Pan-African Constructivism

For years I have sought to understand why, despite political independence, our continent remains a prisoner of the same chains. I listened, observed, studied. I plunged into our pre-colonial stories, in the narratives forged by the settlers, in the heroic struggles of our peoples, in the betrayals that followed, in the promises broken by our elites. And through these years of reflection, one certainty has emerged: our problem is not just political or economic. It is also moral and structural. Our societies, as they operate today, are built on foundations that we did not choose and that we kept reproducing, sometimes without even realizing it.

I have seen entire generations born into injustice, grow up in injustice, and learn to tolerate it as a fatality. I have seen people believe that poverty, corruption, dictatorship or dependence are natural curses, as if our destiny was written elsewhere. I have seen speeches claiming to liberate Africa while reproducing within our families, communities and institutions the same reports of domination that we are fighting outside.

It has taken me a long time, a long time, to understand that simply being Pan-Africanist is not enough. Pan-Africanism is a vast stream that carries multiple, sometimes contradictory voices. But my experience, research and struggles have led me to name the term that corresponds to my vision: constructivist pan-Africanism.

First of all, what is constructivism? Constructivism is primarily a stream of thought that crosses several disciplines: philosophy, social sciences, education, psychology, international relations.
This is not a political ideology in the strict sense, but rather a way to understand how our ideas, values and systems are formed.

Its core principle is that social reality is built by human beings. In other words, what we perceive as “normal”, “inevitable” or “natural” in society namely our institutions, laws, hierarchies, beliefs, etc. is not given by nature or an immutable truth but the result of collective creation, often shaped by history, culture and relationships of force.

This also means that none of this is frozen: what has been built can be deconstructed and rebuilt differently. In philosophy and sociology, this approach serves to analyze the invisible foundations of our societies. In politics, she reminds that current power structures are not eternal. In education, she emphasizes that knowledge itself is a construction of human experience and interaction.

Why do I twin constructivism and Pan-Africanism?

I find myself at the crossroads of constructivism and pan-Africanism because one gives me the method and the other gives me the mission.
Pan-Africanism sets the goal: unity, freedom, prosperity and sovereignty of the African people. Constructivism brings the walk: understanding that our political, economic, and cultural realities have been constructed; often against us and that we can build new ones, this time for ourselves and by us.

Resisting colonialism, neocolonialism and dictatorships is not enough if we leave inherited structures intact. We need to replace them with institutions, values and patterns forged from our realities, knowledge and aspirations.

Pan-African constructiveism is my response to the urgency of an Africa that must be liberated by building. As an activist, I have learned that resisting is vital, but that no lasting victory arises from a single opposition. I understood that freedom is not received: it is built and I think that our people already carry within them the intellectual, cultural and material resources to invent their own future.

Pan-African constructiveism is part of a simple principle: we must deconstruct the toxic legacies that chain us and build, in their place, institutions, values and models shaped by and for Africans.
This principle opposes deterministic visions that assign Africans supposedly “natural” or “cultural” limitations such as the idea that the African cannot govern democratically, prosper economically, or invent its own models.

As a pan Africanist, I refuse this fatalistic view. I believe that our African society can be re-imagined and reconstructed from our own values, our history and our collective creativity. The Pan-Africanism I advocate is not only about political liberation or economic sovereignty: it is also about the moral, ethical and citizen reconstruction of our nations, in order to build a free, just and united continent.

Pan-African constructiveism is both an outright rejection of fatalism and an absolute commitment to the total reconstruction of our societies.

The Moral Positioning

Our moral approach is based on the conviction that human dignity is non-negotiable. I believe that no political, economic or social project can be legitimate if it is based on the dehumanization, exploitation or exclusion of a part of the population.
Constructivism, applied to the moral level, means we have the responsibility to build common values that refuse to normalize injustice and violence, even when they are socially tolerated or historically inherited.

The Civic and Citizen Positioning
I stand for a civil republicanism, where every citizen is both a beneficiary and a guardian of collective liberty. Being constructivist in a civic sense is considering that active citizenship is not innate but is cultivated through education, participation and empowerment.
I believe that African society must be built on a redefining citizenship that integrates our participatory traditions while ensuring equal rights and duties.

The Ethical Positioning
Ethically, I am against all forms of domination, be it colonial, neocolonial or internal. Constructive ethics entails questioning our own practices to avoid reproduction, in our societies, the oppression schemes that we fight at the political level.
This means promoting transparency, justice, and coherence between speech and action, both in public institutions and private and community structures

I’ve seen too much effort get lost because of lack of consistent vision. Too many people free themselves from one chain to accept another. This is to break this cycle I carry and propagate this school of thought: to remind us that we have the power and duty to build, ourselves, the moral, civic, and ethical foundations of our future.

Pan-African constructivistism is not a theoretical ideal but a dynamic process based on four operational axes which are:

1. Moral and cultural reconstruction
2. Civic and institutional construction
3. Ethical Exemplary and Transparency
4. Unification and Sovereignty

Pan-African constructiveism is distinguished by:
His active view of social construction: Where other streams focus on political unity or cultural renaissance, constructivist Pan-Africanism insists on rebuilding moral and institutional foundations before the continental building.

His refusal to be determined: contrary to certain approaches that idealize the past or just replicate external models, he assumes that everything is perfect and adaptable to contemporary realities.

His centricity on the citizen: he does not place elites or states at the center, but communities, starting from the local to the mainland.

His ethical consistency: the struggle against external domination is only meaningful if it is accompanied by the struggle against internal oppression.

We inherit from our elders:
De Nkrumah: The vision of African political and economic unity as a condition for sovereignty.
De Sankara: moral integrity, the audacity to break up with external guardians, self-sufficiency as a strategic goal.
De Cabral: the importance of culture as a weapon of liberation and of the ideological struggle against fatalism.
De Fanon: the need to alienate our minds and break the internal reproduction of colonial systems.

How is our criticism different?

Because it is intersectional: we analyze domination as a system that acts at both political, economic, cultural, and psychological levels, and we attack all its dimensions simultaneously.

Because she is self-critical: we do not limit our denunciations to outside enemies, but we question our own practices, our own elites, and our own social habits.

And finally, it is methodical: our approach is not only militant or emotional; it is structured, with concrete steps, measurable and adaptable over time.

In the coming weeks and months, I will share in detail my view of constructivist pan-Africanism. It will be deep, dense work, but one I will strive to make clear and accessible. So I thank those who follow me, who read me and who accompany me on this journey.

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