Global Africa: The emergence and evolution of an idea

This article offers some chronological contours of the global Africa idea - the idea that Africans and people of African descent worldwide share common historical experiences, notably slavery, colonialism, and racial oppression and that they should, therefore, unite on the basis of these commonalities to effect their mutual liberation. Temporally, the global Africa idea is divided into four periods: the first from the 1770's to 1900; the second from 1900 to 1945; the third from 1945 to 1963; and the fourth from 1963 to the present. The global Africa idea emerged in the late-eighteenth century, in the era of abolitionism and of the U.S., French, and Haitian revolutions, which events are collectively called the quadripartite revolution. The global Africa idea, then, originated in the African diaspora on the west bank of the Atlantic Ocean (the Americas and western Europe), as opposed to the east bank of the Atlantic (Asia), or on the African continent itself. In its second, third, and fourth moments, the global Africa idea spread from its base on the west bank of the Atlantic to the African continent and dispersed Black communities in Asia and the Pacific.