“Seek ye epistemic freedom first”: Chinweizu, Pan-Africanism, and the foundations of African sovereignty

The continued peripheralisation and exploitation of Africa in the unquietness of great power rivalry is both alarming and worrisome. This reflects the combined and ongoing effect of Western imperialism, enslavement, colonisation, globalisation, and the lopsided integration of the continent into global capitalist political-economic structure, and invites a critical interrogation of Africa’s agency albeit claims of independence and sovereignty. Both the postcolonial states in Africa and people of African descent across the world continue to oscillate within these challenges, reminiscing the imperative of Pan-Africanism as a praxis for African autonomy. While the former almost always act in the interest of its erstwhile colonisers, the latter – particularly the elites – have betrayed the trust and thrust of political independence due largely to coloniality of the mind (or epistemic dependence). The urgent question is: can Africa be sovereign without first being culturally and epistemically sovereign? This paper delves into the dynamics of Pan-Africanism, which birthed decolonisation1 and necessitating its continuation. Specifically, the paper examines Chinweizu’s corpus as exemplar of Pan-Africanism as praxis i.e. epistemic sovereignty and activism, and situates him as a Black-African (sub-Saharan) rather than continental Pan-Africanist, as invaluable to decolonisation2 to address contemporary global disorder.