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Home • Entertainment

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience

Here are a dozen books to add to your summer reading list to reflect on the pan-African experience
By Crystal Tate · Updated October 26, 2020
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Whether you’re a Black American or from a country in Africa, pan-Africanism seeks to unite all people of African descent who often have common interests with the ultimate goal of making economic, social and political progress. If you’re looking for a book to reflect on the pan-African experience this summer, look no further than this list of our top picks to bookmark.

01
The Mis-Education of the Negro

In 1993, Dr. Carter G. Woodson wrote The Mis-Education of the Negro, which was a reference that Blacks were being culturally conditioned in American schools, which caused many to become dependent. Dr. Woodson challenged readers to become self-taught and independent, which is why this book is a must-read to reflect on the pan-African experience.

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
available at amazon $10 shop
02
Americanah

Many of us were introduced to Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie when an excerpt from her TED Talk “We Should All Be Feminists” was sampled on Beyoncé’s song, “***Flawless.” In Adichie’s bestselling book Americanah, she explores race and identity in a fictional love story where the Nigerian female character heads to America and is forced to deal with being Black for the first time.

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience
Anchor
available at amazon $10 shop
03
The Destruction of Black Civilization

Author Chancellor Williams spent over a decade and a half doing research for The Destruction of Black Civilization. Williams wrote the book as a reinterpretation of the history of the African race, and to highlight elements that led to the destruction of Black civilization. Released in 1992, the book was inspired by the Black revolution of the 1970s.

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience
Third World Press
available at amazon $12 shop
04
The New Jim Crow

Despite the progress made by Blacks since the Civil Rights movement, Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow explores the rebirth of a new caste system a.k.a. mass incarceration in America, and how the U.S. criminal justice system is a new system of racial control. This New York Times bestseller will open your eyes like never before.

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience
The New Press
available at amazon $10 – $15 shop
05
Black Power: The Politics of Liberation by Kwame Ture & Charles V. Hamilton

Originally published in 1967, Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmicheal who was a self-described pan-Africanist who coined the phrase “Black Power”, wrote Black Power along with Charles V. Hamilton. This book explores systemic racism in America, and how Black unity can bring about social change and reform.

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience
Vintage
available at amazon $14 shop
06
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley

Between 1963 and right before Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965, journalist Alex Haley did numerous in-depth interviews with the human rights activist, which led to him co-authoring The Autobiography of Malcolm X. This autobiography explores Malcolm X’s life and his philosophy on Black pride and pan-Africanism as well as the African American struggle for social and economic equality.

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience
Ballantine Books
available at amazon $6 shop
07
Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey by Colin Grant

Colin Grant explored Black activist Marcus Garvey’s life in the biography Negro with a Hat. The Jamaica-born Garvey, who led the 1920s Back to Africa movement, moved to Harlem where he developed a following. Despite Garvey’s eventual downfall, Grant shares Garvey’s revolutionary thinking that can certainly inspire many.

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience
Oxford University Press
available at amazon $15 shop
08
PowerNomics: The National Plan To Empower America by Dr. Claud Anderson

With his 2001 book PowerNomics, Dr. Claud Anderson had a mission in mind: to encourage Black America to become a prosperous and empowered group in five years. By offering new principles and strategies for Blacks to become self-sufficient, Dr. Anderson sought to eliminate history’s effect on issues in the Black community.

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience
PowerNomics Corporation of America, Inc
available at amazon $25 – $89 shop
09
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

In 1958, Nigerian author Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart, a fictional novel that explores an Igbo leader during pre and post-colonial life in Nigeria. The book, which is widely read in schools throughout Africa, should definitely be added to your reading list.

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience
Penguin Books
available at amazon $8 – $15 shop
10
Blueprint for Black Power: A Moral, Political and Economic Imperative for the Twenty First Century by Amos N. Wilson

Amos N. Wilson’s Blueprint for Black Power discusses how White and Asian power is king, and how if Blacks began supporting solely Black businesses, they could deconstruct the elite U.S. power structure. This book serves as a master plan for a Black power revolution in the 21st century.

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience
Afrikan World Infosystems
available at amazon $50 shop
11
Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust: Slavery and the Rise of European Capitalism by Dr. John Henrik Clarke

Dr. John Henrik Clarke penned Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust to explore the true story of African history that’s often falsified and compares the Middle Passage to the Holocaust. Dr Clarke wrote, “It is our holocaust because this is a holocaust that started 500 years ago and it is not over.”

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience
A & B Book Dist Inc
available at amazon $9 shop
12
Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon

In 1952, French psychiatrist Frantz Fanon wrote Black Skin, White Masks, which initially remained obscure. In the book, Fanon explored the psychology of racism. He also used psychoanalysis to explain the feelings of dependency that Blacks experience in a White world, and how losing one’s native cultural origin can cause one to wear the “white mask,” or imitate the culture of the colonizer.

12 Books To Reflect on the Pan-African Experience
Grove Press
available at amazon $12 shop
TOPICS:  Book Books