����ý

After the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the emancipation (setting free) of slaves themselves in the British Empire and then the USA in the 19th century, the people of African descent in the USA began to campaign for equality and self-determination. This often led to ideas of solidarity amongst peoples all around the world who were directly descended from Africans. These ideas were known as pan-Africanism. Two of the leading figures in pan-Africanism were Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican political leader and W.E.B. Du Bois, an American historian and civil rights activist. They organised movements to promote these ideas, both in the US and in the British Empire.

In 1945 the fifth meeting of the Pan-African Congress was held in Manchester, Britain. It was chaired by Marcus Garvey’s first wife, Amy Ashwood Garvey, and W.E.B. Du Bois was a delegate. The conference was attended by a number of key African nationalist figures who went on to lead their country’s struggle for independence, such as Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta. The Pan-African Congress demanded an end to colonial rule and racial discrimination. It was an inspiration to African leaders to return to their homelands and build movements that would shake off the European imperial control.

South Africa is expelled from the Commonwealth

African nationalism grew in popularity throughout the continent and paved the way for African leaders to govern independent nations free from the control of European empires. South Africa, which had a powerful white minority, was the exception to this rule. Elections in 1948, in which black Africans did not have a vote, brought the National Party into government. The National Party were led by racists; some of whom had supported the Nazi Germany during World War Two.

Between 1948 and 1966 they introduced apartheid, a system that completely dismantled black nationalist organisations. Black South Africans were deprived of equality and any say in how they were governed.

In 1960 British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan visited Cape Town in South Africa to warn the white minority government that a 'wind of change' was sweeping through the continent and that sooner or later they would have to share power with the black African. When the South African government ignored this the British government and others decided to vote for South Africa’s expulsion from the Commonwealth.

Kwame Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah was an African nationalist leader in the British colony of the Gold Coast in West Africa. He developed many of his ideas while a student at Lincoln University, USA during the 1930s and was impressed by the activism of African-Americans. He also started to explore socialist ideas that argued for greater equality in the world. Nkrumah came to the UK after World War Two to work with students in London, and organised the Pan-African Congress in Manchester.

• 1947: Nkrumah was invited to work for the United Gold Coast Convention party back in Africa, so he returned.
• 1949: The United Gold Coast Convention party (UGCC) was happy to wait and accept slow change from the British, but Nkrumah disagreed. He broke away and formed his own Convention People’s Party, campaigning for immediate independence for the colony.
• 1951: Nkrumah’s approach was very popular in the Gold Coast, and he won the colony’s first major election in 1951. The British called him Leader of Government Business, but he was really the Prime Minister. The Gold Coast remained a colony.
• 1957: Britain finally made the Gold Coast independent after six years of negotiations with Nkrumah and other leaders. It took the new name Ghana, and Kwame Nkrumah became its Prime Minister.
• 1960: Nkrumah became President in 1960 and published his major book: Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah – in the same year.

Jomo Kenyatta

Jomo Kenyatta was an African nationalist leader in the British colony of Kenya in East Africa. He had developed many of his ideas about African nationalism and freedom when he was a student at London University in Britain during the 1930s. He published his ideas in a book called Facing Mount Kenya in 1938. Kenyatta worked in England during World War Two and helped to organise the Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945.

• 1946: Kenyatta returned to Kenya. He became head of the Kenya Teachers' College.
• 1947: He was elected as leader of the Kenya African Union, the colony’s African political party. He toured the colony urging independence and the return of land to Africans.
• 1951: The Mau Mau revolt began, which was a secret society campaign to terrorise the British into quitting Kenya. Kenyatta was not part of that revolt.
• 1952: A state of emergency was declared by the British authorities. Kenyatta and five others were arrested and accused of leading Mau Mau terrorism.
• 1953: Kenyatta was found guilty on the basis of false evidence and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment.
• 1959: The British authorities were responsible for an outrage at the Hola detention camp where British officials beat 11 Kenyans to death. The British government came under more pressure to work with the Africans. Kenyatta was moved from prison to detention.
• 1961: Kenyatta was released from detention and was able to lead negotiations between Kenyans and the British government towards independence.
• 1963: Kenya became independent, and Kenyatta was its first Prime Minister.