Pan-Africanism: An idea whose time has come

The article argues for relaunching the debate on Pan-African unity to recapture the lost ground and make good the opportunity cost incurred by Africa in choosing the minimalist aims of settling for fragile and weak states with an equally enfeebled Organisation of African Unity. The construction of a Pan-African identity through the development of a shared goal and social and historical experience of struggling to lifting up Africa from its untenable status as a marginal, oppressed and largely written-off continent is a timely undertaking as an alternative to ethnic involution, social decay and fragmentation.