Title: The History of Pan Africanism
Headings: The History of Pan Africanism
The History of Pan Africanism
Content: The History of Pan Africanism
The History of Pan Africanism
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“Pan Africanism can be said to have its origins in the struggles of the African people against enslavement and colonisation” Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (Pan Africanism: Politics, Economy and Social Change in the Twenty-first Century) And this struggle may be traced back to the first resistance on slave ships – rebellions and suicides – through the constant plantation and colonial uprisings and the “Back to Africa” movements of the nineteenth century. However, it was in the twentieth century that Pan Africanism emerged as a distinct political movement initially formed and led by people from the Diaspora (people of African heritage living outside of the Continent). In 1900, the Trinindadian barrister – Henry Sylvester Williams – called a conference that took place in Westminster Hall, London to “protest stealing of lands in the colonies, racial discrimination and deal with other issues of interest to Blacks”. This conference drafted a letter to the Queen of England and other European rulers appealing to them to fight racism and grant independence to their colonies. It was the African American scholar and writer, Dr W.E.B. Du Bois who convened the first Pan African Congress in 1919, in Paris, France. Again it demanded independence for African nations. Further congresses – essentially extended meetings of like-minded Africans searching for a way forward - were held in 1921 (London, Brussels, Paris), 1923 (London and Lisbon), 1927 (New York). Each reiterated and refined the demands for rights and freedom and built support for the cause. However, perhaps the most significant was the 5th Congress held in Manchester in 1945.