Pan-Africanism

Jason Richard Boley, Jr.

Separation is a result of sin. Our sin caused the separation between humankind and God. Thankfully Jesus came so we no longer are separated from God. Sin is also the cause of separation between humankind. But thankfully there have been people in history and modern times fighting for unity. 

We see this in African and more specifically Ghana history. 

This is due to the Pan-Africanism movements. Pan-Africanism, the term that describes various movements in Africa that have the common goal  of bringing unity among Africans and the elimination of colonialism.

Funny enough I just turned in an assignment for my summer college class where I mentioned one of my favorite subjects was History. So thankfully today we learned about a lot of African history. 

Also in my Historical Theology II class we talked a lot about colonialism. In that class we talked about it occurring mainly due to religious reasons, but I now know that colonialism has been around for various reasons including religious, political, etc.

Ephesians 4:1-6 reads, 

1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.  Verse about unity 

Today we learned about this fight for unity in African history. 

Some key figures in the Pan-Africanism movement we learned about include W. E. B. Du Bois and the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah.

This educational journey had started when we left the hotel and went to pick up Benny who would be our tour guide for the day. He first introduced himself to us and we then introduced ourselves to him. As we drove he pointed out and told us about various things. 

We then arrived at our first destination, the W.E.B. DuBois Centre in Accra. This happened to be the home of W.E.B. DuBois when he came to Ghana with his wife. We learned the reason he came to Ghana was to help with writing The Encyclopedia Africana Dictionary of African Biography: Ethiopia-Ghana. We also learned various other things about him such as his family tree all thanks to our W.E.B. DuBois Centre tour Guide, Naa. Most importantly we learned he was a Pan-Africanist which’s means he was one of many who fought for unity and Independence for the African people. 

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was another key figure in the Pan-African movements. He was the first president of Ghana. To learn more about him we then visited the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park & Mausoleum. At the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park & Mausoleum we were led by our tour guide Muhammad. We learned he gave a speech in front of a bunch of others declaring Ghana’s independence.

The Bible calls for unity which is what Pan-Africans stand for.

Jesus died so that we can all be united in Him. So all of the believers of Christ are united in Christ! Are you United in Christ? To do this believe in the gospel (the good news) which is the fact that God sent his one son Jesus to come to earth To live a perfect sinless life, to die the death we deserve, and rise from the dead so that those who believe can be United with God and other believers!

We then went to lunch at Rice Xpress which was really good! 

After lunch we went shopping at the cultural markets which was fun and we bought a lot of stuff! It started raining pretty hard while we were there which was fun.

After the marker we then all loaded the bus and came back to the hotel. 

Overall, I found this day to be important because how can we serve Jesus if we don’t know Him? 

Well, how can we serve the Ghanaian People if we do not know about them?

It was an educational day as we learned about the history and culture of Ghana, Africa!