DID YOU KNOW
The philosophy of Pan Africanism is an age old belief system for African people worldwide. It has its champions like WEB Du Bois and others who are celebrated for articulating the views of the African people.
Trinidadian George Padmore (1902 – 1959) however stands out as an organic intellectual, trained in journalism and law, but rose in the ranks as a militant student and became a renowned communist.
From 1929 to 1933 he led the ‘Negro Bureau’ of the Communist International where he agitated for African liberation and anti-colonial revolution. He was disenchanted with the CommIntern when Stalin took Britain and France as ‘democratic allies’ against Nazism, whereas the western powers exploited African colonies to the hilt.
He had written his seminal book, ‘The Life and Struggles of Negro Toilers’ (1931). In 1936 he published ‘How Britain Rules Africa.’ The revolutionary theory of the national liberation struggle was being formulated and gaining ground.
Padmore conducted underground work in the African struggle against colonialism and imperialism. His circle of comrades included Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, CLR James and others. They convened the groundbreaking Fifth Pan African Congress in 1945 in Manchester, UK.
In 1956 his book ‘Pan Africanism or Communism’ made an impact on the Africanists. Sobukwe states that the one copy they had circulated until it was dog eared. Padmore became an advisor to Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania. He died in September 1959.