Farrakhan and the United States of Africa


The speech given by Minister Louis Farrakhan on Saturday October 15, at the Millions More Movement's 10-year commemoration of the 1995 Million Man March ought to give more impetus to the push toward the African Rennaisance.

Grand in its design and ambitious in its scope, Minister Farrakhan's speech envisioned unity for not only the Black world, but the rest of the poor, marginalized world as well. Farrakhan called upon African leaders to speed up the formation of a United States of Africa, and for a similar vision for the Carribean.

The call for a United States for Africa is not new. There was an active buzz about the concept at the turn of the 21st century, pioneered by the Libyan president, Muamar Gaddafi. Gaddafi promoted the concept at international gatherings, and on tours he udnertook across the continent. Unfortunately, Gaddafi's call has been caught in a web of geopolitical and religious suspicion.

It should be easy to mobilize support for the concept, but some of the countries that could take the lead on the continent are caught up in local wrangling, some of it externally induced, which makes the topic of continental integration and global Black unity not much of a priority right now.

Minister Farrakhan needs to mobilize Black leadership in the US, some of whose voices were heard loud and clear at the Saturday commemoration, and begin working with African think tanks, universities, associations, civil society and grassroots movements, if the idea is to move forward.