As the African Union summit drew to a close in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, amid the crisis in Mali, leaders from more than 50 countries contemplated what Pan-Africanism has meant to the continent over the past five decades and what role it can play in Africa's future.

The theme of the summit, held at the start of the African Union's jubilee celebrations, was "Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance".

Pan-Africanism as a political philosophy that stresses the united power of the African continent, played a vital inspirational role in liberating and achieving independence for Africans in North America and the United Kingdom in the early 20th century, and on this continent in the 1950s and 1960s.