A GNA Feature by Hafsa Obeng
Accra, Sept. 23, GNA – There are photographs of them on walls. Their names are engraved on monuments. Their words are quoted in lecture halls, conference rooms and commemorative programmes.
Every year, wreaths are laid, speeches are delivered, and their contributions are remembered. But beneath the ceremonies lies an uncomfortable question: What have Africans actually done with the ideas of the men they continue to honour?
For Mr Emmanuel Frimpong, a Tourism Consultant and Analyst, that question must no longer be avoided.
Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Dr W.E.B. DuBois and George Padmore were great Pan-Africanists whose ideas helped shape the struggle for African dignity, liberation, unity and self-determination.
Mr Frimpong believes Africa has spent enough time talking about its potential and must now begin turning the ideals of its greatest Pan-African thinkers into institutions, businesses, industries and opportunities.
“Remembering them is easy. Building is harder,” Mr Frimpong said.
He added: “Repeating famous quotations by them is easy. Organising memorial lectures for them is easy. Laying wreaths at their tombs is easy. The harder task is to act on the principles for which they lived.”
That distinction, he said, should become the starting point for a new conversation about Pan-Africanism.
He said Dr Nkrumah spoke of African unity, Dr DuBois devoted his intellectual life to African dignity and the fight against racial inequality, while Padmore committed himself to African liberation and political organisation.
But decades after their struggles, Africa must examine whether it had built the economic, intellectual and political systems capable of advancing those ideals.
The answer should not be found in another speech, but in what Africans were prepared to build.
For Mr Frimpong, Africa’s economic challenge could be seen in a simple contradiction.
The continent produces cocoa but imports chocolate. It exports minerals but imports manufactured products. It has enormous agricultural potential yet continues to import food. It possesses remarkable cultural and natural attractions but still struggles to retain the full economic value generated by tourism.
These contradictions, he said, pointed to a problem larger than trade statistics.
“They raise questions about how Africa organises and uses its resources,” he said.
“The Africa imagined by the Pan-Africanists was not one that merely asked the rest of the world for assistance. It was an Africa that understood its value and organised its political, economic, intellectual and cultural resources to serve its own interests,” he explained
Pan-Africanism must leave the conference hall
Mr Frimpong said Pan-Africanism should no longer remain primarily a philosophy celebrated at conferences but must become visible in the marketplace.
That, he said, meant making it easier for Africans to trade with one another, improving movement across borders, strengthening transport links, developing efficient African airlines, building financial institutions capable of financing African businesses and encouraging universities to collaborate across national boundaries.
“It also means African countries buying more from one another and tourism destinations marketing the continent collectively while competing intelligently for visitors,” he said.
“Pan-Africanism must move from the conference hall to the marketplace.”
He said the continent was home to historic sites, wildlife, beaches, festivals, creative traditions and diverse cultures, but the focus should increasingly shift from simply attracting visitors to building competitive African tourism businesses capable of retaining more of the value generated by tourism.
The next liberation
Mr Frimpong said Africa’s next liberation must have a strong economic dimension, noting that political independence without sufficient economic capacity could leave countries vulnerable.
He said Africans must build African capital capable of investing in Africa, develop African enterprises capable of creating millions of jobs and establish productive economies capable of financing the continent’s own development.
Young Africans deserve more than heroic stories
Perhaps the most urgent part of the conversation, he said, concerned Africa’s youth.
Mr Frimpong said young Africans could not continually be told stories about the greatness of Nkrumah, DuBois, Padmore and other African heroes while being denied the institutions and opportunities needed to translate those stories into reality.
He said young people needed quality education, industries, research opportunities, capital, technology and the freedom to travel, trade and collaborate across Africa.
They must be able to see African identity not only as something to celebrate, but also as an economic, cultural and intellectual asset.
“Our young people should not only know what Nkrumah said. They should have the opportunity to build what Nkrumah imagined,” he said.
Let every commemoration produce a result
Mr Frimpong believes Africa should also change how it measures commemorations and Pan-African gatherings.
He said every memorial lecture should produce an action plan, every conference should generate measurable commitments, and every celebration should establish clear targets against which progress could be assessed one year later.
He said celebrations of African unity should result in new African partnerships, while entrepreneurship initiatives should be measured by the number of businesses gaining access to capital.
Similarly, efforts to promote African trade should demonstrate increased intra-African trade, while tourism celebrations should lead to greater collaboration among destinations and the promotion of African tourism as a collective asset.
He added that celebrations of African knowledge should result in research partnerships and meaningful opportunities for young people to acquire skills and contribute to the continent’s development.
These, Mr Frimpong said, were the practical measures needed to transform commemoration from an annual ritual into measurable development.
The dream is now our responsibility
The generation of Nkrumah, DuBois and Padmore confronted colonialism with limited resources but enormous conviction.
Today, Mr Frimpong said, Africa had considerably more tools at its disposal. A young population, natural resources, universities, technology, entrepreneurs, creative industries, cultural diversity, a huge consumer market, the African Continental Free Trade Area and a global diaspora with capital, expertise and influence.
The challenge, therefore, was not simply Africa’s potential, but whether the continent could organise that potential into power, prosperity and progress.
He said Africa must continue to preserve the libraries, memorials, archives and historic sites of its Pan-African heroes, and children must continue to learn their stories.
But the greater tribute, would be to build the Africa they imagined.
“An Africa with strong businesses and industries, an Africa with research institutions influencing global knowledge, an Africa with competitive tourism and creative industries, an Africa whose universities and cities can create opportunities for its people, an Africa where young people do not have to leave the continent simply to find dignity and opportunity.”
Mr Frimpong said future commemorations should move beyond asking what Nkrumah would have said and instead focus on what he would have expected the present generation to do.
“The answer is clear: Africa must move beyond merely celebrating the Pan-African dream and take practical steps to build the Africa envisioned by its pioneers,” he said.
GNA
Feature Writer: Hafsa Obeng