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Pan Black'intellectuals Respond to Racism And PAN FRIWIRM AND PAN-AFRICANISTSi BLACK'INTELLECTUALS RESPOND TO RACISM AND COLONIALISM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY , w the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour line.. the relation - of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and :.the islands of the sea ." ... W,S,H,DuBois , Address to the Nations of the .,World, Pan-African Conference, 100. a There is slowly arising not only a curiously strong brotherhood of Negro blood throughout the world, but the common cause of the darker races against the intolerable assumption ark insults of Europeans has already found expression. Most men in the world are coloured . A belief in humanity means a belief in coloured men. The future world will, in all reasonable possibility, be what col1bred men make it*" .» W.I.H.DuBois, 'The Nearo,1915+ , a and to THE WESTERNIZED AND TRAGIC ELITE OF ASIA, AFRICA, AND THE WEST INDIES...... the lonely outsiders who exist precariously on the clifflike margins of many,cultures... mt# who are 'distrusted, misunderstood, maligned, critized "' by Loft and Right. Christian and pagan.... men who carry on their frail. but indefatigable shoulders the best of two worlds . and who, amidst confusion and stagnation, seek desparately for a have for their heartst a home which, if found could be a home for the hearts of all mn.a. Richard Wright, White Man Listeg,- 195?. 'the turn'of the twentieth century the scramble for Africa ( or rape of Africa, according to ones paint of view) was . over, and , African-attempts to resist European political and economic domination were notably =success. ful . In the West Indies, the British were firmly entrenched and appeared to be there forever. In the United States, reconstruction had long since ended and racial repression and,lynching were the order of the day, Imperia- lism. new or old. was the avowed policy of the United States and all the major European powers . Black intellectuals and thinkers, generally the ftrat generation with western education , made a number of responses to their si" tuation. These ranged from the aocomodationism advocated by Hooker T.Wash. .ington of the United States, James Aggrey of the Orold Coast and John Tengo J*bavu of South Africa to the militant advocacy of resistance of such as W.$.HDuSois, John Chilembwe of Nyasaland, and Berry Sylvester-Williimms of the West Indies . The advocates of resistance, regardless of location, shared an idea". logy which had, in general, two major features: first,, an interest in and concern far the problem of black people wherever they may be stemming from the'belief that the problems facing black people were international in scope and had to be addressed at that level and second, opposition to colonialism and imperialism coull.ed with a desire for national independence . In the United States, national independence was analogous to full political, civil. and social equality. Pan.,Africanism, its ideas,goals and institutions, were just one manifestation of this more general ideology. This paper will attempt to delineate, through a discussion of the six Pan-African conferences held from 1900 to 1945, the interaction between black intellectuals in West Africa, the West Indies , and the United States as they grappled with the common p of racism and ool6nialism. W.B H.DuBais is, of course, the maJor fi¢ur `~, in the earlier conferences . but this paper will attempt to emphasize the activities of such West Indians as C.L.R. James and George Padmore, and such Africans as Xwamb Nkrumah and linamdi Azikiwe. The education received by these men in the United Sta uring the late 1920's and 1930 11 s, and their experiences with radical politicians and writers in both the United !States and Britain prepared them to seize the opportunities provided by the depression. the rise of Hitler and the Second World War and made the their post war drive for national independence as virtually inevitable. The Fifth Pan-African Congress held in 1945 can be viewed as a culmination of personal and social forces rooted deep in the pacts of Europe, Africa. and the New World. The story of the Pan-African conferences and of the interaction. both personal and intellectual, between the black intellectuals of Africa, the West Indies, and the United States in the United States and in Britain is one that has yet to be told in detail. This paper is merely a preface org an introduction to one of the more fascinating and important, historical problems of our times.A .clear under. standing of this aspect of the past could be of inestimable value in the understanding both present difficulties and future prospects action between western and non"awestern peoples and cultures . Pan-Afrioanism, in its modern form, had its genesis in the minds of New World. blacks, its adolescence in the capitals of Europe, and its young adulthood on the African continent. The problems confronting the full naw turation of Pan-Africanism are many , but the idea is not dead and will be f importance in the future history , of the world. In the late 189U "s Joseph Booth an English clergyman, championed the idea " Africa for the Africans", wrote a by that title, formed the African Christian Union, and called a conference in Natal to which one hundred and twenty educated Africans came. At the conference, held in 1096, Booth had the support of John Chilembvs, Navuma Tembula, Solomon Kmalo, and several others, but his plan for the unification of Africans Into a United' Christian Nation was rejected simply because the Africans felt that no white man could be trusted, not even Joseph Booth.I The first Pan-African conference was convened in London from January 23rd through the 25th,1900 . The general secretary and initiator of the conference was Henry Sylvester Williams, a West Indian barrister. Williams was born in Trinidad in 1868, taught for a while in an elementary school, later practiced law in England and South Africa. He also acted as legal adviser to several African chiefs who came to London on missions to the Colonial Office . He found time to do extensive traveling in Africa, the United States and Canada,2 William's purpose in calling the conference wa oppose the aggression of European colonizers , and to appeal to the British missionary and aboli.. tionist traditions to counsel protection for the rights of Africans . Working closely with Williams was Bishop Alexander Walters of the A .M.E.Kion Church, who was elected president of the conference. Vice-president was Henry B.Brown and chairman of the Committee on Address was W,E.B.DuBois, In Ahirty blacks attended, most of whom were intellectuals from England, the West Indies and the United States, In reply to a memorial sent by the conference to Queen Victoria protesting the treatment of Africans in South Africa and Rhodesia, Joseph Chamberlain wrote that " Her Maajesty"s povernmnst will not overlook the interests and welfare of the native races",3 It is perhaps needless to say that nothing further was done by " Her Majesty"s government". Rayford Logan contends that Williams did not envision independence or self-goverrns®nt for Africa, but that DuBois did and incorporated theme aims in the conference address . In addition to DuBois" famous dictum. that " the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the 4kor line" the address urged that the British grant self government to their Afrioan and West Indian colinies as soon as possible, that the Congo Free State become an independent black nation, and that the integrity of such free black nations as Ethiopia . Liberia and Haiti. be respected *4 The years from 1900 to 1915 saw the death of Williams, the shifting of the bulk of DuBois$ attentions to U,Se domestic problems, and the concentration of Bishop Walter's energies in the activities of the Afro. American Council and the A.M.E. Zion tihurch. DuBois, however, dial find time to formulate concepts which would serve to build a theoretical basis for the Pan.African movement which he was to dominate until the Second World War. In 1911, he attended they first Races Congress in London to deliver an ad. dress entitled " The Negro Race in the United States". This congress consisted of representatives of mar* of the races and sub-races in the world who were seeking. cooperation, especially among social soienbista, to ensure a future free of racial prejudice and conflict. At the close of the first World War, agitation for the rights of black people in the United States and throughout the world waa growing.' In December.1918. DuBois vent to Paris with the twin goals of onlling a Pan-African Congress and of impressing the nations at the Paris Peace'Con." ference of the importance of Africa to ,world peace. Neither DuBois nor' his plans for a congress were greeted by the colonial powers with any enthusiasm and the best that he got from Col .House,advisor to Woodrow Wilson, was sympathy. It was at this point that Blaise Daigne, a Senegalese deputy to the French Chamber of Depities and the Commissair"eneral for West Africa exerted his influence. Daigne was a close friend of Georges Clemenceau and had gained his indebtedness by ,recruiting thousands of African` troops to bolster the faltering French 'army in 1917. Clemenceau gave Daiigne perms.. sion'to hold' the congress and it took place from February 19»21,1919. The United States goverment. fearful that the l nsching of black people in the United States and, the treatment of black soldiers in Francs would be discussed.
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