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Africa
Reflections: Pan-Negroism To Pan Africanism: The Importance of Dubois' Paradigm Shift By Remel K. Moore William Edward Burghardt DuBois formative years were somewhat idyllic. In his hometown of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he was encouraged to achieve his best, commended for his innate intellectual abilities, and enjoyed wide support of his academic pursuits. Both Blacks and whites perceived he would embark upon collegiate study at Harvard University - a first choice New Englanders with solid academic accomplishments. However, because of insufficient finances, he attended Fisk with a scholarship and assistance from family and friends. DuBois saw and experienced discrimination and racism when he went South for the first time to attend Fisk College (later University) in 1885. He went to the South for further academic learning and advancement, but discovered far more. As impending racial conflicts loomed on his horizon, his encounter in the South became a disturbing confrontation with deprivation, ignorance bigotry and injustice that sharpened his understanding of the real hardship facing his people and shaped his view. A movement to advance the cause and opportunities of Negroes held meaningful allure. Armed with graduate study at the esteemed Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, Germany and a doctorate from Harvard, Dr. DuBois thoughtfully espoused a strategy to positively impact the lives of people of African descent in the United States and elsewhere. Dr. DuBois introduced a new concept that he labeled Pan-Negroism. In 1897 in a lecture on The Conservation of Races, Dr. DuBois insisted that each race had inherent valuable, its own message, worthy of world contribution, acceptance, and esteem. Dr. DuBois sought to identify and define a philosophy of shared political purpose and destiny whereby members of the Black race could achieve recognized parity. Concurrently, Dr. DuBois was deeply focused on the condition of the African American. He was conducting research in Philadelphia’s seventh ward slums. Innovative in approach, the product, The Philadelphia Negro, applied a scientific approach to a social condition. Professionally and practically, DuBois was immersed in the plight of African Americans. Meanwhile, barrister Henry Sylvester Williams was also thinking about the condition of the Black race and arrived at a similar philosophical revelation. As an islander from Trinidad, Williams had an intellectual and emotional affinity with Africa. In 1897, the same year that Dr. DuBois delivered his paper, Williams, working with others, established the African Association to encourage African cooperation and unity. His scope was global and took in the plight, aspirations and promise of African people. He first advanced the concept of Pan Africanism whereby those living in the Caribbean, South America, North America, Europe, Africa and elsewhere could articulate political and philosophically kinship, even if geographically at variance. Williams put Pan Africanism into an international, global context. Following a preliminary conference in 1899 whose prime objective was to call for a conference of international magnitude and importance, under Williams™ planning the African Association (subsequently renamed the Pan African Association) was able to organize the first Pan African conference the following year. The onset of the new century, 1900, was a pivotal year where words, their definitions, sharp departures, and subtle nuances posed the backdrop against which the emerging concept of Pan Africanism began to take life and form. Together, Dr. DuBois and Williams approached Queen Victoria requesting that England host the first Pan African conference. This conference was held in London where DuBois articulated the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line. Polished and refined, Williams impressed Dr. DuBois with his vision and enlarged scope. As a Trinidadian in the 1800s, Williams' travel experience included a stint in Canada where he met African Americans from the US and Canada and continued study in England. He interacted with others from the African community and formed an association with a South African woman, Ms. E. V. Kinloch and Joseph Mason of Antigua. With these influences, he was able to think about Africa clearly, unfettered by the pervasive, restrictive prejudices abounding in the United States. Certain he was competent and capable, and accomplished in his own right, Williams considered the entirety of the plight of African people. Pan Africanism was the only term with the breadth and inclusiveness to address the concerns and prospects of Africans and their descendants worldwide. DuBois readily released his philosophically and strategically confining concept of Pan Negroism for the more liberating and enduring ideal of Pan Africanism. It would be years before DuBois traveled to Africa, but with the death of Williams in 1911, DuBois became the foremost proponent of a philosophy of Pan Africanism (although Marcus Garvey was arguably the greatest advocate of an economic Pan Africanism that liberates the masses). DuBois went on to organize the four succeeding Pan African Congresses. The Pan African Association of Williams lobbied for world legislation to protect civil and political rights. It tackled the concerns of the rights of Black people to gather and disseminate information without interference. It aimed to address apprehensions about economic prospects that included ensuring access to education, industry, and commercial undertakings. Ultimately, the compelling dynamic of the Pan African Association (PAA) and turn-of-the-century Pan Africanism was to promote racial unity and to end racial discrimination around the world. The acquaintance of Dr. DuBois and Williams continued until William’s death, but his influence on DuBois would last far longer. The demise of the PAAs early in the 1900 left a void filled by Dr. DuBois and the Pan African Congresses that followed. The importance of the Congresses and their increasingly potent political agenda emerged on the international arena with the fifth Pan African Congress held in 1945. Until then, the Congresses, organization and management, were particularly diasporan-led. Men of African descent living in the growing global diaspora including the United States, the Caribbean, and Europe were able to leverage funds, lobby executive support and persuade nation’s to host the congresses. Delegates had access to resources that made their travel and attendance possible. In 1945, however, at the pivotal fifth Pan African Congress Dr. DuBois, now a septuagenarian was the only African American in attendance. The end of World War II ushered in an awakening in Africa because the focus of world powers that had dominated through colonization shifted leaving an open opportunity for Africans to lobby or agitate for independence. In Manchester, Pan African increasingly became identified with the African continent and as independence came to the continent, Dr. DuBois himself began to look at Africa as a place of real freedom of expression. DuBois' paradigm shift from Pan Negroism to Pan Africanism reflects something of the man himself. DuBois was able to recognize a more perfect approach or ideal and readily relinquished his own in support of another. He did not have to fully give up his ideas to embrace those of Williams. He was, in fact, able to broaden his scope in ways he hadn’t expected. Later in life he continued to have the same receptive way of looking at ideas and issues. DuBois was an observer to the Peace Conference of 1919 and, years later, he became the chairman of the Peace Information Center. During the intervening years, he widened his perspective to include the mechanics of socialism as an answer to issues of ensuring equity and justice. Unbiased, DuBois was something of a world citizen who explored other philosophies and routes to achieving a humane world society. His personal quest continued to include a far-reaching humanistic perspective. In his ninety-five years, Dr. DuBois traveled a long way from his safe, somewhat secure, even encouraging roots in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He traveled the world Europe, Asia, Africa and found acceptance for his people and a commitment to broach uncharted philosophical and social territory. A giant among revolutionary thinkers, he was a man able to change, even desiring a change that would bring him (and others) to a more enlightened, evolved understanding of human equity and liberation . (c) 2/2004 This is the fourth article in a series of "Reflections" by Remel K. Moore. Published with permission from R. G. Gainey. Remel K. Moore is the first executive director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Centre for Pan African Culture in Accra, Ghana; serving from 1996-2000. Remel is one of the founding members of the Pan African Initiative, an international NGO based in Accra. She is currently a senior associate of the ADCFI (African Diaspora Concerns Foundation, Inc.) a non-profit humanitarian organization established in 1992. She is represented by R.G. Gainey; and is available for speaking engagements About the Author(s): See under Our Contributors to find out about the Author(s) of this article. |
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