Pan-Africanism

My first encounter with Kwame Ture occurred in the spring of 1975 when I was still a 20-year-old kid. He was known, then, as Stokely Carmichael — 33 years old and full of enough youthful exuberance and charisma to engender fear, awe, or adoration in all those he encountered.

The 15 November 2013 marks 15 years since the death of Kwame Ture, formerly Stokely Carmichael. Pambazuka News marks his death with a special edition commemorating the political contribution, and thought of this notable son of Africa.

INTRODUCTION

When you are fifty today in Africa, which coincides with fifty years of formal independence of the continent, the Pan-Africanist ideals you can feel inside, the thirst for sovereignty that is irrepressible in your heart, rebellion that nurtures within in order to break the chains of mental slaver

The consternation of a man always ahead of his entourage, betrayal by a friend, destruction of a family losing a beloved one, the life of Thomas Sankara ended in tragedy.

With eyes filled with fear, the Burkinabe intellectual who offered to act as tour guide begged that his name not be mentioned in connection with Thomas Sankara. ‘It is forbidden to talk about him in this country,’ he emphasized repeatedly.