Know more about The Pan-African Movement
Out of the political movements that ended enslavement, the Pan-African movement continued the fight against growing racism and growing imperialism.
The Pan-African movement gave a common identity to people from Africa and those throughout the diaspora.
Utilising many of the same techniques honed in the battle to end enslavement, it went further. It sought to forge an identity for African and Black people around the world, fostering a sense of unity and self-determination. The father of Pan-Africanism Dr W. E. B. Du Bois wrote in 1915, ‘A belief in humanity means a belief in coloured men. The future world will in all reasonable possibility, be what coloured men make of it.’[1]
It was a truly international movement, with notable leaders from Britain, Africa, and the United States. The Pan-African Movement took continuing questions over assimilation or emigration[2]. Its world-wide reach due to the diaspora of TTEA and due to growing number of Black immigrations to port towns in Europe, Britain and Northeast England being no exception.
The Pan-African movement took up the argument against a growing tide of pseudo-scientific theories about the inferiority of Africans.
James Africanus Beale Horton
James Africanus Beale Horton was born in 1835 near Freetown, Sierra Leone. He qualified as a doctor in 1859 from King's College London and Edinburgh universities. As a student, he took the name Africanus to show his pride in his heritage.
In his seminal work, West African Countries and Peoples, British and Native and vindication of the African race, Horton systematically takes apart ridiculous racial theories that abounded at the time in a cool and scientific manner. He called the theories for what they were: racist. Here he dismantles Dr Hunt, the same one who William Craft educated in Newcastle in 1863.
Of Dr Hunt we must truly state that he knows nothing of the Black race, and his descriptions are borrowed from the writings of men who are particularly prejudiced against that race; his absurd pro-slavery views . . . would perhaps have suited a hundred years ago; but all true Africans must dismiss them with scorn.[3]
He then goes further, to discuss what parts of Africa needed and deserved to be allowed to flourish.
Alice Kinloch is a South African who has largely gone unrecognised for her contribution to setting up the Pan African movement.
The Pan-African movement had successes and failures. It inspired millions of people of African descent and was thought of as a danger by British and American authorities who were not above sabotaging the movement.
This movement would go on to inspire the Civil Rights movements and modern racial and political thought. It encompassed not only social and political thought, but literature, economic theory, art, music, and other forms of expression.
The Pan African Conference 1900.
A major turning point and the first time the term ‘Pan-African’ appeared was in a conference held in Westminster Town Hall in July 1900.[4] Its main aim was to highlight injustice in Britain’s African colonies and to force pressure on MPs to act. It also wanted to foster a sense of unity for Africans.[5]
The international reach of this growing movement is clear from this first conference. Held in London by a Trinidadian lawyer, Henry Sylvester Williams, its joint founder was South African Alice Victoria Kinloch. Alice Kinloch has largely gone unrecognised for her contribution to setting up the Pan African movement.
Williams spoke in the Northeast at a Temperance Hall (exact location not stated) on 29th August 1898. The Daily Chronicle describes Williams as eloquent and interesting in a short report about the well-attended event.[6]
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor attended, as did Celestine Edwards.
The scope of the conference was widened, and it included discussion on lynching in the USA. American Pan-Africanist, historian and sociologist
W.E.B. Du Bois attended from the USA.
Hakim Adi notes that an important aim of the conference was for those of African descent to ‘speak for themselves against all the injustices they faced.’[7] The conference, if nothing else, showed the increasingly vocal calls for equality by those of African descent.
The United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)
In 1914 the United Negro Improvement Association was formed by Marcus Garvey in Jamaica with an aim of representing all Black people in Africa and the diaspora.[8] The organisation took its initial inspiration from W.E.B. Du Bois and the idea of proving self-worth and self-reliance. It had a religious, nationalistic tone. It became the largest mass movement in African American history that started in America and grew to Africa, the Caribbean and other parts of the world.[9]
The role of World War One comes into play here. Black people had fought for their imperial home countries and the United States in the hope that they would prove themselves loyal and the equal of white people. However, discrimination and racism remained and even increased in the years after the war. Further disillusioned by this, the Pan-African message of self-worth and belief in the Black race proved extremely popular.
There were branches in Africa, the West Indies, America and in the UK (London, Manchester, Barry, and Cardiff)
UNIA’s message can best be summed up by Garvey.
We must canonise our own saints, create our own martyrs, and elevate to positions of fame and honour Black men and women who have made their distinct contributions to our racial history. Sojourner Truth is worthy of the place of sainthood alongside Joan of Arc; Crispus Attucks and George William Gordon are entitled to the halo of martyrdom with no less glory than that of the martyrs of any other race. Toussaint L'Ouverture's brilliancy as a soldier and statesman outshone that of Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon, and Washington, hence, he is entitled to the highest place as a hero among men. Africa has produced countless numbers of men and women, in war and in peace, whose lustre and bravery outshine that of any other people. Then why not see good and perfection in ourselves.[10]
Member numbers were in the millions worldwide. Garvey became, ‘the greatest mass leader to appear on the American scene since the time of Frederick Douglass.’[11]
Garvey and UNIA’s less than overwhelming support for Ethiopia and Haille Selassie when Ethiopia was invaded by Fascist Italy led to splits within the organisation. Garvey’s militant attitudes towards reversing the diaspora and people moving back to Africa was controversial. Garvey also spent time in prison for fraud and met with the head of the Ku Klux Klan. This marginalised him by the 1930’s.
Despite this, the role of UNIA in providing a worldwide organisation and message of unity for Black people who had continued to be let down in the 20th century cannot be underestimated.
Samuel Celestine Edwards
Samuel Celestine Edwards left his Dominica home as a teenager. He ran away to sea, spending time in the USA, before coming to Britain. He was one of the first Pan-Africanists.
Once in Britain Edwards lived in Sunderland. While in Sunderland he worked as an insurance agent. This was a well-paid job, better paid than the average for this time.[12]
While living in Sunderland, Edwards advocated for temperance (not drinking alcohol) and also spoke against the rising tide of racism in Britain.
He often spoke at the Assembly Hall on Fawcett Street. (This building has since been replaced) There is a Blue Plaque now, celebrating his contribution to Sunderland.[13]
Edwards, like other Pan-Africanists spoke out against so-called scientific theories that came following Darwin’s Theory of Evolution became popular. The pseudo-scientific theories that were prevalent at the time were fuelled by racism. He also spoke about against lynchings of Black people in the United States.
From Sunderland he moved to London, where he continued to speak and became the first Black editor in the UK when he took on that role at Lux: A Weekly Christian Evidence Journal from 1892-5 and Fraternity from 1893-7, while he continued to lecture. In 1893 he supported the speaking tour of American journalist and civil rights advocate Ida B. Wells.[14] He wrote an introduction to United States Atrocities by Ida. B. Wells in 1892.[15]
Edwards worked on this and other pursuits. He toured the country speaking against imperialism, lynchings in the US and racism in Britain. He died in 1894, said by many to have worked himself to his early death.
Black Star Line
At the end of the 19th Century a sign of world presence and affluence was to own a line of ships. Garvey and others in UNIA wanted a line of ships that would be owned by the organisation and show the world a self-sufficient, successful shipping line. Its ships were captained by Black people at a time when jobs of authority were kept away from Black people.
The BSL operated three ships in America and the West Indies. Shares were sold to make ownership more democratic. However, with little experience in running a shipping line, and bringing the attention of countries suspicious of this new sign of Black independence the BSL was short lived.[16]
The Pan-African movement, despite being targeted by governments, became a unifying voice, a strong political movement, an inspiration for civil rights thinkers and one that wholeheartedly supported the advancement of Black people all over the world.
[1] As quoted in Thompson, V.B. (1984) Africa and unity the evolution of Pan-Africanism. Essex u.a.: Longman. p36
[2] Thompson, V.B. (1969) Africa and unity: The evolution of Pan-Africanism. London: Longman.
Pg 6.
[3] Beale, H.J.A. (2011) West African countries and peoples, British and native and a vindication of the African race. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p37
[4] Geiss, I. (1974) The Pan-African movement: Transl. by Ann Keep. London: Methuen. Pg 165
[5] Adi (2018) Pan-Africanism: A history. London etc.: Bloomsbury. Pg 20
[6] The Newcastle Daily Chronicle 29/08/1898. P 3. Acceded via https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001634/18980829/082/0003 on 11/03/23
[7] Adi (2018) Pan-Africanism: A history. London etc.: Bloomsbury. Pg 21
[8] This dates comes from Hakim Adi’s Pan Africanism A History (p26) However, African and Unity The evolution of Pan Africanism by Vincent Bakpetu Thompson puts the date at 1920 (p37) http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/garvey.htm puts the date as 1917 and all in different locations.
[9] (No date) Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the Twentieth Century, Divining America: Religion in American history, Teacher Serve, National Humanities Centre. Available at: https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/garvey.htm (Accessed: 08 September 2023).
[10] Hill, R.A. and Bair, B. (1987) Marcus Garvey, life, and lessons: A centennial companion to the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association papers. Berkeley: University of California Press.
P. 3
[11] Thompson, V.B. (1984) Africa and unity the evolution of Pan-Africanism. Essex u.a.: Longman. P 27. A tall claim that misses out lots of very prominent Black American civil rights campaigners in the reconstruction era.
[12] Celestine Edwards (no date) Seagull City. Available at: https://wp.sunderland.ac.uk/seagullcity/celestine-edwards/ (Accessed: February 26, 2023).
[13] Nicole Goodwin Journo (2020) Plaque honouring Britain's first Black newspaper editor unveiled in Sunderland, Chronicle Live. Available at: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/black-newspaper-editor-plaque-sunderland-19106850# (Accessed: February 26, 2023).
[14] ADI, H.A.K.I.M. (2023) African and Caribbean people in Britain: A history. S.l.: PENGUIN. P 195-196
[15] United States atrocities: Lynch law (no date) NYPL Digital Collections. Available at: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-9528-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 (Accessed: 31 May 2024). PLEASE NOTE. This link also has images that you may find distressing.
[16] Steam (2023) The Black Star Line, STEAMing Into The Future. Available at: https://shiphistory.org/2020/01/20/the-black-star-line/ (Accessed: March 15, 2023).