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The Coalition of Pan-African Scholars is a student organization that
aspires to foster a strong solidarity among pan-African people,
scholars and all those interested in Pan-Africanism, African cultures
and developmental issues. The Coalition hopes to create awareness of
the rich cultural diversity, history and present state of Africa
through its programs and events and in collaborations with other
groups and institutions.
Our mission is also to spread the ideals of
Pan-Africanism through our campuses and communities and to motivate
young scholars to adopt such a paradigm to inform their academic
pursuits, professional career and personal lives.
The Coalition aims to be a unifying organization for the various
African student associations and a bridge between institutional
departments, scholars and initiatives with an African focus. It is a
unique organization that brings all its members to the board to
think, plan and execute in proactive and equitable fashion. It unites
socially conscious members of the society who wish to contribute to
the advancement of Africa through scholarly and proactive
programming.
Our initiatives therefore will align in purpose with the United
Nation Developmental Program goals of:
1. Universal Achievement in Standard Education
2. Poverty and Hunger Eradication
3. Gender Equality and Empowerment
4. Fatal Disease and Health Education
5. Infrastructural Development
6. Environmental Sustainability
Pan-Africansim
Panafricanism is a philosophy that is based on the
belief that African people share common bonds and objectives and that
advocates unity to achieve these objectives. In the views of
different proponents throughout its history, Pan-Africanism has been
conceived in varying ways. It has been applied to all black African
people and people of black African descent; to all people on the
African continent, including nonblack people; or to all states on the
African continent.
In Africa
In one form, known as Continental Pan-Africanism, it advocates the
unity of states and peoples within Africa, either through political
union or through international cooperation. In 1900 Henry Sylvester
Williams, a lawyer from the Caribbean island of Trinidad, organized a
Pan-African conference in London to give black people the opportunity
to discuss issues facing blacks around the world. The conferences
continued throughout the 20th century pursuing the twin goals of
total African independence and continental political union. That
legacy lives on now through the African Union.
Across the Diaspora
In its other, broader form, known as Diaspora Pan-Africanism, it
relates to solidarity among all black Africans and peoples of black
African descent outside the African continent. Pan-Africanism
developed to overcome the obstacles facing the African Diaspora, a
scattered, diverse, and often disadvantaged population of people of
African descent. Pan-African thinkers would maintain that, although
they were dispersed throughout the world, African people and people
of African descent were a unified people and should try to work
together for the good of all. Africans around the world face a number
of similar socioeconomic and political challenges as they strive to
create better futures for themselves and their descendants. These
peoples’ international cooperation and shared strategies for
bringing about social change are the legacy of Diaspora
Pan-Africanism.