News | Tuesday, 13th October 2020

Universities mark 75th anniversary of Manchester’s role in African independence movement

PAC@75 commemorates important 5th Pan African Congress that was hosted in Manchester

The 75th anniversary of the 5th Pan African Congress –a crucial event in the African independence movement held in Manchester that brought together key figures who later led successful anticolonial campaigns –is being marked by the region’s universities.

In October 1945, 200 delegates including future African national leaders Kwame Nkrumah, first Prime Minister and then President of Ghana; Nnamdi Azikiwe, Premier of the Eastern Region, and then President of Nigeria; and Jomo Kenyatta, first President of Kenya, met in Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall – now the site of Manchester Metropolitan University’s new Arts and Humanities Building.

The week-long event was the first time after the Second World War that a new generation of African leaders came together to develop new national strategies to demand self-rule, and was an important early milestone for a number of successful African independence movements.

With delegates from Britain and all over the world, it also signified solidarity with other causes moving from the Americas and the West Indies to racism experienced in the UK.

Despite its huge significance in shaping modern world history, the Congress has been largely forgotten in Greater Manchester itself.

This is a fantastic opportunity to mark and celebrate this historic event which has such strong Manchester links not just with the city as the conference location but also with its local people and the city’s urban culture

Now, 75 years on, a four-day virtual celebration with internationally renowned historians, writers and performers will mark the anniversary and shine a light on its modern significance amid the Black Lives Matter movement and global protests against racial injustice.

PAC@75 (October 15-18), is led by Manchester Metropolitan University, in collaboration with The University of Manchester, University of Salford and the University of Bolton, Big People Community CIC, local creatives and the Greater Manchester public.

PAC@75 is part of the city-wide celebration of the Pan African Congress, working with and including See My World presented by Big People Community CIC.

Professor Ola Uduku, from Manchester Metropolitan University, who curated PAC@75 in collaboration with Dr Kai Syng Tan, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to mark and celebrate this historic event which has such strong Manchester links not just with the city as the conference location but also with its local people and the city’s urban culture.

“Manchester Metropolitan University is privileged to be the custodian of a significant part of this legacy. It has been a pleasure to be involved in organising the commemoration of this event which enables us both reflect on the legacy and also contemplate today’s issues framed by the BLM events and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in these extraordinary times.”

Professor Helen Laville, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education at Manchester Metropolitan, said: “It is exciting to see such a fascinating series of events commemorating this important historic event that took place right here in Manchester, on what is now part of the Manchester Metropolitan University campus. It is fitting that through the expertise of leading historians, writers and performers from the region’s universities, we shine a light not only on the legacy of the Fifth Pan African Congress in 1945, but also its ongoing significance for the issues that we face in modern society today.”

1945 Congress

The first Pan African Congress was held in Paris in 1919, organised in response to the exclusion of African countries from discussions over the Treaty of Versailles.

The fifth Congress was the first of the events largely organised by British groups, with its timing immediately after the second of the Second World War important in accelerating campaigns for independence.  

As well as Nkrumah, Azikiwe and Kenyatta, it was attended by co-founder of the first Pan African Congress, the American civil rights activist and sociologist W.E.B Du Bois, the writer Peter Abrahams representing pre-apartheid South Africa, alongside delegates from the USA, Caribbean and Greater Manchester itself.

Subjects discussed included racial discrimination in Britain, as well as imperialism in North and West Africa, and oppression experienced by black South Africans.

Delegates published a statement ‘The Challenge to the Colonial Powers’ upon its conclusion, which stated:

‘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…. We will fight in every way we can for freedom, democracy and social betterment.’

PAC@75

PAC@75 is a series of virtual lectures, discussions and creative performances that will celebrate Greater Manchester’s diversity, its impact on global history, and how this historical event relates to racism prevalent in society today.   

Speakers include high-profile international historians, writers and poets, such as the Ghanaian Princeton philosopher and writer Kwame Anthony Appiah, whose father Joe Appiah attended the 1945 Congress, Lemn Sissay, Prof. David Olusoga and Prof. Gary Younge from The University of Manchester, Prof. Jackie Kay from the University of Salford, and Prof. Carol Ann Duffy from Manchester Metropolitan, as well as a range of Greater Manchester students and Greater Manchester’s community.

On Thursday October 15, the Voices for Freedom online event will feature readings of original and existing work presented by family members of delegates who attended the event in 1945. Curated by Manchester poet SuAndi of Black Arts Alliance and developed in collaboration with the forthcoming Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan, it will include extracts from writers including W.E.B Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Merle Collins and SuAndi.

Manchester Metropolitan writers including Alex Wheatle, Jennifer Makumbi, Malika Booker and Anjum Malik will be providing a series of talks and readings, addressing themes of home, race, postcolonality and citizenship.

Historian Dr Ray Costello will deliver an online talk on the context of the 1945 Congress in Manchester and the North West, while a host of other esteemed academics, including Prof. Younge, as well as Prof. Farida Vis, Dr Shirin Hirsch and Alnoor Mitha from Manchester Metropolitan will share their reflections on how past African socio-political histories link with the Black Lives Matter movement and our post-COVID future.

On Sunday 18th October, the University of Salford and Greater Manchester Students’ Unions will present a series of panel discussions, poetry, dance and musical performances by student leaders, creatives and members of the community.

A plaque commemorating the 5th Pan African Congress is located on Manchester Metropolitan’s Arts and Humanities Building facing onto All Saints Square.

To mark the anniversary, the colours of the Pan African Congress and words from its manifesto will be projected onto the outside of the building, streamed via YouTube.

A full list of events can be viewed on the PAC @ 75 website.