Walter White and the British: A Lost Oppurtunity

In his article, Walter White and the American Negro Soldier in World War II,Thomas Hachey concluded that there was no real way to determine the measure of influence, if any, that Walter White had upon the plight of colored peoples in other lands during the Second World War. While I would agree with this statement, black American soldiers were not the only colored people involved in WWII: as White himself wrote, WWII has given the Negro a sense of kinship with other colored peoples of the world; he senses that the struggle of the Negro in the U.S. is part and parcel of the struggle against imperialism and exploitation in India, China, Burma, Africa, the Philippines Malaya, the West Indies and South America.Y Yet, when we examine White\u27s correspondence with the British government regarding British racism and his visit to the U.K. in 1944, his sense of kinship with the plight of other blacks appears to be as nonexistent as was his inability or unwillingness to use the power and influence of the NAACP on their behalf. These episodes also demonstrate the duplicity, mendacity, and racism of the British as well as the ease with which they handled the NAACP\u27s Secretary, who turned out to be a paper tiger, despite British apprehensions

Perfidious Albion: Britain, the USA, and Slavery in ther 1840s and 1860s

Britain outlawed trading in slaves in 1807; subsequent legislation tightened up the law, and the Royal Navy\u27s cruisers on the West Coast attempted to prevent the export ofany more enslaved Africans. From 1808 through the 1860s, Britain also exerted considerable pressure (accompanied by equally considerable sums of money) on the U.S.A., Brazil, and European countries in the trade to cease their slaving. Subsequently, at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, which was at least partly fought over the issue of the extension of slavery, Britain declared her neutrality. Insofar as appearances were concerned, the British government both engaged in a vigorous suppression of the Atlantic slave trade and kept a distance from Confederate rebels during the American Civil War. But is that the whole story regarding Britain, the trade in enslaved Africans, and slavery? Did the British government prosecute Britons who broke the law with the utmost rigor, for example? And to what extent did that government maintain its professed neutrality in the war between the states

'In this curriculum, I don't exist'

Paper given at History in British Education (first conference

The Quest in the United Kingdom for African Unity, 1945-48

This article outlines the formation, ideology and activities of the West African National Secretariat (WANS), established in London in 1945-6 by Nkrumah and this colleagues, from both the English and French West African colonies. Their aim was unity, as the only hope of real independence was through unity of all ethnic groups and all social classes, not just the ‘intelligentsia’. Outlined are WANS’ activities, its work with other political groups/activists in the UK and France, and reports in Gold Coast and Nigerian newspapers, which were kept fully informed. Labelled a communist, Nkrumah was under surveillance by MI5 in the UK and on his return home in 1947. Was this the beginning of the Cold War in West Africa? La Quête au Royaume-Uni pour l’Union Africaine, 1945-48  Résumé Cet article présente la formation, l’idéologie et les activités du West African National Secretariat [Secrétariat National de l'Afrique de l'Ouest] (WANS), établi à Londres entre les années 1945 et 1946 par Nkrumah et ses collègues issus des colonies anglophones et francophones en Afrique de l’Ouest dont le but était l’union, le seul espoir pour l’Independence réelle étant réalisable à travers l’union de tous les groupes ethniques et de toutes les classes sociales, et non pas seulement « l’intelligentsia ». Sont présentés dans cet article les activités de WANS, ses opérations avec d’autres groupes/militants politiques au Royaume-Uni et en France, ainsi que les rapports dans les journaux au Gold Coast et au Nigeria qui étaient bien informés. Qualifié de communiste, Nkrumah était sous la surveillance de MI5 au Royaume-Uni et à son retour au pays en 1947. Ce fait marque-t-il le début de la Guerre Froide en Afrique de l’Ouest

The African Students Association of America and Canada, 1941 – 1945

In 1943 African-American Roi Ottley noted in his 1943 book, New World AComing, that it was ‘the African  Students Association [who] are keeping the issue [of the importance of Africa to the world economy] alive  among Amer can Negroes’. (p.326) Some twenty years later, historian James Coleman in his  magisterial book, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (1986) argued that ‘…developments outside Nigeria had important repercussions upon the growth of postwar nationalism. These centred mainly around the activities of Nigerian students abroad.’ (p.239). He then noted that the ‘twenty-eight African wartime  students in America, with one or two exceptions, became leaders in the nationalist movement of their respective countries’. (p.244) Though the work of the West African Students Union (WASU) in London has been chronicled, there is still no full write-up of the African Students Association of America and Canada  (ASA) formed in 1942 by these students. In fact, Coleman minimizes the numbers of Africans then studying in the USA during the 1930s and 1940. Who were these students? What were they studying in in  the USA, and when? Did they influence the USA or was the influence reciprocal? Is there any linkage between those early years and the increasing interest of the USA in Africa? Did their experiences in the USA influence the students’ subsequent political activism for self-government, and perhaps even for Ibo  independence? Did the students influence the newly established United Nations? This article is merely an introduction to the activities of the African Students Association. I hope opens the door for many  researchers. The article is chronological, with many references hopefully to aid full analyses of these Africans’ work while studying in the US

The All African People’s Congress (AAPC) called by Kwame Nkrumah -- and George Padmore

George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah began to work together in London in 1945. Their relationships continued when Nkrumah returned home. As the few released MI5 files reveal, Nkrumah discussed his aims, his policies, his plans with Padmore. This commentary gives an outline of Padmore’s life and activism. At Nkrumah’s request, Padmore was involved with the organising of the Congress of Independent African States, and then with the All-African Peoples Conference. This second conference was to be a conference of people, not presidents/prime ministers. Held in Accra in December 1958, it was attended by hundreds of people, and must have been much more reliant on Padmore, as he had been in contact the political activists around the world for many years. Sadly, Padmore’s contribution to these conferences, and much else, have not been recognised. Is this partly because we don’t really know enough? The British government has released very few files on him and not all have been preserved in Ghana