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Prof Mathole Motshekga, the Director of Kara Heritage Institute, who is a member of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) Committee on Education, Culture, Heritage, and Tourism is spearheading the African History Month Colloquium to be held on the 7th of March 2023 in celebration of Ghana’s independence led by the late President Kwame Nkrumah.
Speaking to Spiked Online Media on the sidelines of the Committee Sittings of the PAP underway in Midrand, South Africa, Prof Motshekga said the focus will be on the regeneration of Africa and the formation of the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union. He reiterated that the focus will specifically be on the call of President Nkrumah to leaders of African national liberation movements to wage struggles for the liberation of their countries for the formation of the United States of Africa.
The formation of the African Union and the Pan-African Parliament is the realization of Kwame Nkrumah’s vision which brought the continent to where it is today.
“The primary objective of the Colloquium is to remind Africans, especially the youth, that Africa is the cradle of humanity and civilization and that the struggle of the African people was not only aimed at political liberation but also cultural, social, and economic emancipation.
“The cultural emancipation of the continent is a necessary precondition for nation-building and social cohesion and the basis for people-to-people relations on the continent,” Prof Motshekga said.
Sir Seretse Khama, the former President of Botswana, urged African people to write their history because people who don’t know their history and heritage are a nation without a soul. President Khama found support in the late President Nelson Mandela who said that the African arts, culture, and heritage are the mainstay of the African soul and its inherent ethical and moral values.
“We believe, therefore, that an annual celebration of African History Month on Ghana’s Independence Day will help Africans, especially, the youth, to reconnect with their African past and the struggles of the African people for freedom and independence and their responsibilities to realize the vision of the founders of African nation states which form the African Union,” Prof Motshekga added.
This inaugural Colloquium, which will be hosted by the Kara Institute in collaboration with UNESCO, the Pan-African Council, and the Pan-African People’s Institute, will become an annual event that will kick-start the rewriting of African history from pre-colonial times.