Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and The

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and The Pan-African History Pan-Africanism, the perception by people of African origins and descent that they have interests in common, has been an important by-product of colonialism and the enslavement of African peoples by Europeans. Though it has taken a variety of forms over the two centuries of its fight for equality and against economic exploitation, commonality has been a unifying theme for many Black people, resulting for example in the Back-to-Africa movement in the United States but also in nationalist beliefs such as an African ‘supra-nation’. Pan-African History brings together Pan-Africanist thinkers and activists from the Anglophone and Francophone worlds of the past two hundred years. Included are well-known figures such as Malcolm X, W.E.B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah, and Martin Delany, and the authors’ original research on lesser-known figures such as Constance Cummings-John and Dusé Mohamed Ali reveals exciting new aspects of Pan-Africanism. Hakim Adi is Senior Lecturer in African and Black British History at Middlesex University, London. He is a founder member and currently Chair of the Black and Asian Studies Association and is the author of West Africans in Britain 1900–1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism (1998) and (with M. Sherwood) The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited (1995). Marika Sherwood is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. She is a founder member and Secretary of the Black and Asian Studies Association; her most recent books are Claudia Jones: A Life in Exile (2000) and Kwame Nkrumah: The Years Abroad 1935–1947 (1996). Contents v Contents Preface vii Dusé Mohamed Ali 1 Ahmed Ben Bella 7 Edward Wilmot Blyden 11 Amilcar Lopes Cabral 16 Aimé Césaire 20 Quobna Ottobah Cugoano 26 Constance Cummings-John 29 Martin Robinson Delany 34 Cheikh Anta Diop 40 Frederick Douglass 44 W.E.B. Du Bois 48 Olaudah Equiano 53 Nathaniel Akinremi Fadipe 57 Frantz Fanon 64 Amy Ashwood Garvey 69 Marcus Garvey 76 Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford 82 James Africanus Beale Horton 86 W. Alphaeus Hunton 90 C.L.R. James 95 Claudia Jones 100 Martin Luther King Jr 105 Toussaint L’Ouverture 109 Patrice Émery Lumumba 113 Ras T. Makonnen 117 Malcolm X 123 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela 129 Harold Moody 134 Jamal Abd al-Nasir [Nasser] 138 Francis Nwia Kofi Kwame Nkrumah 143 Julius Kambarage Nyerere 147 George Padmore 152 vi Contents Paul Leroy Robeson 159 Walter Rodney 163 Léopold Sédar Senghor 169 Ladipo Felix Solanke 174 Sékou Ahmed Touré 177 I.T.A. Wallace-Johnson 181 Eric Williams 185 Henry Sylvester Williams 190 Index 195 Preface vii Preface The dawn of the twenty-first century coincided with an upsurge in Pan-African activity, the most obvious example being the creation of the new African Union by Africa’s governments, largely as a response to the adverse consequences of globalisation.1 Fears about globalisation have also led to a renewed interest in diasporas and ‘transnational studies’ and consequently there is a continuing and increasing interest in the history and significance of the African diaspora, the global dispersal of peoples of African descent, responsible for the emergence of Pan-African ideologies.2 However, there has never been one universally accepted definition of what constitutes Pan-Africanism. Most recent writers on the subject are reluctant to provide definitions or provide several, acknowledging that the vagueness of the term reflects the fact that Pan-Africanism has taken different forms at different historical moments and geographical locations. Others, recognising that definition is dependent on time and place, feel forced to provide lengthy historical explanations of the development of the various Pan-African ideas and movements that have emerged since the late eighteenth century.3 So what do we mean by major figures from Pan-African history? Our definition includes women and men of African descent whose lives and work have been concerned, in some way, with the social and political emancipation of African peoples and those of the African diaspora. Not surprisingly their perspectives have differed, according to time, location and the nature of the problems they confronted. Some may have focused on just one part of Africa, North America, the Caribbean or Europe, yet their lives and work have achieved symbolic status, or been influential amongst people of African descent and others struggling against oppression and for liberation. What underlies their manifold visions and approaches is the belief in some form of unity or of common purpose among the peoples of Africa and the African diaspora. Such perspectives might be traced back to ancient times, but modern Pan-African history is principally connected with the dispersal of peoples of African origin brought about by the trans-Atlantic trade taking enslaved Africans to the Americas, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and the subsequent emergence of global capitalism, European colonial rule and imperialism. Pan-African history therefore includes chronicling a variety of ideas, activities and movements that celebrated Africaness, resisted the exploitation and oppression of those of African descent, and opposed the ideologies of racism. viii Preface Our earliest entries are three activists of the eighteenth century who played a significant role in the struggles against slavery and racism: Toussaint L’Ouverture, the leader of the revolution in St Domingue, the only successful slave revolution in history, helped to establish Haiti as a symbol of the possibility of successful liberation and African independence in the Western hemisphere. The two British-based writers and activists, Olaudah Equiano and Ottobah Cugoano, pioneered the writing of the slave narrative and were influential champions of the humanity of Africans and the abolitionist cause. During the nineteenth century the existence of legal slavery and the trade in enslaved Africans continued in many parts of the Americas and Africa, while in Africa itself, European colonial activity increased throughout the century, culminating in the so- called ‘scramble’ for Africa and the onset of the era of imperialism. As in previous centuries, the crimes perpetrated against those of African descent were excused and justified by racist ideologies which now sometimes assumed a pseudo-scientific form. For most activists, in this period of Pan-African history, the struggle to ‘vindicate the race’ and refute notions of African inferiority was a necessity that became one of the dominant themes in their writing and activism. For some in the diaspora, like Martin Delany and Edward Blyden, a physical return to Africa was seen as vital, not least for the ‘regeneration’ of the continent itself. Others, such as Frederick Douglass, the foremost African American activist of the nineteenth century, took a different view and were determined to struggle to end legal slavery and to gain their rights in the USA, the country of their former enslavement. In Africa itself, Sierra Leonean James Horton, was just one of those who began to develop the principles of a new political science that concerned itself with the possibilities and principles of African self-government and an embryonic nationalism. The nineteenth-century activists have been seen as significant pioneers in the develop- ment of Pan-African thinking. Horton and Edward Blyden laid the foundations for the nationalist movements and ideologies that were later developed by J.E. Casely Hayford and others in West Africa in the early twentieth century. Blyden was the inspiration for the Francophone Négritude movement, while it was Delany who first used the phrase ‘Africa for the Africans’, later associated with, and popularised by, Marcus Garvey. The organised Pan-African movement can be said to have begun with the founding of the African Association in London in 1897 and the subsequent convening, in the same city, of the first Pan-African conference three years later.4 Led by the Trinidadian Henry Sylvester Williams, the early twentieth-century Pan-Africanists were concerned with strengthening the unity of all those of African descent, so as to solve what they saw as ‘the problem of the twentieth century ... the problem of the colour line’, and to ‘secure civil and political rights for Africans and their descendants throughout the world’. The struggle against colonialism and the activities of the imperialist powers in Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere also became one of the most important issues for Pan-Africanists during the first part of the century. Some, such as Dusé Mohamed Ali, believed that economic considerations must inform their Pan-African vision and maintained that the development of business and trade connections were crucial if ‘true independence’ was to be achieved. One of the key figures in Pan-African history Preface ix in the early twentieth century, the Jamaican Marcus Garvey, combined political and economic aims with the advocacy of a physical and psychological return to the African continent. During the 1930s, Pan-Africanism was strongly influenced by the international communist movement and by socialist, anti-imperialist and internationalist perspec- tives, such as those developed by the Profintern’s International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers. It was these perspectives that informed the activism and writing of George Padmore and Isaac Wallace-Johnson and the work of Alphaeus Hunton, Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Du Bois in the Council of African Affairs and elsewhere. C.L.R. James was of course for many years one of the leading figures in the international Trotskyist movement, while Marxism and an internationalist perspective were also present in the life and work of Claudia Jones, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire and Walter Rodney. Before 1945 many of the leading political figures in Pan-African history lived and worked in the diaspora rather than in Africa itself. Indeed for a time Europe might be seen as a centre of the Pan-African world.
Recommended publications
  • Anti-Imperial World Politics: Race, Class, and Internationalism in the Making of Post-Colonial Order
    P a g e | 1 Anti-imperial World Politics: Race, class, and internationalism in the making of post-colonial order Christopher Patrick Murray London School of Economics and Political Science PhD. International Relations P a g e | 2 I certify that this thesis which I am presenting for examination for the PhD degree in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work. I consider the work submitted to be a complete thesis fit for examination. I authorise that, if a degree is awarded, an electronic copy of my thesis will be deposited in LSE Theses Online (in accordance with the published deposit agreement) held by the British Library of Political and Economic Science and that, except as provided for in regulation 61 it will be made available for public reference. I authorise the School to supply a copy of the abstract of my thesis for inclusion in any published list of theses offered for higher degrees in British universities or in any supplement thereto, or for consultation in any central file of abstracts of such theses. Word count…………………………………….……….. 75, 884 P a g e | 3 ABSTRACT Anti-imperial world politics: Race, class, and internationalism in the making of post-colonial order Christopher Murray, PhD. LSE International Relations Why did many ‘black’ anti-imperial thinkers and leaders articulate projects for colonial freedom based in transnational identities and solidarities? This thesis excavates a discourse of anti-imperial globalism, which helped shape world politics from the early to late 20th century. Although usually reduced to the anticolonial nationalist politics of sovereignty and recognition, this study interprets ‘anti-imperialism globalism from below’ as a transnational counter-discourse, primarily concerned with social justice, social freedom, and equality.
    [Show full text]
  • Kwame Nkrumah and the Pan- African Vision: Between Acceptance and Rebuttal
    Austral: Brazilian Journal of Strategy & International Relations e-ISSN 2238-6912 | ISSN 2238-6262| v.5, n.9, Jan./Jun. 2016 | p.141-164 KWAME NKRUMAH AND THE PAN- AFRICAN VISION: BETWEEN ACCEPTANCE AND REBUTTAL Henry Kam Kah1 Introduction The Pan-African vision of a United of States of Africa was and is still being expressed (dis)similarly by Africans on the continent and those of Afri- can descent scattered all over the world. Its humble origins and spread is at- tributed to several people based on their experiences over time. Among some of the advocates were Henry Sylvester Williams, Marcus Garvey and George Padmore of the diaspora and Peter Abrahams, Jomo Kenyatta, Sekou Toure, Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah of South Africa, Kenya, Guinea, Tanza- nia and Ghana respectively. The different pan-African views on the African continent notwithstanding, Kwame Nkrumah is arguably in a class of his own and perhaps comparable only to Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. Pan-Africanism became the cornerstone of his struggle for the independence of Ghana, other African countries and the political unity of the continent. To transform this vision into reality, Nkrumah mobilised the Ghanaian masses through a pop- ular appeal. Apart from his eloquent speeches, he also engaged in persuasive writings. These writings have survived him and are as appealing today as they were in the past. Kwame Nkrumah ceased every opportunity to persuasively articulate for a Union Government for all of Africa. Due to his unswerving vision for a Union Government for Africa, the visionary Kwame Nkrumah created a microcosm of African Union through the Ghana-Guinea and then Ghana-Guinea-Mali Union.
    [Show full text]
  • Building on Custom: Land Tenure Policy and Economic Development in Ghana
    BLOCHER 6.20.DOC 6/20/2006 3:29 PM Note Building on Custom: Land Tenure Policy and Economic Development in Ghana Joseph Blocher† This Note addresses the intersection of customary and statutory land law in the land tenure policy of Ghana. It argues that improving the current land tenure policy demands integration of customary land law and customary authorities into the statutory system. After describing why and how customary property practices are central to the economic viability of any property system, the Note gives a brief overview of Ghana’s customary and statutory land law. The Note concludes with specific policy suggestions about how Ghana could better draw on the strength of its customary land sector. INTRODUCTION Land makes up nearly three quarters of the wealth of developing countries,1 and development leaders,2 businesspeople,3 and academics4 † B.A., Rice University, MPhil, Cambridge University, J.D. candidate, Yale Law School. Thanks to John Bruce, Martin Dixon, Daniel Fitzpatrick, and Gordon Woodman, and to the exceptionally able editors of the Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal, especially Raquiba Huq, Mollie Lee, and Adam Romero. The initial research for this paper was performed in Ghana with the support of the Fulbright Commission, and at the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge University with the support of the Gates Cambridge Trust. 1. HERNANDO DE SOTO, THE MYSTERY OF CAPITAL 86 (2000). 2. The World Bank’s 2002 development report was clear in its support for property rights as a prerequisite for economic growth. See THE WORLD BANK, BUILDING INSTITUTIONS FOR MARKETS 34-38 (2002) (discussing land rights).
    [Show full text]
  • The Gordian Knot: Apartheid & the Unmaking of the Liberal World Order, 1960-1970
    THE GORDIAN KNOT: APARTHEID & THE UNMAKING OF THE LIBERAL WORLD ORDER, 1960-1970 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Ryan Irwin, B.A., M.A. History ***** The Ohio State University 2010 Dissertation Committee: Professor Peter Hahn Professor Robert McMahon Professor Kevin Boyle Professor Martha van Wyk © 2010 by Ryan Irwin All rights reserved. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the apartheid debate from an international perspective. Positioned at the methodological intersection of intellectual and diplomatic history, it examines how, where, and why African nationalists, Afrikaner nationalists, and American liberals contested South Africa’s place in the global community in the 1960s. It uses this fight to explore the contradictions of international politics in the decade after second-wave decolonization. The apartheid debate was never at the center of global affairs in this period, but it rallied international opinions in ways that attached particular meanings to concepts of development, order, justice, and freedom. As such, the debate about South Africa provides a microcosm of the larger postcolonial moment, exposing the deep-seated differences between politicians and policymakers in the First and Third Worlds, as well as the paradoxical nature of change in the late twentieth century. This dissertation tells three interlocking stories. First, it charts the rise and fall of African nationalism. For a brief yet important moment in the early and mid-1960s, African nationalists felt genuinely that they could remake global norms in Africa’s image and abolish the ideology of white supremacy through U.N.
    [Show full text]
  • Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora Since 1787 Hakim Adi University of Chichester, [email protected]
    African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter Volume 8 Article 6 Issue 4 September 2005 7-1-2005 Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787 Hakim Adi University of Chichester, [email protected] Marika Sherwood University of London Robert Trent Vinson Washington University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/adan Part of the African American Studies Commons, African History Commons, African Languages and Societies Commons, African Studies Commons, American Art and Architecture Commons, American Material Culture Commons, Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons, Folklore Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Other International and Area Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Social History Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Adi, Hakim; Sherwood, Marika; and Vinson, Robert Trent (2005) "Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787," African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter: Vol. 8 : Iss. 4 , Article 6. Available at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/adan/vol8/iss4/6 This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Adi et al.: Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspo Book Review H-NET BOOK REVIEW Published by H-SAfrica, http://www.h-net.org/~safrica/ (April, 2005) and H-Atlantic, http://www.h-net.org/~atlantic (June 2005). Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood.
    [Show full text]
  • Exhuming and Highlighting the Nearly Forgotten Gold Coast Intelligentsia: the Life and Times of Prince Kwamin Atta Amonoo V
    Gibbs, J./Legon Journal of the Humanities Vol. 32.1 (2021) DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ljh.v32i1.1 Exhuming and highlighting the nearly forgotten Gold Coast intelligentsia: The life and times of Prince Kwamin Atta Amonoo V James Gibbs Independent scholar, Retired Academic Email: [email protected] Submitted: January 28, 2021 / Accepted: March 29, 2021/ Published: August 27, 2021 Abstract The name K. A. Amonoo sits in the Roll of Honour in the entrance hall of Queen’s College, Taunton, Somerset, England together with the names of other former pupils who served in the First World War. In recent times, focus on K. A. Amonoo has been on his palatial residence, which he built in Anomabo, a coastal town in Ghana, in colonial Gold Coast, as Micots (2015 and 2017) have sought to emphasize in terms of the architectural design of his residence. Therefore, what this paper seeks to do is to bring to light a historically significant narrative of who Amonoo was, as a case study to examine and foreground the contributions of some of the nearly forgotten African intelligentsia of coastal Ghana. Through close analysis, the paper also places a central gaze on his activism within colonial Gold Coast and Calabar in colonial Nigeria as subtle moves to counter the growing authority of the British administration. Utilizing a set of key biographical prompts, the paper reflects on thematic issues such as class and status, modernity, and resistance to British colonial hegemony. Keywords: Gold Coast Intelligentsia, Queen’s College Taunton, National Congress of British West Africa, Calabar Improvement League, Gold Coast Colony, World War I Introduction The name ‘K.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Internationalism and African and Caribbean
    BLACK INTERNATIONALISM AND AFRICAN AND CARIBBEAN INTELLECTUALS IN LONDON, 1919-1950 By MARC MATERA A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in History Written under the direction of Professor Bonnie G. Smith And approved by _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey May 2008 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Black Internationalism and African and Caribbean Intellectuals in London, 1919-1950 By MARC MATERA Dissertation Director: Bonnie G. Smith During the three decades between the end of World War I and 1950, African and West Indian scholars, professionals, university students, artists, and political activists in London forged new conceptions of community, reshaped public debates about the nature and goals of British colonialism, and prepared the way for a revolutionary and self-consciously modern African culture. Black intellectuals formed organizations that became homes away from home and centers of cultural mixture and intellectual debate, and launched publications that served as new means of voicing social commentary and political dissent. These black associations developed within an atmosphere characterized by a variety of internationalisms, including pan-ethnic movements, feminism, communism, and the socialist internationalism ascendant within the British Left after World War I. The intellectual and political context of London and the types of sociability that these groups fostered gave rise to a range of black internationalist activity and new regional imaginaries in the form of a West Indian Federation and a United West Africa that shaped the goals of anticolonialism before 1950.
    [Show full text]
  • Liberian Studies Journal
    VOLUME XIV 1989 NUMBER 2 LIBERIAN STUDIES JOURNAL r 8 °W LIBERIA -8 °N 8 °N- MONSERRADO MARGIBI MARYLAND Geography Department 10 °W University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown 8oW 1 Published by THE LIBERIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION, INC. PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor Cover map: compiled by William Kory, cartography work by Jodie Molnar; Geography Department, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor VOLUME XIV 1989 NUMBER 2 LIBERIAN STUDIES JOURNAL Editor D. Elwood Dunn The University of the South Associate Editor Similih M. Cordor Kennesaw College Book Review Editor Dalvan M. Coger Memphis State University EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Bertha B. Azango Lawrence B. Breitborde University of Liberia Beloit College Christopher Clapham Warren L. d'Azevedo Lancaster University University of Nevada Reno Henrique F. Tokpa Thomas E. Hayden Cuttington University College Africa Faith and Justice Network Svend E. Holsoe J. Gus Liebenow University of Delaware Indiana University Corann Okorodudu Glassboro State College Edited at the Department of Political Science, The University of the South PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor CONTENTS THE LIBERIAN ECONOMY ON APRIL 1980: SOME REFLECTIONS 1 by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF AGRICULTURE AMONG THE KPELLE: KPELLE FARMING THROUGH KPELLE EYES 23 by John Gay "PACIFICATION" UNDER PRESSURE: A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF LIBERIAN INTERVENTION IN NIMBA 1912 -1918 ............ 44 by Martin Ford BLACK, CHRISTIAN REPUBLICANS: DELEGATES TO THE 1847 LIBERIAN CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION ........................ 64 by Carl Patrick Burrowes TRIBE AND CHIEFDOM ON THE WINDWARD COAST 90 by Warren L.
    [Show full text]
  • Advocate, Fall 2016, Vol. 28, No. 1
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works The Advocate Archives and Special Collections Fall 2016 Advocate, Fall 2016, Vol. 28, No. 1 How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_advocate/22 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] VolumeVolume 28 27 Fall Spring no. 1n. 2016 2 2016 www.GCadvocate.comwww.GCadvocate.com [email protected]@cunydsc.org Donald Trump and the Death Rattle of Liberal Civility pg. 31 Stranger in my Skin: Racial (un)belonging in the US pg. 18 Gil Bruvel, Dichotomy, Stainless Steel sculpture editorial The Difficulty of www.GCadvocate.com Making a Voting Decision [email protected] Contents Who to vote for in the upcoming election? That is be able to keep calm as most of us have been doing? the question. In past elections, the most important Or will I punch back if I am hit—sweetly punch back things that influenced how I vetted presidential can- in the tradition of the ancestors who recognized the EDITORIAL FEATURES didates included their positions on wars, national need to deploy counter strategies that have given me security, economy, the LGBTQ community, and their the liberties I cherish today. Indeed, how powerfully The Difficulty of Stranger in my Skin: plans for developing regions like the Caribbean, where will I punch back with fists, body, talk, and silence until Making a Voting Racial (un)belonging I am from.
    [Show full text]
  • The Speculative Fiction of Octavia Butler and Tananarive Due
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Digital Commons@Wayne State University Wayne State University DigitalCommons@WayneState Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2010 An Africentric Reading Protocol: The pS eculative Fiction Of Octavia Butler And Tananarive Due Tonja Lawrence Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Recommended Citation Lawrence, Tonja, "An Africentric Reading Protocol: The peS culative Fiction Of Octavia Butler And Tananarive Due" (2010). Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 198. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. AN AFRICENTRIC READING PROTOCOL: THE SPECULATIVE FICTION OF OCTAVIA BUTLER AND TANANARIVE DUE by TONJA LAWRENCE DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2011 MAJOR: COMMUNICATION Approved by: __________________________________________ Advisor Date __________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ © COPYRIGHT BY TONJA LAWRENCE 2011 All Rights Reserved DEDICATION To my children, Taliesin and Taevon, who have sacrificed so much on my journey of self-discovery. I have learned so much from you; and without that knowledge, I could never have come this far. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply grateful for the direction of my dissertation director, help from my friends, and support from my children and extended family. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my dissertation director, Dr. Mary Garrett, for exceptional support, care, patience, and an unwavering belief in my ability to complete this rigorous task.
    [Show full text]
  • Migrated Archives): Ceylon
    Colonial administration records (migrated archives): Ceylon Following earlier settlements by the Dutch and Secret and confidential despatches sent to the Secretary of State for the Portuguese, the British colony of Ceylon was Colonies established in 1802 but it was not until the annexation of the Kingdom of Kandy in 1815 FCO 141/2098-2129: the despatches consist of copies of letters and reports from the Governor that the entire island came under British control. and the departments of state in Ceylon circular notices on a variety of subjects such as draft bills and statutes sent for approval, the publication Ceylon became independent in 1948, and a of orders in council, the situation in the Maldives, the Ceylon Defence member of the British Commonwealth. Queen Force, imports and exports, currency regulations, official visits, the Elizabeth remained Head of State until Ceylon political movements of Ceylonese and Indian activists, accounts of became a republic in 1972, under the name of Sri conferences, lists of German and Italian refugees interned in Ceylon and Lanka. accounts of labour unrest. Papers relating to civil servants, including some application forms, lists of officers serving in various branches, conduct reports in cases of maladministration, medical reports, job descriptions, applications for promotion, leave and pensions, requests for transfers, honours and awards and details of retirements. 1931-48 Secret and confidential telegrams received from the Secretary of State for the Colonies FCO 141/2130-2156: secret telegrams from the Colonial Secretary covering subjects such as orders in council, shipping, trade routes, customs, imports and exports, rice quotas, rubber and tea prices, trading with the enemy, air communications, the Ceylon Defence Force, lists of The binder also contains messages from the Prime Minister and enemy aliens, German and Japanese reparations, honours the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Mr Senanyake on 3 and appointments.
    [Show full text]
  • West Indian Intellectuals in Britain
    INTRODUCTION Crossing the seas Bill Schwarz There exists a moving photographic record of West Indian emigrants arriving in British cities in the 1950s, first by steamship and steam train, then later, by the end of the decade and into the 1960s, by plane. We still see, in our own times, these images of men and women who, for all their apprehensions, were stepping across the threshold into new lives, bringing with them a certain presence. These are images which evoke a sense of hardships in the past overcome and hardships just around the corner yet to confront. They give form to the dreams which had compelled a generation of migrants to pack up and cross the seas. And they capture too a sensibility founded on the conviction that these dreams were rightfully theirs: a dream, in other words, of colonials who believed that the privileges of empire were their due.1 These photographic images, and those of the flickering, mono- chrome newsreels which accompany them, have now come to compose a social archive. They serve to fix the collective memory of the momen- tous transformation of postwar migration. At the same time, however, their very familiarity works to conceal other angles of vision. We become so habituated to the logic of the camera-eye that we are led to forget that the vision we are bequeathed is uncompromisingly one-way. The images which fix this history as social memory are images of the West Indians. The camera is drawn to them. The moment they enter the field of vision, the focal point adjusted, they become fixed as something new: as immigrants.
    [Show full text]