The Primary Goal of the Pan African Conference is to build student leadership and to provide an opportunity for academic scholars, students, professionals and community members to discuss the issues that affect African people on a local, national and international level.
The Pan African Student Leadership Conference format is designed to allow faculty and students a forum to present their perspectives and research on issues and concerns that impact the pan African community on a national and international level.
The general assembly sessions will present international renowned speakers and African scholars. Individual workshops and concurrent sessions of 60 minutes will allow faculty, community activists and students the opportunity to present research and their perspectives on educational, social-cultural and political concerns confronting African American/African peoples.
Pan Africanism is the unification of all Africans on the continent and in the diasporas. It is a movement to achieve solidarity among African people, serving the academic realm by correcting the errors and lies of "his-tory" and properly, truthfully telling the African story. Pan Africanism is Afro-centric, pro-human, pro-active and liberating. It is a response to imperialism, racism, colonialism and oppression. Pan Africanism is non-racial, for there is no race other than the human race. Pan Africanism is spiritually and creatively expressive. As we celebrate the 31st year of the Pan African Student Leadership Conference, the ideas of Pan Africanism will continue to be the foundation, by encouraging each individual to contribute to the unity of all African people.
The conference was founded by Dr. Michael T. Fagin in 1977 and has been complemented by the additional support of Professor Mahmoud El-Kati, Macalaster College, alumni, and community leaders throughout Minnesota. Professor El-Kati is credited with motivating Dr. Fagin to continue the initiative started in 1977.
The Pan African Student Leadership Conference, an annual event at Minnesota State University, Mankato, constitutes the leading and most comprehensive Upper Midwest forum on critical issues that affect African people on a local, national and international level. Administrators, faculty, students, professionals and community leaders in all walks of life gather to celebrate and examine the multiple dynamics that impact all African and African American people. The conference focuses on the complex task of creating and sustaining community and self-change designed to improve relations among all people across the world.
Continuing its solid programming tradition, this year's conference, will feature keynote addresses and concurrent sessions focusing on critical issues and concerns confronting African people. Critical dialogue sessions will provide genuine opportunities for interaction designed to advance topics discussed. The combination of conference elements will provide a range of unique opportunities for social interaction and informal learning.
This annual event, the Pan African Student Leadership Conference, has in attendance a cross-section of the brightest African American students in the United States of America representing a number of institutions of higher education. Other participants include representatives from a variety of state/national institutes, a number of agencies, commissions, associations and foundations. This conference, for students and professionals, has become an annual event in which a number of institutions return year after year.
