the revolutionary atmosphere of unrivalled solidarity, bravery, tenacity, and selfless optimism-the continuance of acerbic anti-colonial wars of independence in Angola, Mozambique, Southern Rhodesia, and South Africa. Most of African states obtained their independence in the early 1960s, but for Southern Africa, the intransigence of colonial masters, aided by imperialist powers in the West, demanded more radical struggles.
ALD has spurred coordinated efforts among the Organization of African Unity’s member states to fund, strengthen, and intensify liberation movements across the African continent. As much as possible, the goal is to end exploitation and oppression of Africans at home and abroad by finding peaceful solutions through deliberations and frank exchange of views among the nations that are involved.
The major issue that seized political leaders at the historic formation of the OAU revolved around decolonization efforts-that is, securing the freedom and happiness of African peoples and nations; fighting for improved standards of living; and restoring African pride in its rich cultural and historic heritage.
The Charter of the Organization of African Unity was signed on May 25, 1963, when thirty-one African heads of state convened in Ethiopia for the Summit Conference of the Independent African States. The organization pledged to support the work conducted by freedom fighters, and remove military access to colonial nations. A charter was set out which sought to improve the living standards across member states. The charter was signed by all attendees on 26 May, with the exception of Morocco.
And to perpetuate decolonization efforts, both for material/physical and mental decolonization, a special day was needed to celebrate the essence of African being and identity. When the OAU charter came to life (after all the delegates who attended had signed it on 26 May, except for Morocco), Emperor Haile Selassie, the host of the summit, boldy proclaimed, “May this convention of union last 1,000 years!” As such, ‘Africa Freedom Day’ was renamed ‘Africa Liberation Day’.
Pan-Africanism and its Core Principles
The Pan-Africanism that arose during this time recognized that colonialism was a system of capitalist expansion through brutal exploitation and racist oppression. This Pan-Africanism is, at its core, a people’s movement for the liberation of humanity from the exploitation of capitalism and imperialism. This was to radically concretize the celebration of being African in an unforgiving global order of imperial domination that punished, and still punishes, African peoples for simply having different skin colour. And, today, we still celebrate this important day as Africa Day. It is a day that goes beyond celebrating the formation of a continental body for anti-colonial solidarity-it is a day which we must always consciously reflect on the selfless sacrifices of those who fought for liberation; a day we have to check our place in the global order of capitalist domination.
Pan-Africanism Unity
ALD must be situated and understood within the context of the struggle for decolonization realized and the liberation of African people worldwide. Contributing to the raised political awareness among the masses of African people, ALD serves as a day of political education with countless organizations advancing Pan-Africanism- the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism.
Neo-colonialism and Continued Exploitation
Across the African continent, various liberation movements were able to secure political independence from colonial rule. This political independence was however not accompanied by economic independence - a phenomenon characterized by Nkrumah as ‘neo-colonialism’ as early as 1965. The continued exploitation of Africa’s resources and people through neo-colonialism was cemented by means of neoliberal austerity programs enforced by imperialist institutions, such as the IMF and the World Bank.
In attempting to dispense with the prescriptions of capital, the majority of founding African leaders made genuine strides towards building socialism in their respective territories. History is replete with accounts of the consequences of these actions. Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown, Thomas Sankara was toppled and assassinated while Sekou Toure of Guinea faced massive repression from France.
The African Union (AU)
In 2002, the OAU was replaced by the African Union. Each year, the AU adopts a theme to highlight a particular problem the continent faces and work together towards a solution. Although the OAU was transformed into the AU on 9 July 2002, the Africa Day holiday is still celebrated on 25 May.
The Organisation of African Unity - and later the African Union - have disappointed many by not advancing the revolutionary program towards a unified, socialist Africa. In fact, many governments in Africa have, under pressure from imperialist institutions, routinely abandoned scientific socialism for chauvinism and neoliberal capitalism. These failures and limitations should, however, not distract us from the inspiration that the people of Africa, their organizations and their movements draw from the struggle for Pan-Africanism.
Contemporary Significance
As we mark this year’s African Liberation Day, we must shift our focus from mere remembrance to actively engaging and dedicating ourselves to the continuing work of liberation. That same spirit of liberation from the anti-colonial era continues to motivate Black communities globally in their ongoing pursuit of racial justice, economic empowerment, and social change.
For many in the diaspora facing challenges in reconnecting with their African heritage, ALD plays an important role in reviving African culture. On this special day, we get to remember the labors of our heroes past and honor the brave men and women like Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba, who fought for the right to self-determination. Remembering their bravery strengthens our resolve to continue pushing for liberation today.
ALD has become an institution throughout the African world, being a day when all African people rally for unity and denounce racism, capitalism, and Zionism. On ALD, African people focus on what they share-their common past, set of problems, and future-as they pause to think about the plight of their African brothers who are under foreign rule and who are seeking to win their freedom and fundamental human rights.
Africa Day is a day we have to boldly retort to neocolonial masters how ludicrous, inhumane, and preposterous it is to discriminate and subjugate on the basis on skin colour and sickening colonial platitudes of how Africans are savages, barbaric, backward, irrational, and in perpetual need of European/Western redemption.
Africa Day reminds us that the decolonization struggle is not yet over, especially in the context of fierce neocolonial struggles where the United States (and its allies), Russia, and China are in a new scramble for Africa. Today, African Liberation Day (ALD) is a permanent mass institution in the world-wide Pan-African movement.
As an institution, it is stronger today because the masses of African people are stronger and ALD is their day. As a day of work in the area of political education and organization, it reflects the fact that we have not obtained our freedom, and thus it is a day to reaffirm our commitment to Pan-Africanism, the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism. At ALD we also deepen our understanding of other just struggles and affirm our role in the world socialist revolution.
The Call to Action
This call for a rekindling of the popular demand for a unified Africa under socialist rule is even more pressing at a time when 22 individual men own more wealth than all the women on the continent combined. As Nkrumah declared at the inaugural meeting of the OAU, “There is no time to waste.
African Liberation Day still matters as it is not just about remembrance, but about taking action. As we see in these examples, our revolutionary African ancestors understood unity clearly as a tactic that can be used to advance the struggle for the liberation of Africans, Africa, and all of humanity. As Kwame Ture says, Africa and African peoples were already progressing towards unity before colonialism and imperialism interrupted that process.
Suppose we fail to unify around a common objective for our future as a people. In that case, we will continue to die at the will of the blood-thirsty, elite, European ruling class and their Pan-European projects of death. African women in the United States will continue to burden abysmal maternal health rates.
Without Pan-African unity, we can not begin to address the various side effects of life under colonization. Hood Communist Editor Ahjamu Umi once said, “If you want a key to ending African poverty, patriarchal oppression against our women and non-men, exploitation of our children, ragged terrorism against us by state police and agencies, etc., the total liberation of Africa under scientific socialism is a must. We know that until Africa is free, united, and socialist, no African anywhere on earth will have freedom and self-determination.”
Africa must become our political center. One unified socialist Africa, the definition of Pan-Africanism, will solve the problems Africans face worldwide. Once Africa is united, we unleash the potential of the most beautiful and resourceful mass of land on this planet.
You can elect all the firsts and pass all the legislation you’d like. Nothing will ever equal the benefits of a free, united, and socialist Africa. This year and every year on African Liberation Day (ALD), we imagine African people worldwide, collectively in control of what our home has to offer.
