A CONTEXT
Currently the global African people are not united and lack a common symbol that would help to create a sense of collective unity. By global African peoples I mean Africans in Africa, the diaspora, and Africans who left via the slave trade and are now citizens of independent countries. Collective identity and meaning are important prerequisites for unity and cooperation for the global African peoples, and cultural or national symbols are powerful aids to fostering this sense of unity!
ISSUE:
Currently the global African peoples celebrate different independence days, based on when their different countries obtained independence. The global African peoples do not keep up with the plethora of dates, and many end up celebrating only their individual country’s independence or at most a few other countries. This leads to a fracturing among the global African people’s, who often do not really internalize the independence celebrations of another African country/people or relate it to their own heritage and history.
THE QUESTION:
What is one creative way that independence day celebrations can be strategically harnessed to foster a greater sense of collective unity among the global African peoples?
A SOLUTION (one of many)
I propose GAPID: “Global African People’s Independence Day.” A commemorative day when the global African people’s across all African countries, the Caribbean, and the America’s celebrate a day of collective independence. A day when all historical sons and daughters of Mother Africa unite as one people, raise different flags only as part of a broader mosaic of the global African peoples, celebrate commonalities, shared experiences, but also our unique evolutions and transformed identities that are beautiful feathers of the same bird. A day when we stand as one people, looking to the past, present, and future!
WORD OF CAUTION
The proposal would need to be carefully enacted with other proposals, so we avoid the danger of making the contemporary history of the global African peoples associated with slavery and colonization the primary marker of their collective identity! For the African peoples have a rich history of cultures and kingdoms whose elements would need to be factored to broaden the scope of the proposal.
CLOSING
The Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah forwarded “Africa must unite!” Here, the proposal of GAPID – Global African People’s Independence Day seeks to advance that vision! Thus, I also call for the formation of GAPCON: Global African People’s Council of Nations, and the creation of a corresponding flag!
We must no longer stand aside and passively hope for a brighter African future, but with gaze focused upward and daring vision we must boldly spin the wheels of development forward! While diligently using our God-given abilities to energetically forge the African destiny into reality!
One Africa, One People… Focused Upward, Forever Onward!
~Dr. Ikenna Ezealah
Nation Upbuilding 