PREAMBLE

Conscious of the fact that Europeans and other oppressors have been ruling Africa and African people for over five hundred years;

Aware that while African people welcomed with open arms Europeans and others who came to the African continent as guests in the traditional universal hospitality, these guests took profit from the African land, the African back, the African minds and defaced the African temples, destroyed African libraries, languages, tradition and culture, raped African women, enslaved African people and manipulated our differences, setting us upon each other;

Mindful that changes in industrial society built on African slave labour and natural resources continue to be dominated by Europeans and their agents, further marginalising the majority of African people and rendering them an underclass;

Cognisant that only through unity in action can African people globally be able to change their condition of degradation, oppression and exploitation;

We, the United Kingdom Pan African Congress Organising Committee, declare the following principles by which we will be guided in the struggle for the Liberation of Africa and the realisation of a political and social African Union, as a foundation for a united Global African family:

1. Homeland:
That African people are the rightful guardians of the continent of Africa and it is therefore the homeland of all African people, irrespective of where they were born or where they are currently domiciled.

2. Control:
That only African people have the right to decide what happens to us and what happens to Africa.

3. Guests:
That any non-African person or group may reside on the continent as our guests and enjoy all the rights accorded to them as welcomed guests and behave in a manner respective of the will of their hosts as is expected of any welcomed guests.

4. Right of Entry & Freedom of Movement:
That all Africans have the right to enter the continent and travel freely throughout its length and breadth and that any laws, regulations or statutes which tend to restrict our free movement anywhere on the continent and in particular across the currently existing nation - state borders must be repealed. These present boundaries created by Europeans have no relevance to the actual dispersion of traditional African nations.

5. That the Welfare of African People:
Should always be placed above the personal agenda of individuals or groups of individuals; and that no self-appointed or externally imposed individual or group will be accepted as representatives of the African people. The representation of African people shall always be entrusted to individuals or groups by the people themselves through their legitimate organisations working for the benefit of African people.

6. Africentric Ideology:
That the African people as a whole, locally, nationally and internationally must formulate our own laws, regulations, doctrines and principles by which we will govern ourselves. The thinking of African people must be based on ideas and philosophies that have emerged from the human experience of Africans. Thus will enable Africans to distinguish their identity from that modelled by alien philosophies and values that have led to the gradual loss of the African identity and personality.

7. Reparations:
That no thought be given to the idea of debt repayment to Global European interests. Rather, that all outstanding African "debts" be calculated as a fraction of the trillions of pounds, dollars, marks, francs, yens, roubles, dhirams, etc., which are owed to Africa and her people in reparation for the continual theft of much of her wealth and the calculated, deliberate destruction of African civilisation.

8. Artefacts and Resources:
That every item taken from Africa without the permission of all the people to whom they belonged be returned and that all remaining resources of the continent and its surrounding seas be used firstly for the benefit of those Africans living on the continent and secondly for the benefit of Africans in the global Diaspora.

9. Human Rights:
That every African is unconditionally entitled to free access to the means to satisfy our three basic human needs of:

• (a) nourishment, i.e. foods drink, physical and medical care,
• (b) shelter, i.e. housing, clothing, protection from the elements and
• (c) enlightenment, i.e. education, knowledge, spiritual expression. etc.

11. Equal Participation:
That no African child, man, or woman, organisation or nation state, should participate in any organisation or structure such as the United Nations or political parties, unless our involvement is on the basis of complete, un-compromised equality on every level with all other members of' such bodies.

12. Self Determination:
That Africans, as a people, have an absolute, irrevocable, unconditional and unquestionable right to self determination and self defence; and that only African people have the right to decide our destiny and the future of our homeland, and that this principle will be the cornerstone and the foundation of all our actions.

13. Protection:
That every African has the right to take any necessary steps, without limitation to secure and protect all above rights and entitlements.

UK PAC OC I5th February 1998