Pan-Africanism in the context of "Basutoland Congress Party"

African nationalism is an umbrella term which refers to a group of political ideologies in the majority of Africa, which are based on the idea of national self-determination and the creation of nation states. The ideology emerged under European colonial rule during the 19th and 20th centuries and was loosely inspired by nationalist ideas from Europe. Originally, African nationalism was based on demands for self-determination and played an important role in forcing the process of decolonisation of Africa (c. 1957–66). However, the term refers to a broad range of different ideological and political movements and should not be confused with Pan-Africanism which may seek the federation of many or all nation states in Africa.

The Black power movement or Black liberation movement emerged in the mid-1960s from the mainstream civil rights movement in the United States, reacting against its moderate and incremental tendencies and representing the demand for more immediate action to counter White supremacy. Many of its ideas were influenced by Malcolm X's criticism of Martin Luther King Jr.'s peaceful protest methods. The 1965 assassination of Malcolm X, coupled with the urban riots of 1964 and 1965, ignited the movement. While thinkers such as Malcolm X influenced the early movement, the views of the Black Panther Party, founded in 1966, are widely seen as the cornerstone. Black power was influenced by philosophies such as pan-Africanism, Black nationalism, and socialism, as well as contemporary events such as the Cuban Revolution and the decolonization of Africa.

During the peak of the Black power movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many African Americans adopted "Afro" hairstyles, African clothes, or African names (such as Stokely Carmichael, the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who popularized the phrase "Black power" and later changed his name to Kwame Ture) to emphasize their identity. Others founded Black-owned stores, food cooperatives, bookstores, publishers, media, clinics, schools, and other organizations oriented to their communities. American universities began to offer courses in Black studies, and the word Black replaced negro as the preferred usage in the country. Other leaders of the movement included Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, founders of the Black Panther Party.

Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated with the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to the east. Ghana covers an area of 239,567 km (92,497 sq mi), spanning diverse ecologies, from coastal savannas to tropical rainforests. With over 35 million inhabitants, Ghana is the thirteenth-most populous country in Africa, and the second-most populous country in West Africa specifically. The capital and largest city is Accra; other significant cities include Tema, Kumasi, Sunyani, Ho, Cape Coast, Techiman, Tamale, Bolga, Wa, and Sekondi-Takoradi.

The earliest kingdoms to emerge in Ghana were Bonoman in the south and the Kingdom of Dagbon in the north, with Bonoman existing in the area during the 11th century. The Asante Empire and other Akan kingdoms in the south emerged over the centuries. Beginning in the 15th century, the Portuguese Empire, followed by other European powers, contested the area for trading rights, until the British ultimately established control of the coast by the 19th century. Following more than a century of colonial resistance, the current borders of the country took shape, encompassing four separate British colonial territories: Gold Coast, Ashanti, the Northern Territories, and British Togoland. These were unified as an independent dominion within the Commonwealth of Nations. On 6 March 1957 Ghana became the first colony in Sub-Saharan Africa to achieve sovereignty. Under President Kwame Nkrumah, it became influential in decolonisation efforts and the Pan-African movement.

Frantz Omar Fanon (/ˈfænən/, US: /fæˈnɒ̃/; French: [fʁɑ̃ts fanɔ̃]; 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961) was a French West Indian psychiatrist, and political philosopher, from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department). His works have become influential in the fields of post-colonial studies, and critical theory. As well as being an intellectual, Fanon was a political radical, and Pan-Africanist, concerned with the psychopathology of colonization and the human, social, and cultural consequences of decolonization.

In the course of his work as a physician and psychiatrist, Fanon supported the Algerian War of independence from France and was a member of the Algerian National Liberation Front. Fanon has been described as "the most influential anticolonial thinker of his time". For more than five decades, the life and works of Fanon have inspired national liberation movements and other freedom and political movements in Palestine, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the United States.

Pan-nationalism (from Ancient Greek πᾶν (pân) 'all' and French nationalisme 'nationalism') in the social sciences includes forms of nationalism that aim to transcend (overcome, expand) traditional boundaries of basic or historical national identities in order to create a "higher" pan-national (all-inclusive) identity, based on various common denominators. In relation to classical state nationalism, pan-nationalism manifests itself through various political movements that advocate the formation of "higher" (pan-national) forms of political identity, based on a regional or continental grouping of national states, such as Pan-Africanism, Pan-Americanism, Pan-Arabism, Pan-Asianism, Pan-Slavism, and Pan-Turkism. In terms of ethnic nationalism, pan-nationalism can also manifest itself through specific ethnic movements that advocate setting up "higher" (pan-national) forms of common identity that are based on ethnic grouping (for example: Pan-Germanism or Pan-Slavism). Other forms of nationalism also have their pan-national variants.

Some forms of pan-nationalism, such as Pan-Germanism, manifest themselves on two levels: wider - relating to the unity of all Germanic peoples - and narrower - relating to the unity of all ethnic Germans, also including (on either of those two levels) German-speaking Austrians and German-speaking Swiss people, many of who may not self-identify as strictly "German", while still belonging to the wider family of contemporary Germanic peoples.

Julius Kambarage Nyerere (Swahili: [ˈdʒulius kɑᵐbɑˈɾɑɠɛ ɲɛˈɾɛɾɛ]; 13 April 1922 – 14 October 1999) was a Tanzanian politician, anti-colonial activist, and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, after which he led its successor state, Tanzania, as president from 1964 to 1985. He was a founding member and chair of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) party and of its successor, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, from 1954 to 1990. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he promoted a political philosophy known as Ujamaa.

Born in Butiama, Mara, then in the British colony of Tanganyika, Nyerere was the son of a Zanaki chief. After completing his schooling, he studied at Makerere College in Uganda and then Edinburgh University in Scotland. In 1952 he returned to Tanganyika, married, and worked as a school teacher. In 1954, he helped form TANU, through which he campaigned for Tanganyikan independence from the British Empire. Influenced by the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, Nyerere preached non-violent protest to achieve this aim. Elected to the Legislative Council in the 1958–1959 elections, Nyerere then led TANU to victory at the 1960 general election, becoming prime minister. Negotiations with the British authorities resulted in Tanganyikan independence in 1961. In 1962, Tanganyika became a republic, with Nyerere elected as its first president. His administration pursued decolonisation and the "Africanisation" of the civil service while promoting unity between indigenous Africans and the country's Asian and European minorities. He encouraged the formation of a one-party state and unsuccessfully pursued the Pan-Africanist formation of an East African Federation with Uganda and Kenya. A 1963 mutiny within the army was suppressed with British assistance.

Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé military officer, Marxist and Pan-Africanist revolutionary who served as the President of Burkina Faso from 1983, following his takeover in a coup, until his assassination in 1987.

After Sankara was appointed Prime Minister of the Republic of Upper Volta in 1983, he had political disputes with the sitting government that resulted in his eventual imprisonment. While he was under house arrest, a group of revolutionaries seized power on his behalf in a popular coup later that year.

Francis Kwame Nkrumah (Nzema: [kwame Nkruma] 21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained independence from Britain. He was then the first prime minister and then the president of Ghana, from 1957 until 1966. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1962.

After twelve early years abroad pursuing higher education, developing his political philosophy, and organizing with other diasporic pan-Africanists, Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast to begin his political career as an advocate of national independence. He formed the Convention People's Party, which achieved rapid success through its unprecedented appeal to the common voter. He became Prime Minister in 1952 and retained the position when he led Ghana to independence from Britain in 1957, a first in sub-Saharan Africa at the time. In 1960, Ghanaians approved a new constitution and elected Nkrumah as president.

The First Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the First Italo-Abyssinian War, or simply known as the Abyssinian War in Italy (Italian: Guerra d'Abissinia), was a military confrontation fought between Italy and Ethiopia from 1895 to 1896. It originated from the disputed Treaty of Wuchale, which the Italians claimed turned Ethiopia into an Italian protectorate, while the Ethiopians claimed that the treaty simply ensured peace between the two powers. Full-scale war broke out in 1895, with Italian troops from Italian Eritrea achieving initial successes against Tigrayan warlords at Coatit, Senafe and Debra Ailà, until they were reinforced by a large Ethiopian army led by Emperor Menelik II. The Italian defeat came about after the Battle of Adwa, where the Ethiopian army dealt the Italian soldiers and Eritrean askaris a decisive blow and forced their retreat back into Eritrea. The war concluded with the Treaty of Addis Ababa. Because this was one of the first decisive victories by African forces over a European colonial power, this war became a preeminent symbol of pan-Africanism and secured Ethiopia's sovereignty until the Second Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935–37.