page_title: Pan-African Congress
section_title: 5th Pan-African Congress
hierarchical_section_title: Pan-African Congress / 5th Pan-African Congress
caption_attribution_description: English: A plaque commemorating the Fifth Pan African Conference/Congress held in Manchester in 1945.
context_page_description: The Pan-African Congress — following on from the first Pan-African Conference of 1900 in London — was a series of eight meetings, held in 1919 in Paris, 1921 in London, 1923 in London, 1927 in New York City, 1945 in Manchester, 1974 in Dar es Salaam, 1994 in Kampala, and 2014 in Johannesburg that were intended to address the issues facing Africa as a result of European colonization of most of the continent.
  The Pan-African Congress gained the reputation as a peace maker for decolonization in Africa and in the West Indies. It made significant advance for the Pan-African cause. One of the demands was to end colonial rule and end racial discrimination, against imperialism and it demanded human rights and equality of economic opportunity. The manifesto given by the Pan-African Congress included the political and economic demands of the Congress for a new world context of international cooperation.
context_section_description: The Fifth Pan-African Congress was held in Manchester, United Kingdom, from 15–21 October 1945. It followed the foundation of the Pan-African Federation in Manchester in 1944. The Congress took place at the Chorlton-upon-Medlock Town Hall on the outskirts of the city centre. The building which was decorated with the flags of the Ethiopia, and Liberia and the Republic of Haiti. These three  black nations were the only ones under-governance at the time. The Lord Mayor of Manchester, Conservative, Alderman W.P. Jackson, opened the Congress at the afternoon session on October 15th. John McNair, secretary of the Independent Labour Party also addressed the Congress.
  Historian Hakim Adi writes in The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited that “The previous four Pan-African Congresses had been largely organised by the African-American writer and activist W.E.B. Du Bois and the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), based in the United States.” According to Adi, “The [Fifth] Congress was dominated by British-based organisations and activists" with Du Bois playing a minor role in the preparations.
  The Fifth Congress is widely viewed by commentators as the most significant, being held just months after the end of the World War II.The War had been fought in the name of freedom, however around the globe, millions of Africans and Afro-Diaspora populations lived under European colonial rule. Historian Marika Sherwood writes in her book Manchester and the 1945 Pan-African Congress that “In 1945, at the end of World War II, some 700 million people around the world lived under imperial rule. They were ‘subject people’, with no freedoms, no parliaments, no democracy, and no trade unions to protect workers.”  
  Historian Christian Høgsbjerg writes in his essay Remembering the Fifth Pan African Congress that the aftermath of World War II gave rise to a "new mood of militancy among colonial Africans, Asians and West Indians." According to Høgsbjerg, many felt betrayed after being promised movement towards self-government if they fought for the British and French empires during World War I - only to have such promises later denied. Høgsbjerg writes that "many were determined not to be fooled again.'' The Congress made demands for Independence as well as condemning imperialism, racial discrimination, and capitalism.
caption: The commemorating plaque in Manchester
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