Mothers of Pan-Africanism: Audley Moore and Dara Abubakari

Audley Moore and Dara Abubakari were lifelong theorists and activists who were committed to Pan-African organizing and black nation-building initiatives. Both born in Louisiana, Moore and Abubakari developed their political critique and honed their activism amid organizations like the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the Communist Party, and the Universal Association of Ethiopian Women during the first half of the twentieth century. In the 1960s and 1970s, Moore and Abubakari became leaders and mentors in organizations like the Republic of New Africa and the Revolutionary Action Movement, ensuring that their activism and Pan-African political vision influenced the next generation of activists. This article examines their activist lives and argues that they were key figures in sustaining and propelling Pan-African formulations and communities at the grassroots level. In excavating the histories and activism of these two understudied women, this article reshapes the political and intellectual trajectory of Pan-African organizing and specifies the ways in which African American women forged diasporic relationships and communities.