The Radical Evolution of Du Boisian Pan-Africanism

Eight days prior to his ninety-five birthday Dr. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, the preeminent African American scholar, became a naturalized citizen of Ghana. The fact that he suggested that his expatriation and the renunciation of his American citizenship carried "out the logic of [his] life," (1) demonstrates the centrality of Pan-Africanism to Du Bois's evolving ontology. Moreover, in Dusk of Dawn, written in 1940, he elucidated why Africa was vitally important to the development of his identity: "Since the concept of race has changed and presented so much of a contradiction that as I face Africa I ask myself: what is it between us that constitutes a tie which I can feel better than explain? Africa is of course my fatherland. Yet neither my father nor my father's father ever saw Africa or cared over-much for it. My mother's folk were closer and yet their direct connection, in culture and race, became tenuous; still, my tie to Africa is strong. On this vast continent were born and lived a large portion of my direct ancestors going back a thousand years or more. But one thing is sure and that is the fact that since the fifteenth century these ancestors of mine and their other descendants have had a common history; have suffered a common disaster and have one long memory. The actual ties of heritage between the individuals of this group vary with the ancestors that they have in common and many others: Europeans and Semites, perhaps Mongolians, certainly Indians. But the physical bond is least and the badge of color relatively unimportant save as a badge; the real essence of kinship is its social heritage of slavery; the discrimination and insult; and this heritage binds together not simply the children of Africa, but extends through yellow Asian and into the South Seas. It is this unity that draws me to Africa." (2) By the 1940s, Du Bois clearly recognized the complexity of "race" and "color," as well as the centrality of class, which led him to postulate a non-essentialist Pan-African framework predicated on socio-historical and economic factors, such as enslavement, discrimination, and ultimately Marxism-Leninism. In this article, therefore, I analyze the evolution of Du Boisian Pan-Africanism, specifically the role that the Fifth Pan-African Congress in 1945 and subsequent independence of Ghana played in radicalizing his political and intellectual position on African unity. In addition to his commitment to exposing the racist and capitalist forces that oppressed Black people, the issue that dominated much of Du Bois's later scholarly and activist endeavors was his unwavering commitment to revolutionary Pan-Africanism. (3) The confluence of Du Bois's intellectual and political interests in African selfdetermination was initially sparked off during his involvement with the early Pan-African Congresses (1900-1927). Through the vehicles of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and its ("his") journal, The Crisis, Du Bois helped organize the aforementioned PACs, as well as propagandize the plight of Africa and her descendants, which subsequently earned him the moniker "Father of Pan-Africanism." While there are numerous studies that examined Du Bois's role in the early PAC movement from 1919-1927, his participation in the Fifth Pan-African Congress in 1945 and beyond received minimal, if any, illumination. To properly contextualize this study, however, it is imperative to begin with a brief discussion of Du Bois's early commitment to the Pan-African Congress movement. Although Pan-Africanists such as George Padmore, T.R. Makonnen, and Kwame Nkrumah recognized him as the "Father" of Pan-Africanism, the usage of the term first occurred as early as 1893. (4) What is more, in 1900, Henry Sylvester Williams, a lawyer from Trinidad, organized the first Pan-African Conference in London. It was at this event that a thirty-two year old Du Bois addressed those convened with his most prophetic articulation: "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour line, the question as to how far differences of race, which show themselves chiefly in the colour of the skin and the texture of the hair, are going to be made, hereafter, the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization. …