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Pan-Africanism and West African Nationalism in Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Hakim Adi
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Abstract:

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This article outlines some aspects of the history of West Africans in Britain during the colonial era in the first half of the twentieth century. In particular it focuses on the emergence of West African nationalism in Britain and highlights some of the political activities of those African sojourners abroad, who were also temporarily part of the diaspora. Their political organizations, especially the West African Students' Union and the West African National Secretariat, were influential in West Africa and throughout the diaspora and reflected changing political identities, consciousness, and historical conditions. Most important, they show that West Africans developed and maintained their own distinctive political aims, consciousness, and ideologies, while at the same time contributing to and being influenced by those of the diaspora. These aims and ideologies also reflected the particularities of political and social conditions in Britain, conditions that were shaped by the African presence itself. West African nationalism provided a distinctive philosophy and orientation even for West Africans' pan-African activities. Indeed they saw the future of Africa and the diaspora as determined by political and other advances in the West African colonies.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Cet article retrace quelques uns des aspects de l'histoire des Africains de l'Ouest en Grande Bretagne pendant l'ère coloniale de la première moitié du vingtième siècle. Nous nous penchons en particulier sur l'émergence du nationalisme ouest-africain en Grande Bretagne et mettons en relief certaines activités politiques de ces africains en séjour à l'étranger, qui firent également momentanément partie de la diaspora. Leurs organisations politiques, plus particulièrement la West African Students' Union (Syndicat des étudiants ouest-africains) et le West African National Secretariat (Secrétariat national ouest-africain), exercèrent une influence en Afrique de l'Ouest et dans toute la diaspora, et reflètent un changement des identités politiques, des consciences et des conditions historiques. Par dessus tout, elles mettent l'accent sur le fait que les Africains de l'Ouest développèrent et maintinrent leurs propres et distincts buts politiques, consciences et idéologies, tout en contribuant en même temps à ceux de la diaspora et en étant influencés par eux. Ces buts et idéologies reflétèrent également les circonstances particulières des conditions politiques et sociales en Grande Bretagne, des conditions qui furent façonnées par la présence africaine elle-même. Le nationalisme ouest africain offrit une philosophie et une orientation distinctives, même pour les activités panafricaines des Africains de l'Ouest. En effet, ils considérèrent l'avenir de l'Afrique et de la diaspora comme déterminés par les avancées politiques et autres dans les colonies ouest africaines.

Type
Special Issue on the Diaspora
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 43 , Issue 1: Africa's Diaspora: A Special Issue , April 2000 , pp. 69 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2000

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