By Monica Moorehead
May 25, 2026

The origin of African Liberation Day is rooted in 1958, when the first elected prime minister of Ghana, the great Pan-Africanist and socialist leader Kwame Nkrumah, convened the First Conference of Independent States in Accra, Ghana. That conference was attended by representatives of eight independent African states.

Out of this gathering, April 15 was declared “Africa Freedom Day” to mark the annual progress of the national liberation movements to emancipate themselves from centuries-long foreign domination and superexploitation that began with the transatlantic slave trade. Two years later, 17 African countries won their independence, and 1960 was proclaimed the Year of Africa.

In his 1961 speech, “I Speak of Freedom,” Nkrumah stated: “For centuries, Europeans dominated the African continent. The white man arrogated to himself the right to rule and to be obeyed by the non-white; his mission, he claimed, was to ‘civilize’ Africa. Under this cloak, the Europeans robbed the continent of vast riches and inflicted unimaginable suffering on the African people.

“It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems, and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world.” (www.marxists.org)

On May 25, 1963, over 30 African leaders held a historic summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to create the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The OAU represented the independent struggles on the African continent against colonialism, neocolonialism and imperialism and for a united Africa, both in the past and in the present.

The OAU then declared May 25 to be “African Liberation Day (ALD).” Traditionally, ALD has been commemorated on the last Saturday in May.

The first ALD was held in the U.S. on Saturday, May 27, 1972, in Washington, D.C., where tens of thousands of people — mostly of African descent — rallied on the National Mall to connect with the struggles throughout the African diaspora.

This year, on the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the OAU, the major theme of ALD was “Revolutionary Pan-Africanism Fights in Solidarity with Oppressed Peoples Everywhere; Our Struggle Is One!”

In explaining this year’s theme further, the African Liberation Day website states: “The struggle to liberate African People around the world is directly connected to the struggles being waged by oppressed people everywhere. Humankind is rising up against a common enemy known as imperialism. The struggle takes many forms because imperialism is a cameleon-like system that adapts to local/regional conditions to exploit and oppress the masses of people who live in them.

“Military attacks, coups d’états, economic sanctions, police assaults, political duplicity, genocide, poverty and establishment of puppet governments are all methods, employed by imperialism to maintain global domination. All of the resistance being waged against the various forms of imperialist oppression are part of a single struggle to end capitalist exploitation and oppression. African Liberation Day 2026 is focused on advancing the unified struggle between African People and all other oppressed people around the world.” (africanliberationday.net/)

Despite the decades-long struggle against imperialism, including the debt crisis imposed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the African masses continue to fight back for their sovereignty and right to self-determination.

Today, at least 54 African countries, along with cities worldwide, will commemorate African Liberation Day to say that African people are one united people despite any artificial borders established by their colonial oppressors.

The writer attended the first African Liberation Day in Washington, D.C., in 1972 at the age of 20.