Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:31:48.240Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pan-Africanism and West African Nationalism in Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Hakim Adi
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This article outlines some aspects of the history of West Africans in Britain during the colonial era in the first half of the twentieth century. In particular it focuses on the emergence of West African nationalism in Britain and highlights some of the political activities of those African sojourners abroad, who were also temporarily part of the diaspora. Their political organizations, especially the West African Students' Union and the West African National Secretariat, were influential in West Africa and throughout the diaspora and reflected changing political identities, consciousness, and historical conditions. Most important, they show that West Africans developed and maintained their own distinctive political aims, consciousness, and ideologies, while at the same time contributing to and being influenced by those of the diaspora. These aims and ideologies also reflected the particularities of political and social conditions in Britain, conditions that were shaped by the African presence itself. West African nationalism provided a distinctive philosophy and orientation even for West Africans' pan-African activities. Indeed they saw the future of Africa and the diaspora as determined by political and other advances in the West African colonies.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Cet article retrace quelques uns des aspects de l'histoire des Africains de l'Ouest en Grande Bretagne pendant l'ère coloniale de la première moitié du vingtième siècle. Nous nous penchons en particulier sur l'émergence du nationalisme ouest-africain en Grande Bretagne et mettons en relief certaines activités politiques de ces africains en séjour à l'étranger, qui firent également momentanément partie de la diaspora. Leurs organisations politiques, plus particulièrement la West African Students' Union (Syndicat des étudiants ouest-africains) et le West African National Secretariat (Secrétariat national ouest-africain), exercèrent une influence en Afrique de l'Ouest et dans toute la diaspora, et reflètent un changement des identités politiques, des consciences et des conditions historiques. Par dessus tout, elles mettent l'accent sur le fait que les Africains de l'Ouest développèrent et maintinrent leurs propres et distincts buts politiques, consciences et idéologies, tout en contribuant en même temps à ceux de la diaspora et en étant influencés par eux. Ces buts et idéologies reflétèrent également les circonstances particulières des conditions politiques et sociales en Grande Bretagne, des conditions qui furent façonnées par la présence africaine elle-même. Le nationalisme ouest africain offrit une philosophie et une orientation distinctives, même pour les activités panafricaines des Africains de l'Ouest. En effet, ils considérèrent l'avenir de l'Afrique et de la diaspora comme déterminés par les avancées politiques et autres dans les colonies ouest africaines.

Type
Special Issue on the Diaspora
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 43 , Issue 1: Africa's Diaspora: A Special Issue , April 2000 , pp. 69 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2000

References

Adi, Hakim. 1991. “Bandele Omoniyi: A Neglected Nigerian Nationalist.” African Affairs 90 (361): 581–605.Google Scholar
Adi, Hakim. 1994. “West African Students in Britain, 1900–60: The Politics of Exile.” In Africans in Britain, ed. Killingray, D.. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Adi, Hakim. 1995. “West Africans and the Communist Party in the 1950s.” In Opening the Books: Essays on the Social and Cultural History of the British Communist Party, ed. Andrews, G., Fishman, N., and Morgan, K.. London: Pluto.Google Scholar
Adi, Hakim. 1998. West Africans in Britain, 1900–1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism. London: Lawrence & Wishart.Google Scholar
Adi, Hakim, and Sherwood, Marika. 1995. The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited. London: New Beacon.Google Scholar
Animashawun, G. K. 1963. “African Students in Britain.” Race 5: 38–48.Google Scholar
Carey, A. T. 1956. Colonial Students: A Study of the Social Adaptation of Colonial Students in London. London: Seeker and Warburg.Google Scholar
Carretta, Vincent. 1999. “Introduction.” In Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery, ed. Cugoano, Q. C.. London: Penguin, ix–xxxi.Google Scholar
de Graft Johnson, J. W. 1971. Towards Nationhood in West Africa: Thoughts of Young Africa Addressed to Young Britain. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Duffield, Ian. 1992. “Duse Mohammed Ali: Afro-Asian Solidarity and Pan-Africanism in Early Twentieth-Century London.” In Essays on the History of Blacks in Britain, ed. Duffield, I.. and Gundara, J. S.. Aldershot: Avebury.Google Scholar
Edwards, Paul. 1994. “Unreconciled Strivings and Ironic Strategies: Three Afro-British Authors of the Late Georgian Period.” In Africans in Britain, ed. Killingray, D.. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Esedebe, Peter. 1978. “WASU's Pan-African Role Reconsidered.” Journal of the Historical Society of Sierra Leone 2, no. 2 (07): 1–10.Google Scholar
Esedebe, Peter. 1982. Pan-Africanism: The Idea and Movement, 1776–1963. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press.Google Scholar
Fyer, Peter. 1984. Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain. London: Pluto.Google Scholar
Garigue, Philip. 1953. “The West African Students' Union: A Study in Culture Contact.” Africa 23, no.1 (01.): 55–69.Google Scholar
Jenkins, R. 1985. “Gold Coasters Overseas, 1880–1919: With Specific Reference to Their Activities in Britain.” Immigrants and Minorities 4, no. 3 (11.): 5–52.Google Scholar
Killingray, David, ed. 1994. Africans in Britain. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Langley, J. Ayodele. 1973. Pan-Africanism and Nationalism in West Africa 1900–45: A Study in Ideology and Social Classes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Olusanya, Gabriel Olakunle. 1982. The West African Students' Union and the Politics of Decolonisation, 1925–1958. Ibadan: Daystar.Google Scholar
Political and Economic Planing. 1955. Colonial Students in Britain: A Report by PEP. London: Political and Economic Planning.Google Scholar
Rich, Paul. 1987. “The Black Diaspora in Britain: Afro-Caribbean Students and the Struggle for a Political Identity, 1900–1950.” Immigrants and Minorities 6, no. 2 (07): 151–73.Google Scholar
Sherwood, Marika. 1996. Kwame Nkrumah: The Years Abroad, 1935–47. Legon: Freedom Publications.Google Scholar
Shyllon, Folarin. 1977. Black People in Britain, 1555–1833. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Solanke, Ladipo. 1969. United West Africa (or Africa) at the Bar of the Family of Nations. London: African Publications Society.Google Scholar
UNESCO. 1994. The Role of African Student Movements in the Political and Social Evolution of Africa from 1900 to 1975. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.Google Scholar
West African Students' Union. 1935. Wasu 4, no. 3 (09.)Google Scholar