Pan-Africanism Reimagined

From Rhetorical Unity to Institutional Federation

Abstract

This article revisits my earlier programmatic work Pan-Africanism Reimagined (2010) in light of a decade of political stagnation and digital recolonisation. I argue that the traditional discourse of “African unity” has functioned largely as a sentimental alibi: it has masked the absence of enforceable federative mechanisms. Building on my previous institutions clinical diagnosis of imperial behaviour (The Dark Tetrad Traits of Empire, 2014) and the psycho-historical case study of From Mvemba Nzinga to Modern Puppets (2016), I propose a shift from rhetorical Pan-Africanism to a federative engineering paradigm. The article outlines a modular architecture of Pan-African institutions (family, education, currency, research, cyber risk, health) that can be prototyped by coalitions of willing states or non-governmental organisations, to promote continental adoption. Methodology: I combine psycho-political analysis, institutional design and scenario modelling, propose predictive tools and low-cost interventions.

I show how script and language – in this instance Mandombe and Kikongo – provide a cognitive grammar for such federative engineering.

Conclusion: The eveidence and analysed corpus show that without binding, testable protocols of cooperation, Pan-Africanism will remain an attractive myth that stabilises the very imperial order it claims to negate.