Pan-African Congress

The Pan-African Congress was a series of eight meetings, held in 1919 in Paris (1st Pan-African Congress), 1921 in London, Brussels and Paris (2nd Pan-African Congress), 1923 in London (3rd Pan-African Congress), 1927 in New York City (4th Pan-African Congress), 1945 in Manchester (5th Pan-African Congress), 1974 in Dar es Salaam (6th Pan-African Congress),[1] 1994 in Kampala (7th Pan-African Congress),[2][3] and 2014 in Johannesburg (8th Pan-African Congress)[4][5] that were intended to address the issues facing Africa as a result of European colonization of most of the continent.

For South African political party, see Pan Africanist Congress of Azania.

The Pan-African Congress gained the reputation as a peace maker for decolonization in Africa and in the West Indies. It made a significant advance for the Pan-African cause. One of the group's major demands was to end colonial rule and racial discrimination. It stood against imperialism and it demanded human rights and equality of economic opportunity. The manifesto given by the Pan-African Congress included the political and economic demands of the Congress for a new world context of international cooperation.

Background

Pan Africanists believed that both slavery and colonialism were built on negative attitudes towards people of African descent, which in turn, contributed to racism.[6] African Americans were especially frustrated with their slow progress towards racial equality in the United States.[6]

Trinidadian lawyer, Henry Sylvester Williams created the African Association in 1897 in order to encourage a sense of Pan African unity in the British Colonies.[6][7] The African Association published the discrimination and injustices faced by people in the African diaspora.[8] The African Association's work led to the First Pan-African Conference held in London in 1900.[6] The conference, which brought together people who were against racism and colonialism, attracted international attention.[6] Attendees of the Pan-African Conference discussed the need to preserve Black cultural identity and for the rights of indigenous people to be recognized by colonizers.[8] W. E. B. Du Bois was one of thirty attendees at this conference where he described "the color line" as one of the most important issues of the 20th century.[6][9]

In December of 1918, Du Bois went to France as a representative of the NAACP at the same time the Paris Peace Conference was taking place.[9] Du Bois was not allowed to speak at the Peace Conference, so he decided to create a separate meeting to take place at the same time.[10] Du Bois knew that the fate of some African colonies were going to be discussed at the Peace Conference.[11] He hoped that having a conference of Black representatives from around the world would be heard by the European powers and the European public.[9] He wanted to lobby the governments attending the Peace Conference to ensure better treatment for people of color around the world.[12] Du Bois believed that he could "exert some positive political influence on the power-brokers and decision-makers during the Paris Peace Conference."[13] However, Du Bois was one of many individuals representing various advocacy groups who also wanted to have a voice at the Peace Conference.[14]

1st Pan-African Congress (1919)
Pan-African Congress, Paris, France, February 19–22, 1919

In February 1919, the first Pan-African Congress was organized quickly by W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida Gibbs Hunt and Blaise Diagne.[15][9] Diagne served as the president of the Congress with Du Bois the secretary and Gibbs the assistant secretary.[16] It lasted over three days and took place in Paris.[9][17] Funding for the event came from the NAACP and American fraternal organizations and it took place in the Grand Hotel.[6][18]

Gibbs and Du Bois were seen as ambassadors of Pan-Africa.[19] Also, Gibbs acted as the primary translator at the Congress.[19] There were 57 delegates representing 15 countries, a smaller number than originally intended because British and American governments refused to issue passports to their citizens who had planned on attending.[20][21] It was reported by the U.S. State Department that the French government did not believe that it was a good time to have a Pan-African Congress.[21][22] Many of the delegates who attended, did so on short notice.[23]

Their main task was petitioning the Versailles Peace Conference held in Paris at that time.[24] Unlike the International Council of Women, the Pan-African Congress was unable to send delegates to the Peace Conference, nor were members permitted to serve on commissions.[25] Delegates to the Congress had no "official status."[23]

The first speech of the Congress was by Diagne who said that assimilated Black people from America, Britain and France "were far more advanced than indigenous and 'inherently backwards' Africans.[16] In this capacity, he felt that African countries held by Germany should be transferred to a system similar to the colonial system of France.[26]

It was reported that there was little news coverage of the Congress in the French press.[17] Du Bois sent a letter to Winston Churchill in 1921, where he enclosed the resolutions adopted at this first Congress in 1919.[12]

Among their demands were that:

  • The Allied Powers should be in charge of the administration of former territories in Africa as a Condominium on behalf of the Africans who were living there.
  • Africa be granted home rule and Africans should take part in governing their countries as fast as their development permits until at some specified time in the future.[27]

Delegates

Among the delegates were:[28][29][30]

2nd Pan-African Congress: London, Brussels and Paris (1921)
Session in the Palais Mondial, Brussels, 1921

In 1921, the Second Pan-African Congress met in several sessions in London, Brussels and Paris, during August (28, 29, and 31) and September (2, 3, 5 and 6).[31] As W. E. B. Du Bois reported in The Crisis in November that year, represented at this congress were "26 different groups of people of Negro descent: namely, British Nigeria, Gold Coast and Sierra Leone; the Egyptian Sudan, British East Africa, former German East Africa; French Senegal, the French Congo and Madagascar; Belgian Congo; Portuguese St. Thomé, Angola and Mozambique; Liberia; Abyssinia; Haiti; British Jamaica and Grenada; French Martinique and Guadeloupe; British Guiana; the United States of America, Negroes resident in England, France, Belgium and Portugal, and fraternal visitors from India, Morocco, the Philippines and Annam."[31] There was an Indian revolutionary who took part, Shapurji Saklatvala, and a journalist from the Gold Coast named W. F. Hutchinson who spoke. This session of the Congress was the most focused for change of all the meetings thus far. At the London session, resolutions were adopted, later restated by Du Bois in his "Manifesto To the League of Nations":[32][31]

If we are coming to recognize that the great modern problem is to correct maladjustment in the distribution of wealth, it must be remembered that the basic maladjustment is in the outrageously unjust distribution of world income between the dominant and suppressed peoples; in the rape of land and raw material, and the monopoly of technique and culture. And in this crime white labor is particeps criminis with white capital. Unconsciously and consciously, carelessly and deliberately, the vast power of the white labor vote in modern democracies has been cajoled and flattered into imperialistic schemes to enslave and debauch black, brown and yellow labor.

The only dissenting voices were these of Blaise Diagne and Gratien Candace, French politicians of African and Guadeloupean descent, who represented Senegal and Guadeloupe in the French Chamber of Deputies. They soon abandoned the idea of Pan-Africanism because they advocated equal rights inside the French citizenship and thought the London Manifesto declaration too dangerously extreme.

The Brussels sessions were hosted at the Palais Mondial.[33]

American Helen Noble Curtis acted as the sole representative for Liberia during this conference.[34]

3rd Pan-African Congress: London and Lisbon (1923)

In 1923, the Third Pan-African Congress was held in London and in Lisbon. Helen Noble Curtis was an important planner of the Lisbon event.[34] This meeting also repeated the demands such as self-rule, the problems in the Diaspora and the African-European relationship. The following was addressed at the meeting:

  • The development of Africa should be for the benefit of Africans and not merely for the profits of Europeans.
  • There should be home rule and a responsible government for British West Africa and the British West Indies.
  • The Abolition of the pretension of a white minority to dominate a black majority in Kenya, Rhodesia and South Africa.
  • Lynching and mob law in the US should be suppressed.

Before the Congress met in London, Isaac Béton of the French Committee wrote a letter to Du Bois, telling him that the French group would not be sending delegates. However, in one of the reports he published in The Crisis, Du Bois drew on words spoken by Ida Gibbs Hunt and Rayford Logan to imply that the French Committee had sent delegates. As long-time African-American residents of France, Hunt and Logan had travelled independently to the meeting, and Hunt and Béton were perturbed that Du Bois had implied they represented France.[35]

4th Pan-African Congress: New York City (1927)

In 1927, The Fourth Pan-African Congress was held in New York City and adopted resolutions that were similar to the Third Pan-African Congress meetings.[36] Addie Hunton was a key fundraiser for the meeting.[34]

5th Pan-African Congress: Manchester (1945)
The commemorating plaque in Manchester

Following the foundation of the Pan-African Federation (PAF) in Manchester in 1945,[37] the Fifth Pan-African Congress was held at the Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall, Manchester, United Kingdom, between the 15th and 21st of October 1945. Amongst attendees were Hastings Banda, Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta who would go on to be the first Presidents of their newly independent countries. Commentators estimate that 87–90 delegates were in attendance at the Congress, representing some 50 organisations, with a total of 200 audience members present.[38][39][40]Although forming a part of a larger Pan-African movement at the beginning of the century, this event was organised by people in Manchester, and they brought in the people from all over the world."[38] Whilst the previous four congresses had involved predominantly members of the African diaspora, including those in the United Kingdom, Afro-Caribbeans and Afro-Americans." the fifth included more representatives from the African continent.

It was the wish of the West African Students' Union that the event be hosted in Liberia and not in Europe, however having originally been scheduled in Paris to coincide with a meeting of the World Federation of Trade Unions, it was switched to August in Manchester. The Conference took place in a building decorated with the flags of the three black nations under self-governance at the time Ethiopia, and Liberia and the Republic of Haiti.[41]

The Fifth Congress is widely viewed by commentators as the most significant, being held just months after the end of World War II which had been fought in the name of freedom. At the end of World War II, around 700 million people lived under imperial rule and were 'subject people', with no freedoms, no parliaments, no democracy, and no trade unions to protect workers.[40] Many felt betrayed after being promised movement towards self-government if they fought for European colonial powers during the First World War – only to have such promises later denied so a new militancy had emerged with demands for decolonization as well as condemning imperialism, racial discrimination, and capitalism.[39][42]

Attendees

Marika Sherwood notes that "There were also eleven listed 'fraternal delegates', from Cypriot, Somali, Indian and Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) organisations, as well as the Women's International League and two British political parties, the Common Wealth Party and Independent Labour Party". Historian Saheed Adejumobi writes in The Pan-African Congresses, 1900–1945  that “while previous Pan-African congresses had been controlled largely by black middle-class British and American intellectuals who had emphasized the amelioration of colonial conditions, the Manchester meeting was dominated by delegates from Africa and Africans working or studying in Britain.”  Adejumobi notes that “the new leadership attracted the support of workers, trade unionists, and a growing radical sector of the African student population. With fewer African American participants, delegates consisted mainly of an emerging crop of African intellectual and political leaders, who soon won fame, notoriety, and power in their various colonized countries.”[43]

Commentators regard the following as the primary organisers of the Fifth Pan-African Congress:[40][39][38]

  • Peter Abrahams - A South African born novelist, journalist and political commentator.
  • T. Ras Makonnen - A Guyanese-born activist of Ethiopian descent. Secretary of the Pan-African Federation and advisor to the First President of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta.
  • Dr Peter Milliard - A British Guianan doctor and President of the Pan-African Federation.
  • Kwame Nkrumah - Became the First Prime Minister and President of Ghana having led the country to Independence from Britain in 1957. Renowned for organising diasporic Pan-Africanists and developing his own political philosophy.
  • George Padmore - Originally from Trinidad & Tobago, he was a founder of the Pan-African Federation and later an advisor to Kwame Nkrumah.

Those in attendance include:

  • Tikiri Banda Subasinghe - Became the Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker and the Ambassador to the Soviet Union. He also served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Defence and External Affairs and Minister of Industries and Scientific Affairs.
  • Dudley Thompson - Became Jamaican Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Minister of Mining and Natural Resources and Minister of National Security and Justice.
  • Jaja Wachuku - Became the first Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Nigeria's United Nations Ambassador and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The future first President of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe, known as the "father of Nigerian Nationalism" is also claimed to have attended by some sources however it is unconfirmed; however he is on the record saying how important the conference in Manchester was for the independence movement.

Issues addressed

Among the issues addressed at the conference were:

  • "The Colour Problem in Britain", Including issues of unemployment among black youth; abandoned mixed-race children fathered by black ex-servicemen and white British mothers; racial discrimination, the colour bar and discriminatory employment practices. These topics were discussed at the first session of the Congress held on October 15, 1945, chaired by Amy Ashwood Garvey.[40]
  • "Imperialism in North and West Africa". All present demanded independence for African nations; delegates were split on the issue of having political emancipation first or control of the economy. Kwame Nkrumah advocated for revolutionary methods of seizing power as essential to Independence. From this session onwards the chair was taken by Dr W. E. B. Du Bois.[40]
  • "Oppression in South Africa". Including the social, economic, educational, health and employment inequalities faced by Black South Africans. All present expressed support and sympathy which included a number of demands outlined.[40]
  • "The East African Picture". Focusing on the issue of land, most of the best land had been occupied by White settlers; working conditions and wages for Africans reflected the same inequalities as South Africa. This session was open by Jomo Kenyatta.[40]
  • "Ethiopia and The Black Republics". Discussing the issue of Britain exercising control over Ethiopia although Emperor Haile Selassie had been restored to the throne; the United Nations not offering help to Ethiopia whilst Italy (which conquered Ethiopia in 1935 under a fascist regime) was receiving UN help.[40]
  • "The Problems in the Caribbean" This session was addressed by a number of trade union delegates from the Caribbean; some delegates demanded "complete independence", some "self-government" and others "dominion status".[40]

Women's contributions

Women played an important role in the Fifth Congress. Amy Ashford Garvey chaired the opening session and Miss Alma La Badie, a Jamaican member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, spoke about child welfare. Women also supported in behind-the-scenes roles, organising many of the social and other events outside the main sessions. Historians Marika Sherwood and Hakim Adi have specifically written about women involved in the Fifth-Congress.[44]

Reception

The British press scarcely mentioned the conference. However, Picture Post covered the 5th Pan African Congress in an article by war reporter Hilde Marchant titled "Africa Speaks in Manchester", published on 10 November 1945. Picture Post was also responsible for sending John Deakin to photograph the event.[45]

Commemoration
  • Red Commemorative Plaque. It is suggested by commentators that Manchester community leader and political activist, Kath Locke, persuaded Manchester City Council to place a red plaque commemorating the Congress on the wall of Chorlton Town Hall.[37]
  • Black Chronicles III: The Fifth Pan African Congress. Autograph ABP hosted the first exhibition showcasing John Deakin's photographs from the Fifth Congress. The exhibition marked the 70th anniversary of the Congress in 2015 and included film screenings exploring Pan-African history and ideals curated by June Givanni.[46]
  • "Pan African Congress 50 years on". The project interviewed attendees of the 1945 Pan African Congress who were still living in Manchester in 1995. The project was part of the 50th commemorative event held in Manchester in 1995.
  • "PAC@75". Manchester Metropolitan University held a four-day celebration in October 2020 to mark the 75th anniversary of the 5th Pan-African Congress. Curated by Professor of Architecture Ola Uduku, the anniversary celebrations involved both creative and academic events.[47]
  • Archive material relating to the 1945 and the subsequent celebratory events in 1982 and 1995 are held at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre at Manchester Central Library.[48] Len Johnson's papers at the Working Class Movement Library has records and documents from the 1945 Congress. [49][50]

6th Pan-African Congress: Dar es Salaam (1974)

The 6th Pan-African Congress was hosted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in June 1974. For Black British activists Zainab Abbas, Gerlin Bean, Ron Phillips, and Ansel Wong, attending the conference allowed them to express the solidarity of the Black activists in Britain with anti-colonialists activists in the rest of the world. A highlight of the conference was the resolution on Palestine, which was the congress' formal recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.[51]: 136–137 

See also

References
  1. Goodman 2007, p. 167.
  2. Campbell 1996, p. 1.
  3. Essack, Karrim (October 2012). "The 7th Pan African Congress in Perspective". Global Pan African Movement. Archived from the original on 13 April 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  4. Horne, David L. (30 January 2014), "A Pan African Step Forward", Our Weekly (Los Angeles).
  5. Bunsee, Benny (24 January 2014), "Arabs and the West must pay for slavery, says Pan-African Congress", Mail & Guardian.
  6. Adejumobi, Saheed (30 July 2008). "The Pan-African Congresses, 1900-1945 •". Black Past. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  7. "Henry Sylvester Williams and the Origins of Pan-Africanism". UCLA African Studies Center. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  8. Kentake, Meserette (19 February 2018). "Henry Sylvester Williams: The Father of Pan-Africanism". Kentake Page. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  9. Reft, Ryan (19 February 2019). "African-American History Month: First Pan-African Congress". The Library of Congress. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  10. Moore 2018, p. 119.
  11. Adi 2018, p. 44.
  12. Singh, Iqbal (29 October 2020). "W E B Du Bois: Letter to London". The National Archives blog. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  13. Contee 1972, p. 14.
  14. Hodder 2021, p. 116-117.
  15. Roberts 2013, p. 121-122.
  16. Dunstan 2021, p. 23.
  17. "Colored Officers and the Regular Army". The Monitor. 17 May 1919. p. 1. Retrieved 4 April 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. Hodder 2021, p. 113.
  19. Dunstan 2016, p. 133-150,234.
  20. Painter 2008, p. 355.
  21. "Pan-African Congress Will Not Be Allowed". The Macon News. 1 February 1919. p. 3. Retrieved 4 April 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. "Pan-African Congress Placed Under a Ban". The Atlanta Constitution. 2 February 1919. p. 5. Retrieved 5 April 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. Hodder 2021, p. 120.
  24. Dunstan 2021, p. 23-28.
  25. Hodder 2021, p. 117.
  26. Dunstan 2021, p. 23-24.
  27. Hodder 2021, p. 124.
  28. Worley & Contee 1970, p. 140-143.
  29. Harrison, Jr. 1921, p. 84.
  30. Moore 2018, p. 114.
  31. Du Bois 1921, p. 18.
  32. Lewis 2009, p. 414-415.
  33. Kirschke 2004, p. 246.
  34. Moore 2018, p. 125.
  35. Roberts 2013, p. 125-126.
  36. "The Pan-African Vision". The Story of Africa: Between World Wars (1914–1945). BBC News. Retrieved 16 April 2008.
  37. Adi 2009.
  38. "It began in Manchester — Manchester and The Pan-African Movement". BBC News; Black History Month. 14 October 2005.
  39. Høgsbjerg, Christian (12 April 2016). "Remembering the Fifth Pan-African Congress". Leeds University Centre for African Studies (LUCAS).
  40. Sherwood, Marika (1995). Manchester and the 1945 Pan-African Congress. London: Savannah Press. ISBN 0951972022.
  41. "1945 Pan-African Congress in Manchester".
  42. "Details on the Fifth Pan-African Congress and Pan-African Film Installation (London)".
  43. Adejumobi, Saheed (30 July 2008). "The Pan-African Congresses, 1900-1945". BlackPast.org. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  44. Adi, Hakim (1995). The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress. London: New Beacon Books. p. 11. ISBN 1873201125.
  45. Mensah, Nana Yaa (5 August 2015). "The Pan-African Congress in black and white". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  46. "Black Chronicles III: The Fifth Pan-African Congress". Contemporary And (in German). Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  47. "PAC@75: PAN AFRICAN CONGRESS 75TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS". Manchester Metropolitan University.
  48. "Pan-African Congress 1945 and 1995 Archive - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  49. "Len Johnson collection PP/JOHNSONL". Working Class Movement Library catalogue. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  50. "Len Johnson". Working Class Movement Library. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  51. Johnson, W. Chris (2019). "7. 'The Spirit of Bandung' in 1970s Britain: The Black Liberation Front's Revolutionary Transnationalism". In Adi, Hakim (ed.). Black British History: New Perspectives. London: Zed Books. pp. 125–143. ISBN 978-1-78699-427-1.

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