The Pan Africa Diaspora Union (PADU) was largely conceived as a result of discussions that were held between several Pan-Afrikan organizations with a plan of creating an official Cooperative Agreement between them to work together on common issues. This is consistent with the conviction many of us share that if People of Afrikan Descent are to achieve the objectives of freedom, self-determination and prosperity, we will have to unite as Black People and work together to achieve goals common to all of us.
“Unity Without Uniformity”
While our many and varied organizations do share the common goal of Pan-Afrikan freedom, sovereignty and uplift, we do not all adhere to the same strategic plan. Our organizations run the gamut of pursuing economic, cultural, spiritual, political, social, scientific and revolutionary goals, and not all organizations share the same level of willingness to interact with political parties, social classes or international organizations such as the United Nations and African Union. Thus, it would be impractical for all of these different organizations to consolidate by joining together under one organizational banner. Each group must pursue its own agenda in its own way. But that does not mean that their various plans and agendas cannot complement, support and reinforce each other. This concept of “Unity Without Uniformity” has been espoused in religious circles as well as in revolutionary organizing.
SRDC and the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) have maintained a relationship based on friendship and cooperation for the duration of the administration of BaBa Senghor Baye when he was UNIA-ACL’s President-General. He and SRDC’s International Facilitator, Professor David Horne, himself a member of UNIA-ACL, have been good friends for years, which made the establishment of an organizational coalition a logical advancement of their personal friendship.
On April 4, 2008, a meeting was held at the John Henrik Clarke House in New York City between members of the SRDC National Secretariat and several leaders of the World African Diaspora Union (WADU). The idea was to come to an agreement in which SRDC and WADU would work together on shared objectives and strengthen each other as we seek the uplift of Afrikan People. WADU’s President, Ambassador Dudley Thompson, and Professor Horne were longtime friends and wished for the two organizations to work together in a more cooperative manner. This meeting led to another gathering at the WADU Summit in July 2009, where the two organizations again sat down together and worked out the rough outlines of a new “Super-Coalition” (as WADU and SRDC were themselves already coalition-based organizations). After much debate, a name for that “Super-Coalition” was agreed upon: the Pan African Diaspora Union, or PADU. Some members of both organizations had issues with the name, because it bore such a close resemblance to WADU’s acronym, but the name stuck and the name PADU became synonymous with the effort at a “Super-Coalition” even after WADU itself withdrew from the project.
PADU held several organizational meetings and retreats over the next several years, including a Retreat at the Noah’s Arc Medissage Center in North Carolina in February 2011 (which drew representatives from UNIA-ACL, AUADS-Europe, MIR-Guadeloupe, African Unity of Harlem, A-APRP, SRDC and others) and a meeting with the then-African Union Ambassador, Madame Amina Salum Ali, in Potomac, Maryland in December 2011 (attended by most of the above organizations as well as Foundation for Democracy in Africa, WADU and several Washington, DC-area Pan-Afrikan activists).
The following was the PADU Draft Strategic Plan as it was formulated after the February 2011 Retreat:
PADU DRAFT STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN (2011)
PADU (Pan African Diaspora Union) is a partnership-based organization of organizations. SRDC International (1), one PADU group, initiated the drive to provide a conducive environment for unifying African descendant groups which are working in a positive manner to help establish the United States of Africa/Union of African States, and through that environment of ‘unity without uniformity,’ established a base of 14 pioneer partnership organizations. (2)
The primary mission of PADU is to help organize the African Diaspora, educate the African descendant masses about the importance of African re-engagement, do its part to help achieve a representative voice for the African Diaspora in the African Union and help achieve the United States of Africa/Union of African States.
In order to accomplish that mission, PADU is in the process of gradually expanding its original 14 partnered African descendant groups to 100 or more. PADU will bring in partner organizations from throughout the African Diaspora based both on the definition of the Diaspora by the African Union and a PADU working definition (3) fashioned from real world experiences. PADU will establish a broad compilation of database information of African descendant geographical information, skills, manufacturing acumen, business expertise, media talent and other training in order to develop a network of African descendants who can and do help African descendants. PADU will develop, help distribute and support educational and training activities throughout the Diaspora that will advance the idea of Africa and African descendants as valuable, indispensable contributors to humankind’s advancement. PADU will promote 21st century cultural advancements and serious cross-ethnic dialogue inside and outside of the African Diaspora. PADU will establish and operate an international diplomatic mission to CARICOM and other similar entities. (4) PADU will organize and develop African descendant financial, political and social-cultural institutions that will assist in unifying Africa and clarifying the African Diaspora’s participation in that process. PADU will help develop and assist in leading the 6th Region in the formation of a credible, legitimate, effective and influential 6th Region Economic Community which will positively compare to Africa’s other Regional Economic Communities. PADU will help to achieve dual citizenship for African Diasporans as an option. PADU will establish a language bank
20 Major PADU Initiatives Which Reflect This Organizing Vision
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- Development of a Set of Publications and Media Products Which Provide Detailed Information for the African Diaspora on How to Successfully Do Business in Africa
- The Development of an African Diaspora Credit Union, a Pan African Banking and Finance Entity, and Pan African Business and Trade Institution, etc.
- The Development of a General African Diaspora Media and Communications Entity Which Creates a Global Communications Networking System
- The Development of a Pan African Diplomatic Corps Capable of Consistent international Engagement
- The Creation and Maintenance of a Specific, Detailed African Diaspora Skills Databank, including Scientists, Engineers, Architects, Builders and Other Essential Personnel
- The Creation of a Pan African Economic Investment and Development Fund to Coordinate Global Nation-Building and Project Development
- The Creation of a Research and Analysis Entity to Explore and Report on How the Various Projects Are Going, and on What Lessons can be Learned From the Current African Regional Economic Communities.
- A Reference Body Which Will Annually Compile Announcements and Profiles on the Various African Development projects
- An African Union Commission That Specifically Deals With All Things African Union (Getting into ECOSOCC, PAP, etc.)
- A Global Education Commission That Develops and Implements Real 21st Century Pan African Education Everywhere Possible
- A Global Marketing and Public Relations PADU Commission to Publicize PADU Initiatives and Combat Negative Media Attacks
- A PADU Global Youth Commission to Provide a Reference Point and Recruitment Apparatus for Youth Success in Pan African Activities
- A Pan African Women’s Leadership Training Institute or Commission
- A Global Sixth Region Events Coordination Body
- A PADU Speaker’s Bureau and Public Presentation Entity
- Creation and Development of an Emergency Training, Response, Relief and Resiliency Corps
- Creation and Development of a Pan African Art and Culture Institute
- Creation of a PADU Business, Banking, Finance and Economic Team
- Establishment of a PADU Permanent Secretariat with a Physical Headquarters Facility
- Immediate Establishment of a PADU Budget and Economic Plan
- Implement the Effort to Obtain Dual Citizenship for African Descendants
1 Those 14 members each signed MOUs to join PADU and have since added 3 new members. Each member organization has one vote on all issues. New member organizations must be sponsored by an existing member organization and voted on by a majority of other members. Each member’s currency is to be renewed every three years by a request to remain in PADU and an affirmative vote by a majority of PADU members. Meetings of PADU, usually once a year, will be conducted through African Consensus, based on mutual respect and the equality of each member. In only extraordinary circumstances of any member conducting itself in anti-African activities will the full PADU membership consider expelling that organization. The process will involve a meeting of the affected member group and the full PADU membership, after which a vote will be taken.
In 2012, a follow-up meeting was held at Howard University in Washington, DC to formulate what was intended to become the North American African Diaspora Unity Council (NAADUC). However, as often happens when specific organizational priorities take precedence over coalition-building, the effort began to lose steam, and further meetings around the PADU idea have not occurred.
As meetings and events have taken place surrounding the on-again, off-again efforts of the African Union to provide a pathway for the Diaspora to establish a voice in their Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) and Pan-African Parliament (PAP), and the United Nations’ International Decade for People of African Descent (IDPAD) has pushed forward despite the concerns of some who see it as a purely academic exercise with no official force, occasional calls have resurfaced to establish a “Super-Coalition” such as PADU yet again. As the voices grow louder and more numerous in support of some sort of mechanism for building true Pan-Afrikan Unity, and as the naysayers and cynics fade away as they often do, we can expect to hear of a Pan-Afrikan Cooperative Coalition, perhaps under the PADU banner, again very soon.