Without these African towns, the Pan-African dream would never have been born

Dar es Salaam. Photo: Wiki CC

Dar-es-Salaam

In 1974, the Pan African Congress was held in the former capital city of Tanzania.  It was the sixth congress, with the first ever such meeting held in Paris in 1919 organised by  W. E. B. Du Bois and Ida Gibbs Hunt.

RELATED STORIES

The day Africa almost became a united state

READ: Sekou Toure's iconic 1963 speech on Africa's endless possibilities as a united force

Remembering the first South African woman to graduate from a U.S university in 1896

How this 20-year-old woman became a symbol of French colonial resistance in Senegal

This was a significant meeting as it was the first of such meetings to be held on African soil.  One of the main issues discussed in this meeting was how to end economic exploitation and dependency on foreign aid.

We believe that the future of Africans lies in the fullest utilization of our human resources instead of continued dependency on loans and gifts from abroad …if we do not control the means of survival and protection in the context of the 20th century, we will continue to be colonized.” – Read part of the “Call” for a Sixth Pan African Congress.