Celebrating Manchester’s 5th Pan African Congress Meeting Of 1945

‘We are determined to be free. We want education. We want the right to earn a decent living; the right to express our thoughts and emotions, to adopt and create forms of beauty. Statement from the Fifth Pan-African Congress, Manchester 1945: ‘The Challenge to the Colonial Powers’

What was the 5th Pan African Congress meeting?

Last year Manchester celebrated its 75th year since the 5th Pan African Congress meeting that took place in Chorlton-on-Medlock Townhall, Manchester 1945. The 5th meeting in Manchester has been described as the most important of all meetings, a truly defining moment in world history. Despite taking place on this very island, the event was hardly celebrated by British media at the time and has since been largely forgotten in Britain’s political memory.

The conference was a step toward not only uniting the global African diaspora but bringing about the Independence of many African countries. Kwame Nkrumah, who later became the Prime Minister and President of the newly independent Ghana, remembered the Congress as a turning point in the struggle for African independence, stating ‘we went from Manchester knowing definitely where we were going. Within two decades of this meeting, most African nations had won their freedom from the European colonisers: Britain, France and Holland.

The timing of this particular conference ushered in the opportunity for great change. The end of World War II meant that old colonial powers, particularly Britain and France, were severely weakened both by the war and by the rising demands of African and Caribbean people living in the colonies. The World War highlighted the hypocrisy and injustice being carried out by the British Empire. Many African and Black British soldiers had fought for Britain in the name of freedom, however, around the globe millions of Africans and Afro-diaspora populations lived under European colonial control facing racial discrimination and inequality.

Why Manchester?

Manchester’s relationship to empire dates back to the industrial era. African people who settled in the city in the early 20th century were well aware of Manchester’s significance to Britain’s imperial past, arguably this knowledge influenced the political and cultural experience of Black communities living here. Guyanese businessman and activist, Ras Makonnen, was one of the architects of the Manchester Pan- African Congress and believed that due to the age-old connections between cotton, enslavement and the building up of cities in England, Black people had a right to settle in Britain, especially in cities such as Manchester. Makonnen once said, ‘Manchester gave us an important opportunity to express and expose the contradictions, the fallacies and the pretensions that were at the very centre of the empire.’ From Makonnen’s words it seems that Manchester, being a regional site away from the confines of the country’s capital, London, offered more freedom to interrogate and dismantle the violence, power and influence of the British Empire and colonial rule.

Manchester was a city that already had a historic Black community dating back to the Industrial era. A year before the Congress meeting in 1944, Makonnen and Dr Peter Milliard founded The Pan African Federation, highlighting the budding Pan- Africanist presence, ready to mobilize and bring about change. Dr Milliard is reputed to have said of Manchester that ‘it was the most liberal city in England.’ This was perhaps due to the established international Black student population who were eager to organise and campaign for better standards of living and non-discrimination at home and in the mother countries.

What did the event look like and what was discussed?

On the day of the event, the Town Hall was decorated with the flags of Ethiopia, Liberia and The Republic of Haiti. These three Black nations were the only ones under self-governance at the time. It was a very diverse and mixed crowd. The congress had 200 attendees from across the world — including delegations from Africa, America, the Caribbean and Asia, as well as Black and white delegates from Manchester and across the UK.

You know how the saying goes - ‘In Manchester, we do things differently here.’ This saying holds true for The Manchester Pan African Congress which certainly had a different feel and political stance to those earlier Pan African Congress meetings. For Manchester, the organisers believed it was paramount that the workers of Africa and the Caribbean were to be represented at this international event. There are records of George Padmore writing directly to W.E.B Dubois to state that this was a conference of trade unions and workers organisations, their mission was to represent the masses of the people — namely workers and farmers. Unlike previous meetings where the middle-class audience of professors and lawyers were centred.

The overall message of the Congress meeting, that ‘Colonial workers must be at the front of the battle against imperialism’, proved to be a huge success as the new leadership attracted the support of workers, trade unionists, and a growing radical sector of the African student population. Over the six-day event, a number of initiatives were debated such as. The Colour Problem in Britain Oppression in South Africa and The Problems in the Caribbean&.

Who attended the event?

The Manchester Congress meeting brought together a number of intellectuals and activists who would go on to become influential leaders in various African Independence movements. Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Jomo Kenyatta are amongst the few. Many local activists with deep roots in Britain were also in attendance. Mancunian boxer Len Johnson who was instrumental in dissolving the unofficial racist ‘colour- bar’ in Britain was one of them. 

How is this moment remembered?

There is currently a plaque to commemorate this occasion, sited on the Manchester Metropolitan’s new Arts and Humanities Building facing onto All Saints Square in what had previously been Chorlton Town Hall.

What is Pan- Africanism?

There has never been a universal definition of exactly what constitutes Pan Africanism. However, we have provided the definition by AU Publication - ‘Pan Africanism is a belief that African peoples both on the continent and in the diaspora, share not merely a common history, but a common destiny.’

Young people aged 11-16 can sign up for our Springboard Programme and learn about their local British history. This Free out-of-school workshop will explore a range of topics that aims to educate & empower young people with a sense of identity and belonging.

Learn more about The Springboard Programme at: www.theblackcurriculum/springboard 

We have some amazing blogs on our website including one on Liverpool’s historical links to slavery which you can read here and check out more of our fantastic blogs here.