ABSTRACT

This journey into the realm of Pan-Africanism is almost at an end. An intellectual and personal pursuit that has sought to explore the ambiguities and contradictions that I have felt in regard to my identity - that of an individual of African descent, born and raised in London. This journey has been firstly a personal quest, but it is in a sense a microcosm of a much more significant set of contradictions and ambiguities - those that emerge from the African diaspora as it, in all its diversity, seeks to come to terms with the places of its birth, and reconcile that with its ancestry. This in essence is one of the initial motivations for Pan-Africanism, thus placed in a wider context, my personal quest takes on a wider significance and emerges as an exploration of the ambiguities and contradictions within Pan-Africanism. That stated, one now needs to pose again the questions that provided the impetus for the exploration. Is a sense of 'being' essential to one's personal development and the development of a continent? Is that sense of being to be found in the concept of racial unity? Is Pan-African ism the solution to the African crisis? Can regional co-operation work in Africa? And can the Western perception of Africa and Africans be altered? These and the burning 'why' concerning Africa's underdevelopment were the primary questions posed at the outset of the journey, now it is time to reveal what has been learnt from this particular journey into Pan-Africanism: exploring the contradictions.