Professor Gnaka shares his passion for Pan-Africanism and how Ghana inspires it
Professor Gnaka Lagoke, a Professor of Pan-African Studies at the University of Lincoln, says his passion to write a book on pan-Africanism enacted from attending the All African Peoples Conference in Ghana in 2018. He says it formed part of efforts to contribute to the knowledge available, in an interview with TheAfricanDream.co, “especially when not many publications could be found online about pan-Africanism.“
Professor Lagoke chairs the Department of Pan-African Studies. He is a specialist in geopolitics, International and African Development, comparative politics, reparative justice, and Pan-Africanism.
He co-founded the revival of Pan-Africanism in 2007 and has organised several Pan-African meetings, including serving as president of the scientific committee of the 9th Pan-African Congress held in Lome in December, 2025. Professor Lagoke, who is an author of many books, promotes a renewed vision of Pan-Africanism grounded in the philosophy of Ubuntu.
“I was at the 60th anniversary of the All Africa People’s conference in Ghana in 2018, then after that conference, I said, you know what, let me write a book because if you go online, you will be surprised there is no serious book on that topic,” he said to TheAfricanDream.co.
The Professor says he focused on the Ubuntu philosophy more because it sought to promote a new dispensation of Pan-Africanism, which rested upon the African value system and was promoted by Former South African President Nelson Mandela. He says the former president of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, however, promoted socialism during his regime.
“But Mandela was the embodiment of Ubuntu and then because of his contributions today, everyone is talking about Ubuntu and then we think that contrary to Kwame Nkrumah who was talking about socialism”, Prof. Lagoke noted.
He went on to share that Pan- Africanism was about the holistic, collective, self-determination of Africans, at home and abroad. He says when you talk about Pan-Africanism, you would see recurrent, competing approaches to race, to methodology, to process and then to geography.
“That is why for instance the question of race, some people when you say Pan- Africanism they think that it has to be about the black people. Some other people say white people and Asian Arabs can be part of the process. Some people say no.”
Pan-Africanism was changed in 1958, as it was no longer about black people but multi racial. He says his publication on the subject sort to rectify the historiography of Pan-Africanism and contribute to the expansion of the legacy of the first head of states, champion of the United States of Africa, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
“The African People’s Conference took place in Ghana in 1958, one year after the Independence of Ghana. In the beginning, it was a conference, but later it turned into an organisation. In 1960, the second iteration in Tunisia, the third one, 1961 in Egypt and now from the conference, a series of debates leading to a permanent organisation and a Pan- African movement.” he said to TheAfricanDream.co.
He outlined some Pan-African activities endorsed by the African Union of which includes the 9th African Congress in Togo in 2025, the conference of reparations in Accra in 2023 of which he attended.
“I was there in November, 2023 and South Africa has been leading since 2013, the agenda 2063 and then Algeria organized a conference for about the crimes of colonialism, so this is what we see and when they do their stuff and get money and power, they invite some intellectuals and sometimes we go there to have conversations with them“.
The level of the grass root initiatives endorsed by the African Union, not much is said about the magnificent of the All African peoples conference. No one even in Algeria the call for the country that led armed struggle. The struggle of Algeria was internationalized in 1958.
In an outline, Prof Lagoke defined how the African Union Day celebration was birthed and how the date for its celebration was changed from April 15th to May 25th.
“When the All African Peoples conference endorsed the idea of the Africa Day because the conference of independent African states was supposed to take place every two years but before they organized the 2nd conference of independent African states, the All African Peoples conference had already organized two iterations in 1958 and 1959, those who were involved in the conference were already organizing celebrations of the Africa Day in South Africa in Russia and in USA and then later on when the organization of the African unity was created, they changed the April 15th to May 25th, that we celebrate today”.
Touching on leaders who helped in the evolution of Pan-Africanism, he stated that W.E.B Dubious organized the first conference in 1900 and established the name Pan-Africanism. Emphasizing that Dubious was the first Black American to theorize about Pan-Africanism stressing that he held five Pan-African Congresses from 1919 to 1945.
Professor Lagoke says Marcus Garvey even though he did not use the word Pan- Africanism but because of the way he organized gatherings, he contributed to the turning point of Pan- Africanism to a mass movement. He further praised how Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’ first President worked with others like George Padmore and W.E.B Dubious to contribute their quota.
Source: TheAfricanDream.co
