Youth key to keeping Pan Africanism relevant

Lee Mwiti, Deputy Editor of Mail & Guardian Africa, was a panellist at the recent Building Bridges seminar on Pan Africanism, held in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. He argues that engaging with young Africans is essential for the ideas of Pan Africanism to stay relevant. 

Participants from across west Africa attended the two-day workshop on Culture, History and Ideas: Re-evaluating Pan-Africanism. The forum was co-hosted with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). 

The Dakar meeting was part of a series of discussions on the theme of African economic integration, facilitated by the Building Bridges programme. The next event is in the Zambian capital Lusaka in November, with the theme “Accounting for Regional Integration: Evidence and Accountability” and will be held in partnership with the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa (UNECA).