Addis Ababa University Opens Permanent Pan-African Exhibition

Addis Ababa May 25/2022/ENA /A permanent Pan-African Exhibition wing opened today in the museum of Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) at Addis Ababa University.

Speaking on the occasion, Institute of Ethiopia Studies director Takele Merid said Pan- Africanism has been promoting unity and brotherhood, and created a sense of shared and common historical and cultural destiny among the blacks and African people.

Pan-Africanism is important and the current generation should learn from its history and struggles  and from those who contributed to the movement so as to imagine and work for the better future, he added.   

According to him, Ethiopia has contributed a lot to realize and strengthen Pan-Africanism. The Victory of Adwa, for instance, is considered as the landmark and the beginning of modern Pan-African movements elsewhere in the world.

The Pan-African Permanent Exhibition organized in the museum of the institute takes us back to the 1880s and largely to the 1960s and tries to show Ethiopia’s efforts and the efforts of heads of states to the unity of Africa, Takele elaborated.

“We raised the issue of Pan-Africanism because the issue of Pan-Africanism is extremely important and meaningful more than any other time to us and Ethiopians in particular are facing a lot of challenges,” the director stressed.

He further noted that Africans need more solidarity and more cemented Africa; and Ethiopians have also to overcome the challenges they are facing.

The director underscored, “To do this, we must learn from the past, from the founding fathers of Pan-Africanism, to make the future bright.”  

On behalf of Addis Ababa University’s President, Eng. Wubayehu Mamo said as a philosophy, Pan-Africanism represents the aggregation of the historical, cultural, artistic legacies of Africans across time and space.

"As you all know Ethiopia contributed to the strengthening of Pan-Africanism and brining all the black people of the world to unity," he added.

For this, he added that the victory of Adowa is a landmark event as after Adwa many things have happened that strengthened the people of Africa. Among others, the realization of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 was the major one.