The Pan-African Review is a platform for the African community. It is one among many tools for preserving the dignity of Africans and asserting that the African way of life is valid despite the assaults on it led by those that seek to discredit it by suggesting that the best thing that can happen to Africans is to be transformed into the image of others.
Since we are convinced that preserving the African way of life is a worthwhile endeavour, the challenge to overcome centuries of its distortion is a gradual process that cannot be achieved in one generation. As an inter-generational struggle, therefore, the agenda is a relay rather than a sprint. This doesn’t mean a dereliction of duty in terms of the sense of urgency required. However, it is the recognition of the complexity of the challenge before us: reclaiming our identity and sense of self-worth.
In light of this inter-generational responsibility, The Pan-African Review has established a mentorship programme for young people seeking to grow in clarity and consciousness in order to make a meaningful contribution to the quest to preserve the dignity of Africa(ns).
Young people bring passion, commitment and drive, and, in turn, they get empowered with the command of the tools they need for the struggle. They set alight the candle that’s already within them for the struggle: knowledge and its expression.
A Gambian professor from the long tradition of the griots once told a young African student that, as a teacher, he owed his students three things: provide them with a database of information, sharpen their analytical capacity, and teach them how to write.
The Pan-African Review will carry forward this tradition by mentoring young people in how to carry out research, question assumptions, and express their consciousness in writing.
Ultimately our aim is to awaken and channel that great ancestral spirit of resistance within every African and, together, to imagine and aspire for a life of dignity for all Africans.
