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The Pan-African movement is in utter disarray & independent Africa is suffering under neocolonial subservience to imperialism partly because of the limitations of bourgeois nationalist ideologies & strategies for decolonization. The historical movement of Pan-Africanism led by W. E. B. Du Bois & later by Kwame Nkrumah sought a unity imposed from above & not one emanating from a mass base. Consequently, the Pan-African movement remained abstract & ethereal, led by New World blacks alienated by Western racism, in search of privileges from colonial powers for "civilized" Africans only. The Pan-African conferences of the 20th century met in Western capitals & not clandestinely in Africa. Their participants bound themselves to pursue their goals by constitutional nonviolent methods in the face of imperialist aggression. Their adherents were largely the scattered intelligentsia & not the masses back in Africa. When the former colonies were granted independence, the bureaucratic-military machine of the colonial administration, & the econimic institutions of imperialist design were not dismantled, but merely transferred or inherited. The emerging authoritarian, exploitive, & elitist regimes adopted a series of contradictory political positions: anticommunism but antiimperialism; national liberation along with abstract nonviolence; & nonalignment yet economic development through foreign investment. Attempts at forging a union of African states were really efforts by neocolonial regimes to consolidate their power over the still exploited & demobilized masses. Genuine Pan-Africanism, as espoused by Franz Fanon & Amilcar Cabral, means the development of the national productive forces through socialist institutions by awakened workers & peasants. This requires the destruction of neocolonial structures, through armed struggle if necessary, by a truly internationalist movement that breaks the bonds of the village universe & tribalism & progressively integrates itself with other African & world revolutionary currents. A. Karmen.

The Routledge Handbook of Pan-Africanism provides an international, intersectional, and interdisciplinary overview of, and approach to, Pan-Africanism, making an invaluable contribution to the ongoing evolution of Pan-Africanism and demonstrating its continued significance in the 21st century. The handbook features expert introductions to, and critical explorations of, the most important historic and current subjects, theories, and controversies of Pan-Africanism and the evolution of black internationalism. Pan-Africanism is explored and critically engaged from different disciplinary points of view, emphasizing the multiplicity of perspectives and foregrounding an intersectional approach. The contributors provide erudite discussions of black internationalism, black feminism, African feminism, and queer Pan-Africanism alongside surveys of black nationalism, black consciousness, and Caribbean Pan-Africanism. Chapters on neo-colonialism, decolonization, and Africanization give way to chapters on African social movements, the African Union, and the African Renaissance. Pan-African aesthetics are probed via literature and music, illustrating the black internationalist impulse in myriad continental and diasporan artists' work.

Tribalism, no longer an obstacle to self-gov in Africa, is still an obstacle to nat'l unity. In Ghana, nat'l solidarity was built by eliminating effective opposition, & single mass parties have been established in other new nations. The Congo has been the scene of conflict & violence in which the divisive forces of tribalism have been most apparent. Nigeria has pursued a middle course of federation. The problem of developing a new sense of nat'l unity is being faced by other countries of Africa. Yet where tribalism is not exacerbated by open conflict (as in the Congo) it is being eroded by soc change. One can foresee that nat'lism may become the major obstacle to African unity. In fact, cultural & linguistic ties have been successfully exploited by nat'list leaders in promoting regional unity & in the drive for nat'l independence. In movements for tribal reunification (among the Chokwe, Ewe, & Somali) tribalism is the unifying factor while nat'lism is divisive. Colonialism created Africa's larger nations out of many tribal units, but it left a heritage of ethnic groups divided by nat'l boundaries & of tiny enclaves lacking the econ & demographic foundations for survival as independent nations. Regional federation offers a solution for both problems; it can also increase the stature of African nations, strengthen their economies, & increase the efficiency of their technical & soc services. The Mali Federation lasted only 2 months after independence, & that secession began within 2 weeks in the Congo, but the general pattern in Africa since independence has been federation rather than Balkanization. It is too soon to expect the achievement of a US of Africa. It would be sheer presumption to criticize Africa's leaders if they do not succeed, when neither Europe nor Latin America has united pol'ally, & while we are still unwilling for the US to surrender its sovereignty to a super-state. AA.