ABSTRACT
Pan-Africanism as an idea and as a theory of African redemption has had many definitions and uses. By its narrowest definition, Pan-Africanism is identified with political struggles for national liberation against colonial rule in the 20th century, and for national solidarity across continental Africa. If one takes this liberal accounting of the term, Pan-Africanism refers to the global African, and if one takes a broad accounting of the purpose of the phrase, Pan-Africanism incorporates the lived experience of one's African-influenced life, an African-influenced self-identity and consciousness, as it is experienced around the globe. This chapter discusses the ways Pan-Africanism can be understood in terms of The Funk, seen through the works of James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, Earth Wind & Fire, and Parliament/Funkadelic.
