As East Africa gears up for the ‘revival’ of the Pan-African spirit, we may want to stop and reflect beyond the pomp, animated speeches, slogans and the accompanying hype.

Kigali last Saturday, on August 8, witnessed the launch of the Pan-African Movement Rwanda (PAM-Rwanda), while Kenya will be hosting a similar event for the Eastern African region later this week.

But, inspiring and energising as this may be, a minute of reflection is in order here.

Recently, as we came out of the weekly Thursday Mass at Centre Christus in Kigali, dedicated to praying for peace in Burundi, one white guy whose identity and nationality I could not readily establish was astonished to see ‘posh cars’ owned by the refugees who had come to pray for their motherland.

‘This is the second poorest country in the world, but there are Burundians richer than millions of Americans, the world’s super-power’. I overheard the remark as I hurried to catch up with my colleagues, but on reflection later, I linked his remark to the Ngugi-Mazrui dichotomy world view.

Kenyan Professor Ali Mazrui (RIP), the modern-day Marcus Garvey or Du Bois, in all his works, analysed global dynamics through the lenses of the race. Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the celebrated Kenyan writer, on the other hand, advances the class argument.

To him, this is what cuts across races and colour: the world has two races: the race of the Haves, and the race of the Have-nots. During his latest visit to Kenya to celebrate fifty years of his writing life, he argued that ‘...for every skyscraper, I see countless shanties....for every Lavington, I see a Kibera, a Mathare’... And this cuts across the globe.

It rhymes with the Marxist proletariat school, which calls for the emancipation of the proletariat, globally. A poor, homeless, health-less, education-less White American roaming the streets and sleeping under bridges in Washington D C, ( the seat of world-power) , is in worse a situation than a peasant in Cibitoke, rural Burundi.

A Burundian bourgeoisie in Mutanga-Nord, an upper-class suburb of Bujumbura, the capital of the ‘second poorest’ economy on earth, leads a life comparable to that of a Wall Street magnate in the USA.

Which school then better defines global dynamics and the way to liberation? Pan-Africanism or Prolintern (Proletariat International)? Are Africans oppressed as a race or a class?

The racial argument, of course, is the pet-subject of many among our leaders (usually reduced to the tribe), because it appeals to emotions, but we need to appeal to the rational component of our being.

When turmoil strikes, ‘opposition’ leaders from Africa get red-carpet reception and protection in Western capitals as asylum-seekers, yet when poverty bites, desperate youth seeking menial jobs in Europe die on high seas.

The last time I checked, the Ugandan press was reporting about thousands of Ugandans facing deportation from UK, yet none of these is from the ‘political asylum’ seekers’ class...all are economic refugees, thus the class question.

True, it’s great and energising to uphold the values of Pan-Africanism, but we must push it to total economic emancipation. Let us build on Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s foundation.

Beyond the race, his school and ideology is Ujamaa, inspired by the Ubuntu/Obuntu philosophy.

How do we build an egalitarian society, which guarantees each one of us a dignified, meaning human life?

Limiting the whole notion to the emotional level will leave us more vulnerable, with nothing beyond lamentation. It is time for action. And the starting point is the economy.

A continent that cannot even have 20 per cent of intra-continental trade needs to rethink the whole strategy.

The writer is a partner at Peers Consult Kampala and CET Consulting, Kigali.

Email: bukanga@yahoo.com