Pan-Africanism

• Pan-Africanism

  Pan-Africanism is a philosophy based on the belief that Africans and

  people who are of African ancestry have a commonality of goals and

  other links. The movement encourages harmony and unity among black

  people in order for them to achieve their shared objectives. A key aspect

  of Pan-Africanism philosophy is an understanding and promotion of Black

  Power or unity among black people, which advocates a sense of racial

  pride and self-esteem.
• Typical Caribbean worker in the first half of the 20th century

  • Faced poor remuneration
  • Faced deplorable housing and living conditions
  • Limited self-government
  • No social services
  • Few workers' rights
  • High unemployment in some cases
• Resistance to conditions in the Caribbean in the 1930s and beyond

  1. Led to a mass movement

  2. Fuelled by the ideology of Pan-Africanism

  3. As workers sought to have these issues addressed
• End results of the movement

  • Public awareness of the plight of blacks, especially in the Caribbean and USA
  • Increased international cooperation among blacks
  • The emergence of some radical leaders
  • An awakening of the workers' class consciousness
  • The formation of grassroots political parties
  • The labour movement becoming a political issue, with labour strikes and protests
  • The formation of formal labour movements such as the Trade Union Congress, the Jamaica Workers and Tradesmen's Union (JWTU) and the Oilfield Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) of Trinidad and Tobago
  • The formation of nationalist movements and a move towards socio-economic and political independence
• Key Leaders in Pan-Africanism

  1. Henry Sylvester Williams (1869-1911)-Trinidad
  2. Marcus Mosiah Garvey( 1887-1940)-Jamaica
  3. Cyril Brigs(1888-1966)-Nevis
  4. George Padmore(1902-1966)-Trinidad
  5. Walter Rodney(1942-1990)-George,Guyana
• The impacts of Pan-Africanism

  A) no

  
• Main interest groups in the Caribbean who opposed the Pan-Africanism movement


  • White planter-merchant class
  • Those of mixed, Asian and Middle-Eastern descent
• Why they opposed Pan-Africanism

  • They saw it as a disruption or attack on their interests in terms of the social, political and economic situation
  • The white planter-merchant class viewed education and enlightenment of the former-enslaved peoples as causing the disintegration of colonialism
• Other opposition interest groups

  • Shopkeepers
  • Business owners
  • Small-scale farmers
  • Landlords
• These interest groups offered resistance to the Pan-Africanism movement because it would mean a restructuring of the class system