In my previous article entitled United Africa (1), I shed some light on the younger African generation—the Rising Sun Generation—who have massively flooded the streets of African cities, calling for a United Africa. They are being driven by the Pan-African spirit. Their chanting, songs, and ululations resonate and fill every corner of the Africa Continent. The Rising Sun Generation is not happy with the Sunset Generation because the latter doesn’t handle continental affairs the way the former wants. These overwhelming demonstrations, processions, and marches embody the anger and indignation of this younger generation. The African Rising Sun Generation is striving to rekindle the Pan-African spirit, which is on the brink of disappearing due to the complacency of present political leaders of Africa.
Pan-Africanism is the belief that African people, both on the continent and in the diaspora, share not merely a common history but a common destiny. It is a movement that aims to strengthen bonds of solidarity, economic cooperation, and political unity among all indigenous African peoples and the African diaspora. In a nutshell, the core idea is that people of African descent share a unified history, culture, and destiny, which requires collective action against inequality and colonialism. Pan-Africanism has many founding fathers, but W.E.B. Du Bois is widely regarded as the father of modern Pan-Africanism for his crucial role in organizing the first Pan-African Congress in 1919 and his long-term advocacy for African unity. At the international level, other key founding figures of the movement include W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963), Henry Sylvester Williams (1869–1911), Marcus Garvey (1887–1940), and Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832–1912), while at the Continent of Africa level, the founding fathers are many such as Dr. Kwame Kofi Nkrumah of Ghana (1909 – 1972), Haile Selassie of Ethiopia (1892 – 1975), Julius Nyerere of Tanzania (1922 – 1999), Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria (1904 – 1996), Patrice Lumumba of Congo (DRC) (1925 – 1961), Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt (1918 – 1970), Ben Bella of Algeria (1916 – 2012), Sekou Toure of Guinea (1922 -1984), Leopoid Senghor of Senegal (1906 – 2001), Apollo Milton Obote of Uganda (1925 – 2005), David Dacko of Central Africa (1930 – 2003), Modibo Keita of Mali (1915 – 1977), Malcom X (1925 – 1965), Martin Luther KingJr. (1929 – 1968), John Garang De Mabior (1945 – 2005), Nelson Mandela (1918 – 2013), and many others. Those were the leaders who established the basic foundation of the Pan-African Movement, whose torch is still alight and alive.
The African youth numbers are growing on the streets, their presence is expanding, and their voices are growing louder and louder on the streets each day. The godfathers of the Pan-African Movement would rest proudly in their graves, seeing their grandsons and granddaughters marching through the streets of African states. The good thing is that all of the African states’ flags are being displayed in the viral footage. On the other hand, all the other African leaders and presidents have been shown, except for our de facto president whose picture has never been shown up. I’m not sure if this is intentional or unintentional. Had the Sudanese Youth succeeded in their December revolt, they would have secured a better position in this event and fully participated alongside their African partners in ongoing Pan-African processions and marches They tirelessly chant one slogan: “One Blood, One Heart, One Land.” This strong slogan reflects the idea that we share the same womb, origin, and territory.
The message that the African youth want to communicate to the African people is that we are weak because we are disunited. Our unity is a prerequisite for our growth, development, and progress. This message was unequivocally championed by the Casablanca Group, which was spearheaded by Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. Nkrumah stated on multiple occasions that Africa must unite into one United Africa, complete with a single currency, army, flag, capital, and president. He said that if we do not unite, we will get nowhere and the colonial system will return to Africa. Conversely, the Monrovia Groufavoureded a gradual approach. While they supported African unity, they believed it should happen through a slow process. Later on, Julius Nyerere, who belonged to the Monrovia Group, confessed, apologized, and admitted that his group was wrong and that Kwame Nkrumah of the Casablanca Group was right. He fully supported Nkrumah and agreed that the Casablanca Group’s vision was right. He said, ‘If we do not unite now, we will perish.’
Making the continent of Africa into one United States of Africa is not an easy task. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but rather that it is highly improbable. Nevertheless, if there is a will on the part of the African leaders, there is a way. The current African presidents and political leaders are seen as largely ineffective, with a few notable exceptions. The current Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed Ali, is one such exception, as are President Duma Boko of Botswana, President Captain Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso, President General Assimi Goïta of Mali, President General Abdourahamane Tchiani of Niger, President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, and the late former President of Tanzania, John Magufuli, among a select few others. These are the kinds of leaders who can make the Pan-African vision a reality. Most African presidents and leaders lack the spirit of the founding fathers of the Pan-African Movement. They tend to pay lip service to the slogans and symbols of the Pan-African Movement. Pan-Africanism is easier said than done.
Sudanese youth are experiencing a critical and exceptional situation due to the ongoing brutal and nonsensical war which has, so far, hindered them from actively engaging in Pan-African interventions. Paradoxically, Sudan was one of the first African countries to gain political independence; nevertheless, it has made no significant contribution to African events. Sudan was designated by African leaders as the ‘Sick man of Africa’ due to its reluctance and blurred political stance in African political issues.
Africa is composed of 54 countries, 1.5 billion people, and over 3,000 distinct ethnic groups speaking more than 2,000 languages. Spanning a total area of 30.3 million square kilometers (11.7 million square miles), the continent features diverse climates, thousands of mountains, and vast mineral wealth, including petroleum, gold, uranium, and diamonds. Its hydrology comprises between 600 and 800 dams, hundreds of waterfalls, 677 lakes, and eight major river systems. These rivers include the Nile (the world’s longest at 6,650 km), the Congo (4,700 km), the Niger (4,140 km), the Zambezi (2,574 km), the Orange (2,200 km), the Senegal (1,790 km), the Limpopo (1,600 km), and the Okavango (1,600 km). Finally, the continent is bordered by two primary oceans—the Atlantic and Indian—and two major seas, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
Just imagine: God has endowed and blessed Africa with all this—a staggering amount of resources—yet plagued Africans with the most notorious and corrupt political leaders in the world in order to test them on how to manage such contradictions. The African youth flooded city streets to address this paradox. They simply call for one Pan-African flag (red, green, and black); one African nation; one president; one national constitution; one national anthem; one army; one police force; one currency; one central bank; one ambassador to the UN; one telephone code; one minister of foreign affairs; one minister of finance; one national football team; one national capital; one identity; one voice; one vision; one mission; one national strategic plan; one national project; one direction; and one North.
The African youth are striving to make Africa’s Agenda 2063 a reality. They want the seven Aspirations of Agenda 2063 to become true. They want the guns to be silenced. They want the ten flagship projects to be actualized. They want the Africa that responds to their interests and aspiration. They want African states that all pull in the same direction. The era of slavery has gone and decolonization has taken place; all African countries have achieved their respective political independence. While the old colonization system has disappeared, it is now appearing in a different form: imperial globalization, which is more dangerous and detrimental than before. Paradoxically, while African youth are chanting for unity, love, tolerance, peace, acceptance, and forgiveness, some Sudanese figures and sectors are chanting for disunity, a war of dignity, hate speech, the enforcement of the discriminatory and exclusionary “strange faces” law, and glory for the gun. While African youth are calling for a United Africa, some Sudanese figures and sectors are calling for a disunited, divided, and fragmented Sudan.
In a nutshell, Africa is weak politically; it is weak economically; it is weak militarily; technologically, it is weak; socially, it is disordered; and spiritually, it is confused. Can you imagine that the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the 54 African countries combined is 2.8 trillion dollars while the United States of America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 31.851 trillion dollars? “The Pan-African Movement is about converting Africa into the United States of Africa in order to make it one of the world’s superpowers. So please, you Sudanese people, if you do not want to participate in this historic event, keep silent and let the African youth do their business.
Please! Wake up. Wake up.
Mahjoub S. G.
Kampala, Uganda
May 18, 2026
