Pan-Africanism is the total liberation and unification of Africa under Scientific Socialism.
Socialism in Africa introduces a new social synthesis in which modern technology is reconciled with human values, in which the advanced technical society is realized without the staggering social malefactions and deep schisms of capitalist industrial society.
The concept of African unity embraces the fundamental needs and characteristics of African civilization and ideology, and at the same time satisfies all the conditions necessary for an accelerated economic and technological advance. Such maximum development would ensure a rational utilization of the material resources and human potential of our continent along the lines of an integrated economy, and within complementary sectors of production, eliminating all unnecessary forms of competition, economic alienation and duplication.
Nkrumah on African Unity
In January 1963 President Nkrumah wrote a letter to the presidents of independent states, proposing the Union of African States. (In May of that year the African leadership created the Organization of African Unity (OAU). He postulated that the economic and social well being of Africa depended upon our ability to create a Pan-African Political union. President Nkrumah proposed these fundamental points:
- Common foreign policy and diplomacy
... we need a process of political socialization that would "enable us to speak with one voice" in the fora of the world- Common continental planning for economic and industrial development
...."building up a common market of a united Africa" that would bring about the material conditions we need to improve our collective quality of life in the global economy- Common currency a monetary zone and a central bank of issue
...that we "need to orientate the economy of Africa and place it beyond the reach of foreign control" to be able to implement our social economy- Common defense system
..."one over-all (land, sea and air) Defense Command for Africa" is needed to defend the social economy we createTo implement the above proposal, a Central Political Organization with its own constitution would have to be drawn up as a matter of urgency. It is suggested that this Union of African States should consist of an Upper House and Lower House...The overriding concern of the Union of African States would be to give political direction in regard to the implementation of the proposals mentioned above.