Pan-Africanism or Pragmatism: Lessons of the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union (review)

With African politics focused on territorial nationalism for more than half a century, the pursuit of pan-Africanism is now firmly back on the drawing board, as shown in this work by Issa G. Shivji, a retired professor of law at the University of Dar es Salaam and one of the continent's leading social scientists. Using the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union as his point of departure, Shivji explores the lessons to be drawn from that case. Within the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union experiment he sees important contradictions which need to be accounted for in any proposed continentwide African union: nationalism versus Pan-Africanism; racial versus cultural nationalism; historical versus political identities; and diversities of race, religion, and culture versus their politicization and oppositions (leading to confrontation). These issues are still contested many decades after Ghana's independence and more than sixty years after the 1945 Pan-African Conference in Manchester. The six chapters of the book (excluding the conclusion) dissect the underlying forces that impede or enhance trajectories to pan-Africanism.

Clearly the continent is in turmoil. The visionary ideals of pan-Africanism are opposed by the forces of imperialism which continue to feed on Africa like vultures; power hungry elites thoughtlessly implement their patrons' military designs and economic schemes. Even Gaddafi's grand unitary plan for an "African Union" is opposed to Nkrumah's 1960s vision of a "United States of Africa." Certainly there is much to admire in the visionary ideals of the founding fathers of pan-Africanism, but there is also a need to examine critically the pragmatic reality of this noble goal of uniting the continent on a shared ideological platform. Perhaps the best model for negotiating the cultural, ethnic, and administrative diversities that separate the peoples of Africa is that of the European Union, which has managed to achieve political unification despite significant cultural, political, linguistic, religious, and economic differences among the member states.

Shivji's lucid presentation illustrates the similar drama preceding the Tanganyika-Zanzibar union. What emerges clearly from this book is that while from the 1930s through the 1960s pan-Africanism constituted the backbone of nationalism and inspired the anti-imperialist forces geared toward emancipation and systems of democratic governance, the cause has gradually adjusted to the objectives of nondemocratic power systems, moving away from anti-imperialism to embrace instead "globalization" and "neoliberal thinking"—the highest stage of scientific imperialism.

Pan-Africanism, Shivji asserts, died with Kwame Nkrumah, the continent's greatest crusader for African unity. After his removal from office (and from the African political scene), nobody took up the challenge again. As Nyerere noted on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of Ghana's independence, "We could have at least created a committee on the subject to keep alive the flame of Pan-Africanism." It is worth noting that Nkrumah's pan-Africanism represented a continental perspective generated within the Diaspora, while Nyerere's equally passionate advocacy for pan-Africanism derived from the perspective of territorial nationalism—hence his strong commitment to the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union.

Can Africa ever unite, or is this just a dream that will never lead to fruition? Can regional economic and political groupings constitute the basis for such a union? Shivji is not very clear on these questions, aside from his presentation of the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union as a model of pragmatic reality. Yet he has not given up: this is a stimulating, thought-provoking book that maps a new course for African integration and raises hopes about the possibility of African unity. As noted by Nyerere in 1963: "African nationalism is meaningless, is anachronistic, and is dangerous if it is not at the same time Pan-Africanism."

While Europe is moving toward unity, Africa is disintegrating. Shivji provides a fascinating account of how to strengthen the quest for pan...