Windhoek
The newly launched Pan-African Institute for the Study of African Society (PAISAS) has appealed for funding, as well as material and moral support to enable it to push the Pan-African agenda forward.
PAISAS was launched on Wednesday last week and intends to focus on the conserving the history, languages, politics, leadership, economy and traditional knowledge systems of the African continent.
Speaking at the launch, PAISAS chairperson Nahas Angula appealed for financial support and invited researchers to join the pan-African initiative to tell the African story.
The former prime minister said PAISAS would make Pan-African literature accessible to the general public and is planning to establish a Pan-African Documentation Centre, which will serve as a repository of Pan-African literature and documents.
“We believe that the centre is critical to moulding a Pan-African worldview, especially among the youth and students,” he said.“Our youth and students must acquire a Pan-African vision if they are going to promote African emancipation, transformation and progress,” Angula added.
He said the newly formed body holds that public education on Pan-African issues and challenges is critical if African societies are to transform into vibrant, democratic and progressive societies. “Africa cannot continue to be marginalised in international affairs. Africa must rise,” he added.
Quoting the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, he said: “We, in Africa, who are pressing now for unity are deeply conscious of the validity of our purpose. We need the strength of not returning to colonialism in disguised form. We need to combat the entrenched forces dividing our continent still holding back billions of our brothers.
“We need to secure Africa’s total liberation. We need to carry forward our construction of a socio-economic system that will support the great mass of our steady rising population at levels of life, which will compare with those in the most advanced countries. ”Angula said this still remains the mission of true Pan-Africanism.
He said his generation should build strong African foundations on which the future generations shall be able to transform the African condition.