Lesson 24: Pan-Africanism
Video Lesson
Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- discuss the birth and development of the Pan-Africanism movement;
- identify the main leaders of the Pan-Africanism movement;
- explain the unique feature of the Fifth Pan-African movement of 1945 to Africa;
Brainstorming Questions
- What do we mean by “Pan-Africanism”?
- What makes the 5th Pan-African Conference different from the previous Pan-African Conferences?
Key Terminology and Concepts
- Pan Africanism
- Back to Africa Movement.”
- The Universal Negro Improvement Association
Pan-Africanism is a general term for various movements in Africa that have as their common goal the unity of Africans and the elimination of colonialism and white supremacy from the continent.
The back-to-Africa movement was a political movement in the 19th and 20th centuries advocating for a return of the descendants of African American slaves to the African continent.
The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League is a black nationalist fraternal organization founded by Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican immigrant to the United States, and his then-wife Amy Ashwood Garvey
A. Pan-Africanism
Congresses of Pan-Africanism
The first Pan-Africanism Conference was held in London in 1900. Before 1945, four Pan-African Conferences were held. The two prominent Pan–African leaders during that period were Dr. William Du Bois (1868-1963) and Marcus Garvey (1887-1940).Du Bois is referred to as the Father of Pan-Africanism. Du Bois believed that black people residing outside their mother continent should struggle to ensure their rights in their host countries. Contrary to this stand, Marcus Garvey insisted that the only bright future for people of African origin living outside Africa was to return to their mother continent, Africa. To materialize this dream, Garvey organized the so called “Back to Africa Movement.” The Universal Negro Improvement Association, established by Garvey in 1914, was meant to promote his “Back to Africa Movement.”
In 1945, the Fifth Pan-African Conference was held in Manchester. This conference was different from the previous Pan-African conferences in the sense that it was the first time that Africans from the African continent participated and the issue of independence of Africa was raised. Some of the participants of the Fifth Pan-African Conference were the future leaders of independent Africa, like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya. The decisions of the Fifth Pan-African Conference brought Africans together in the struggle to achieve political independence.