By Spy Uganda
Pan Africanist Agyeman Badu Akosa, a professor from Ghana has argued for the re-igniting of the flames of Pan Africanism to liberate Africa from the throes of neo-colonialism, poverty and ignorance.
He believed that the African continent and the diaspora had the capacity to rise up again and reshape their destiny.
“Africa has everything to be the most efficient continent, yet, we have been destroyed by the Europeans. But, we can use the creative ability to challenge the system through the ‘vessel’ of Pan Africanism and begin from the beginning,” Prof. Akosa stressed.
The renowned pathologist recalled how Europe from the 15th to 19th centuries had moved across the oceans, robbed and totally exploited both the human and material wealth of the African continent through slavery and colonial market economy, dominated by profit motives, for about 400 years.
He explained that Africans did not understand his situation because “we are all in mental slavery, and absolutely dysfunctional.”
Prof. Akosa said, was colonised by people who knew nothing about the continent, saying “everything we had was taken away and we are totally de-culturalised. They said, teach them to talk like us. All these happened with propaganda against you. That we were savages living in the bush,” he added.
He agreed that religion was “the opium of the masses” and also taught Africans of a ‘better life tomorrow’ while Europeans believed in a ‘better life today’ and the business of hope prosperity.
The educational system, he said, also distorted the realities of the African continent.
He recalled the roles of Pan Africanists, including WEB Du Bois, Marcus Garvey Franz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah and George Padmore, saying “ the struggle of Pan Africanism is a journey.”
He added, “To be an African is about African consciousness, free from mental slavery, from cognitive dissonance.”
