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By
Kehinde Andrews
@kehinde_andrews
15t Oct 2015
The 70th anniversary of the crucial fifth congress this week is time to rethink revolutionary ideals viciously put down in the past
‘The anniversary event in Manchester will see anti-racism campaigners like Akala discussing ways that Pan-Africanism can be used to tackle racism in the modern world.’ Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Observer
Seventy years ago one of the most important meetings in the postwar era took place in Manchester, but it is rarely remembered. The fifth Pan-African Congress (PAC) was held on 15-21 October 1945, and marked the beginning of the end of European colonial rule in Africa and the Caribbean.
The meeting brought together some of the most influential black politicians, activists and scholars from within Africa and the wider diaspora. Within two decades of the meeting more than 50 African and Caribbean nations had fought for and won their independence. It was part of a series of meetings that aimed to promote independence on the African continent and fight racism in the world beyond.
The architect of a world of free minds
Tony Sewell
The first congress took place in Paris in 1919, and there have been at least two since 1945, though the exact number is a source of debate. The fifth PAC is often seen as the most important because of the legacy it has left across the UK, US, the Caribbean and the African continent over the last 70 years.
An event to celebrate the 70th anniversary is being held in Manchester and will see anti-racism campaigners such as Lee Jasper and Akala discussing ways that Pan-Africanism can be used to tackle racism in the modern world.
Pan-Africanism is a politics based on building a political and economic union across Africa and those who are descended from the continent. One of the most influential Pan-Africanists, Marcus Garvey, was born in Jamaica and never set foot on African soil. He built the Universal Negro Improvement Association (Unia) into a major international organisation that had at least five million members in more than 50 countries in the 1920s. Garvey declared the “unity of the 400,000,000 negroes of the world”, and the Unia received effective observer status in 1922 at the League of Nations and also held international conventions from 1920.
The PAC series ran in parallel with the Unia, and had its origins at the 1900 conference organised by Henry Sylvester Williams; it was set up with the aim of persuading western nations to fight against racism and end colonialism.
The struggle for “African socialism” was brutally crushed by western sponsored coups and assassinations, like the killing of Congo’s first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. Photograph: AP
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The fifth PAC is notable because the delegates who attended Manchester included figures such as Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta and Hastings Banda, who subsequently led Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, respectively, to independence. WEB DuBois and George Padmore were key organisers behind the fifth PAC, and their influence guided the politics and theory that shaped anti-colonial movement in Africa. Marcus Garvey died in London in 1940, but his wife Amy Jacques attended the congress and the politics of the Unia were crucial to the proceedings.
Independence from colonialism was the foremost concern, and the African delegates returned to the continent determined to overthrow colonial rule and reap the benefits of Africa’s mineral wealth.
At the sixth PAC, held in Tanzania in 1974, the delegates affirmed their commitment to the revolutions that had been taking place across the continent by endorsing the armed struggles against colonialism in Angola and Mozambique. The struggle to unite the continent in an equitable system of what Julius Nyerere of Tanzania called “African socialism” was brutally crushed through by western sponsored coups and assassinations, like the killing of Congo’s first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba.
Stop and search is a disgrace across the UK – not just in our cities
Kehinde Andrews
However, remembering the fifth PAC is important as a reminder of that revolutionary imagination. The fifth PAC was also hugely influential for its impact on British organising against racism, as many of the delegates were from organisations based in the UK. Garvey’s call for “Africa for the Africans, at home and abroad” had already reached the Britain, and with migration from the Caribbean and Africa in the postwar period, the Pan-African movement developed in Britain.
Branches of the PAC movement were set up across the country that still exist today. The British PAC sent delegates to the sixth congress in 1974 and Africa Liberation Day in 1975, an event still held annually in Birmingham. The movement is responsible for the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the fifth PAC in Manchester on 16-18 October.
Links to the wider Pan-African struggle have also been cemented with visits across the decades from such figures as Kwame Ture, who popularised the term “black power” in America before migrating to Guinea; Herbert Chitepo, assassinated leader of the Zimbabwean revolution; and numerous Black Panther leaders. This revolutionary tradition of resisting racism has largely been ignored in Britain, and the anniversary of the fifth PAC is the perfect time to recapture it.
This year also marks 40 years since the Race Relations Act outlawed overt racial discrimination. Since then, there has been hope that legislation and reform would deliver racial equality. However, a glance at any statistic, whether it be rates of stop and search, unemployment or the staggering ethnic minority wealth gap, reveals that whatever progress has been made has stalled in Britain.
On the African continent, independence has meant African leaders of nations being beholden to economic neocolonialism, a system that has produced some of the starkest inequalities and worst living conditions on the globe. The status quo will never deliver racial equality for anyone in the African diaspora.
We need to rethink, reanalyse and recapture the revolutionary spirit and ideals that were so viciously put down in past. It is time to revisit the Pan-African imagination that was captured in Manchester 70 years ago in order to shape the next period of struggle against (neo)colonial rule.
Kehinde Andrews
@kehinde_andrews
15t Oct 2015
The 70th anniversary of the crucial fifth congress this week is time to rethink revolutionary ideals viciously put down in the past
‘The anniversary event in Manchester will see anti-racism campaigners like Akala discussing ways that Pan-Africanism can be used to tackle racism in the modern world.’ Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Observer
Seventy years ago one of the most important meetings in the postwar era took place in Manchester, but it is rarely remembered. The fifth Pan-African Congress (PAC) was held on 15-21 October 1945, and marked the beginning of the end of European colonial rule in Africa and the Caribbean.
The meeting brought together some of the most influential black politicians, activists and scholars from within Africa and the wider diaspora. Within two decades of the meeting more than 50 African and Caribbean nations had fought for and won their independence. It was part of a series of meetings that aimed to promote independence on the African continent and fight racism in the world beyond.
The architect of a world of free minds
Tony Sewell
The first congress took place in Paris in 1919, and there have been at least two since 1945, though the exact number is a source of debate. The fifth PAC is often seen as the most important because of the legacy it has left across the UK, US, the Caribbean and the African continent over the last 70 years.
An event to celebrate the 70th anniversary is being held in Manchester and will see anti-racism campaigners such as Lee Jasper and Akala discussing ways that Pan-Africanism can be used to tackle racism in the modern world.
Pan-Africanism is a politics based on building a political and economic union across Africa and those who are descended from the continent. One of the most influential Pan-Africanists, Marcus Garvey, was born in Jamaica and never set foot on African soil. He built the Universal Negro Improvement Association (Unia) into a major international organisation that had at least five million members in more than 50 countries in the 1920s. Garvey declared the “unity of the 400,000,000 negroes of the world”, and the Unia received effective observer status in 1922 at the League of Nations and also held international conventions from 1920.
The PAC series ran in parallel with the Unia, and had its origins at the 1900 conference organised by Henry Sylvester Williams; it was set up with the aim of persuading western nations to fight against racism and end colonialism.
The struggle for “African socialism” was brutally crushed by western sponsored coups and assassinations, like the killing of Congo’s first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. Photograph: AP
Advertisement
The fifth PAC is notable because the delegates who attended Manchester included figures such as Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta and Hastings Banda, who subsequently led Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, respectively, to independence. WEB DuBois and George Padmore were key organisers behind the fifth PAC, and their influence guided the politics and theory that shaped anti-colonial movement in Africa. Marcus Garvey died in London in 1940, but his wife Amy Jacques attended the congress and the politics of the Unia were crucial to the proceedings.
Independence from colonialism was the foremost concern, and the African delegates returned to the continent determined to overthrow colonial rule and reap the benefits of Africa’s mineral wealth.
At the sixth PAC, held in Tanzania in 1974, the delegates affirmed their commitment to the revolutions that had been taking place across the continent by endorsing the armed struggles against colonialism in Angola and Mozambique. The struggle to unite the continent in an equitable system of what Julius Nyerere of Tanzania called “African socialism” was brutally crushed through by western sponsored coups and assassinations, like the killing of Congo’s first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba.
Stop and search is a disgrace across the UK – not just in our cities
Kehinde Andrews
However, remembering the fifth PAC is important as a reminder of that revolutionary imagination. The fifth PAC was also hugely influential for its impact on British organising against racism, as many of the delegates were from organisations based in the UK. Garvey’s call for “Africa for the Africans, at home and abroad” had already reached the Britain, and with migration from the Caribbean and Africa in the postwar period, the Pan-African movement developed in Britain.
Branches of the PAC movement were set up across the country that still exist today. The British PAC sent delegates to the sixth congress in 1974 and Africa Liberation Day in 1975, an event still held annually in Birmingham. The movement is responsible for the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the fifth PAC in Manchester on 16-18 October.
Links to the wider Pan-African struggle have also been cemented with visits across the decades from such figures as Kwame Ture, who popularised the term “black power” in America before migrating to Guinea; Herbert Chitepo, assassinated leader of the Zimbabwean revolution; and numerous Black Panther leaders. This revolutionary tradition of resisting racism has largely been ignored in Britain, and the anniversary of the fifth PAC is the perfect time to recapture it.
This year also marks 40 years since the Race Relations Act outlawed overt racial discrimination. Since then, there has been hope that legislation and reform would deliver racial equality. However, a glance at any statistic, whether it be rates of stop and search, unemployment or the staggering ethnic minority wealth gap, reveals that whatever progress has been made has stalled in Britain.
On the African continent, independence has meant African leaders of nations being beholden to economic neocolonialism, a system that has produced some of the starkest inequalities and worst living conditions on the globe. The status quo will never deliver racial equality for anyone in the African diaspora.
We need to rethink, reanalyse and recapture the revolutionary spirit and ideals that were so viciously put down in past. It is time to revisit the Pan-African imagination that was captured in Manchester 70 years ago in order to shape the next period of struggle against (neo)colonial rule.
