POLITICS AND ECONOMIC INTERPRETATION OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PAN- AFRICANISM

Abstract

The paper examines the political and economic forces that are driving the new Pan-Africanism - the forces that determined the change from OAU to AU. It sheds light on the forces from Direct Foreign Investment emanating from neo-liberal ideology termed globalization; the consequences of the demise of former Soviet Union which left African weak states at the whims and caprices of the West. It is our contention here that with the forces of democratization and liberalization, the abandonment of socialist ideology in the Eastern and Western Europe, which necessitated the loss of allies for the African leaders, (Socialist apologists), changes in the nature of African unity depends on the happenings in the West. One major cause of concern is whether AU has met a setback in the face of seemingly resistance against globalization in the West: UK leaving the EU, US returning to trade barriers/tariffs. If argued that it is the forces from direct investment emanating from neo-liberal ideology termed globalization that is driving African continental unity in the 21st century, it is assumed that a push back against the core tenets of the globalization process being witnessed in the west will have an adverse effect on the said unity. The task of continental Africa is not being pushed by African political leaders per se, but by international economic forces.