⚙️ Site Status (November 22, 2025): Data in the information panels on the People Explorer may be slow to load for people with relationships with multiple places, particularly the Soviet Union, and geographic borders for the Soviet Union look irregular when zoomed in. We appreciate patience as we address how our API loads polygons from the database.
The Pan-African Data Project
Building a collective record of liberation — one data point, one story at a time
About Pan-Africanism
Pan-Africanism emerged at the turn of the twentieth century as a global network of ideas, activism, and solidarity linking Africa and its diasporas. Its origins lay in early congresses — starting with the 1900 Pan-African Conference in London — where women and men, as intellectuals and organizers, challenged imperial domination and articulated a shared vision of Black freedom. Since its beginnings, Pan-Africanism has developed into a dynamic political and cultural movement, uniting campaigns for racial equality, self-determination, and economic justice from the Caribbean and the Americas to Europe and the African continent.
Delegates to the Fourth Pan-African Congress, New York, 1927. Public domain.
About the Project
The Pan-African Data Project brings together historical research and digital methods to trace the people, organizations, and events that have shaped Pan-Africanism over more than a century. Through data curation and visualization, the project highlights the global networks of Black liberation and solidarity that link Africa and its diasporas. Drawing on archival and scholarly sources, it offers searchable, interactive views — maps, tables, and timelines — that reveal the scope and connections of Pan-African collaboration across nations, movements, and generations.
Members of the Second Pan-African Conference, Brussels, 1921. Public domain.
Rights, Reuse, and Citation
The Pan-African Data Project © 2025 by Roopika Risam et al. is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. We encourage reuse and remixing of the project and its data. To cite this project, please use: Risam, Roopika, et al. 2025. The Pan-African Data Project. https://panafricandata.org.
Homepage Image Credits
Header image: Delegates to the Fourth Pan-African Congress, 1927, public domain. Carousel images: Invitation to Pan-African Conference, 1900, public domain; Amy Ashwood Garvey at the Fifth Pan-African Congress © John Deakin via Getty Images, used under license; Audience of the Second Pan-African Conference, 1921, public domain. Footer image: Third Pan-African Congress, 1923, public domain.
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