The History Of African Liberation Day
On April 15, 1958, in
the city of Accra Ghana, African leaders and political activists gathered at the
first Conference of Independent African States.
It was attended by representatives of the governments of Ethiopia, Ghana,
Liberia, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, The United Arab Republic (which was the
federation of Egypt and Syria) and representatives of the National Liberation
Front of Algeria and the Union of Cameroonian Peoples.
This conference was significant in that it represented the first
Pan-African Conference held on African soil.
It was also significant in that it represented the collective expression
of African People’s disgust with the system of colonialism and imperialism,
which brought so much suffering to African People.
Further, it represented the collective will to see the system of
colonialism permanently done away with.
500 years of the most brutal suffering known to humanity, the rape of Africa and
the subsequent slave trade, which cost Africa in excess of 100,000,000 of her
children, the masses of African People singularly, separately, individually, in
small disconnected groupings for centuries had said, “enough”!
But in 1958, at the Accra Conference, it was being said in ways that
emphasized joint, coordinated and unified action.
conference gave sharp clarity and definition to Pan-Africanism, the total
liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism. The
conference as well laid the foundation and the strategy for the further
intensification and coordination of the next stage of the African Revolution,
for the liberation of the rest of Africa, and eventual and complete unification.
Conference called for the founding of African Freedom Day, a day to, “mark
each year the onward progress of the liberation movement, and to symbolize the
determination of the People of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination
years later after the First Conference of Independent African States in the city
of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia another historical meeting occurred.
On May 25, 1963, leaders of thirty-two independent African States met to
form the Organization of African Unity (OAU).
By then more than two thirds of the continent had achieved independence
from colonial rule. At this
historic meeting the date of Africa Freedom Day was changed from April 15th
to May 25th and Africa Freedom Day was declared African Liberation
Day (ALD). African Liberation Day
has been held on May 25th in every corner of the world since.
Liberation Day as an institution within the Pan-African movement reflects the
growth and development of Pan-Africanism. When
Pan-Africanism was faced with fighting colonialism, the focus of African
Liberation Day was on the anti-colonial struggle and the fight for national
independence. As Pan-Africanism
grew stronger and developed into a more mature objective, African Liberation Day
activities reflected this maturation.
Liberation Day has contributed to the struggle to raise the level of political
awareness and organization in African communities worldwide.
It has further been used as a tool to provide a platform for many African
and other oppressed peoples to inform the African masses about their respective
struggles for true liberation and development.
Particularly for Southern Africa, African Liberation Day played a
critical role in the defeat of colonialism and apartheid.
It inspired others to support through various progressive organizations,
liberation committees and movements both in Africa and the socialist countries
around the world, the building of anti-colonial and national liberation
movements by generating arms for the freedom fighters, offering a platform where
the world could receive political education on the nature of the struggle, and
providing a mass assembly where the spirit and moral of the freedom fighters
could be reinvigorated.
Liberation Day has helped to expose U.S. led imperialism, Zionism and
colonialism as enemies of Africa. Imperialists
for decades have attempted to distance African Liberation Day (and the African
Revolution in general) from the struggle for socialism.
Remember that it was, and is, capitalist Europe, and not the Soviet
Union, Cuba, North Korea, China or Vietnam which occupied, colonized and
exploited Africa. Several states in
Africa today stand independent because of military and other assistance from
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