Our generation is living through a seismic shift in the struggle for African liberation. We are witnessing the rise of a new revolutionary Pan-Africanism that challenges imperialism not just in words, but in action.
On one front, Captain Ibrahim Traoré stands as a living embodiment of our ancestors’ dreams. In the spirit of Kwame Nkrumah, he is leading Burkina Faso through a profound dialectical transformation – reclaiming land and resources, dismantling neo-colonial dependencies, and ensuring the wealth of the soil serves the people of Burkina Faso. It is a rupture with imperialism, a bold step toward a dignified and sovereign Africa.
And yet, on another front, some so-called African leaders continue to kneel before empire – flying to Washington to ink exploitative mineral deals, standing silently while Trump spreads lies about “white genocide” with images stolen from the massacres in Congo. Their silence is betrayal; their complicity is violence.
So, what should guide us today?
For millions, our compass is clear: Revolutionary Pan-Africanism.
Millions of Africans are finding renewed hope in the resistance unfolding in Sahelian lands. What Captain Traoré demonstrates is not symbolic. It is a real-time lesson in self-determination. It shows us that when we sever the chains of colonial dependency, we unlock the true potential of our people.
We must reclaim African Liberation Day, not as a ritualized ceremony, but as a militant call to complete the work left unfinished. Our foremothers and forefathers wrestled political independence from colonial hands. It is now upon us to secure our economic sovereignty, our intellectual freedom, our ecological balance, and our collective power.
Our chains can be broken, but only if we recognize them. Only if we confront them. And only if we organize to dismantle them.
Our compass remains rooted in the enduring legacy of Pan-Africanism. Without Kwame Nkrumah, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Sékou Touré, Amílcar Cabral, Patrice Lumumba, Andrée Blouin, and the great Pan-African networks they built, there would have been no 1960 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, no wave of independence, no hope of unity.
Now is the time to revive Pan-Africanism of the peoples – revolutionary, grassroots, anti-imperialist. A Pan-Africanism that centers the liberation of the most dispossessed. A Pan-Africanism that links the Sahel to the Congo, Palestine to Haiti, and Accra to Khartoum in a common struggle against capitalist plunder.
Happy African Liberation Day!
Forward to a united, liberated Africa under scientific socialism!
Forward to dignity, sovereignty, and people’s power!
Kambale Musavuli, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is a leading political and cultural Congolese voice. Based in Accra, Ghana, he is a policy analyst with the Center for Research on the Congo-Kinshasa.
