A study of pan-African ideas of a collective identity in Africa

Abstract: The intention of this paper has been to look at how pan-African ideas about a common identity hav e been expressed and developed on the African continent since the period of decolonisation in the 1960s. By using social constructivist identity-theory I have looked at how identity can be constructed by the use of myths, stories, symbols and ‘othering’. Thereafter I used these ideas when analysing different official documents from pan-African movements such as the creation of the AU and its constitutive act to identify what tools that were used to construct a common African identity. Thereby I was also to see if there had been any change in how pan-African ideas have expressed African identity over time.