Cotton Capital: Searching for the spirit of Pan-Africanism – bonus episode

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:06Hi, it's Nasheen here. Today we're bringing you a bonus episode. It's an update from our Cotton Capital series, one where we explore the Guardian's links to transatlantic enslavement and the legacy still with us today. This episode is all about Pan-Africanism and whether we're living through a Pan-African moment. I hope you enjoy it. Today in Focus, we'll be back on Monday. And now, oh what wonderful life, at this moment, how wonderful Mr. Churchill has come out onto the Ministry of Health balcony.

0:43Victory of the cause of freedom is every day.

0:52Everyone... 41 days ago, the Second World War ended. Winston Churchill called for all citizens to do the utmost to rebuild, to ensure that each countryman has a chance moving forward. It's October 1945 and Jamaican activist Amy Ashwood Garvey, portrayed here in the play Liberation, is giving a speech to a packed, smoke-filled room in Manchester in the northwest of England. These words were transmitted throughout the colonies. I listened and wondered to whom he was referring as his countrymen and what he was advocating we rebuild. Ashwood Garvey is addressing the 5th Pan-African Congress, an iconic gathering of future African leaders and international activists.

1:51In 1945, one in three Africans were under British rule. Globally, only three independent countries were run by black people. Ethiopia, Liberia and Haiti. The end of the war saw a weakening of the colonial powers and delegates at the Congress sought to create a radical new blueprint for the future of the African continent and the global black diaspora. My people, you have known a forced occupation on your bodies, on your lands, on your histories for far too long. The blood of our kin has stained many foreign battlefields. They celebrated Victory in Europe Day in May. But our freedom has not been won.

2:39Pan-Africanism is a global movement with the aim of building solidarity between all people of African descent, whether on the continent or in the diaspora. It views all black people as being part of a shared struggle, whether it be the fight for racial justice in the West or for unity and prosperity in Africa, a struggle with its roots in transatlantic enslavement and colonialism. We deserve freedom of the press. We deserve education. We deserve self-determination, independence, equality of civil rights, and the total abolition of all forms of racial discrimination. The masses must rise.

3:24The 1945 Congress brought together political leaders, intellectuals, lawyers, trade unionists, writers and workers from across Africa. the Caribbean, the United States and the UK.

3:43In its wake came a revolutionary push for independence which would sweep across the African continent. To all the speakers in this room, you have a responsibility to represent your countries, share what is happening in your homelands, make your demands clear. A call to action against the colonial powers. Liberation is in our hands. Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Rise!

4:32My name's Chris Osu and I'm a journalist at The Guardian, based in Manchester. You've been listening to the actress Pamela Nomvete, who plays Amy Ashwood Garvey in the play Liberation. It was written in honour of the Congress's 80th anniversary. In early episodes of Cotton Capital, we traced The Guardian's foundational connection to transatlantic slavery, tracked the legacies of enslavement still with us today, and explored the attempts being made towards repair, including those being made by The Guardian itself. We're in Manchester, my home city as it gears up to commemorate the 5th Pan-African Congress a meeting that inspired radical change for millions of African people.

5:13For this bonus episode I want to uncover the lasting legacy of this historic event what Pan-Africanism means today and whether this revolutionary idea still has the power to change our world. From The Guardian you're listening to Cotton Capital, seeking the spirit of Pan-Africanism.

5:46I'm in the centre of Manchester and there's a real sense of excitement about the upcoming anniversary of the Pan-African Congress. One thing that's played a massive part in generating that has been the play Liberation. I wanted to propose an idea. The planning of a world Pan-African Congress. Our freedom comes from collective planning and action. It's just finished its run at the historic Royal Exchange Theatre. And to find out more about the Congress and what its Pan-Africanism means today, I'm on my way to meet the writer of Liberation who brought the Congress back to life. Hi, great to meet you.

6:29I'm Chris Ossie. Hi, I'm Domi Zodrognioni. I'm a playwright, screenwriter, script editor, and now a lecturer at Manchester Met University. And where are we now? Tell us about this location. So we are sitting just outside Grosvenor East, which is a building at Manchester Met University. But it also used to be Charlton on Medlock Town Hall, which was the location for the 5th Pan-African Congress. So you have this Georgian building and you have like these wonderful pillars. And you can imagine these activists and scholars going into this building to talk about what it meant to decolonize Africa. And it's so interesting thinking about that taking place in a building that feels very colonial.

7:12But today we also have like a plaque on the building that commemorates the 1945 Congress. And all of this kind of landscape made up my play Liberation. Yes, when I was a child, my dad brought me down here as a kid to see the plaque. he wrote about and studied Pan-Africanism in the 1970s and he came here and showed me this building when we went on a long walk down Oxford Road and told me about the significance of it and what happened here. I felt a sense of pride and having grown up in Manchester it was exciting to know that this had happened here. Let's head inside. So I actually grew up in Leeds and my family migrated from Zimbabwe And then as I got involved in writing, I remember going to like the World Exchange Theatre and I was like, this is such a grand building.

8:00And this was 15 years ago, maybe. And I did like small projects at the theatre. And I remember thinking one day I'm going to make a show in that space. And then it happened to be Liberation. So you've really brought the event to life with your play Liberation. And there was real excitement in the city before and during its run. How did the Congress change the world? What was interesting in doing a lot of the research was finding out who were all the key players that were in attendance. And there were so many. We're looking at about 200 delegates in total. So I think where the 1945 Pan-African Congress becomes crucial is that there was a moment in time when they all came together, when they all were having the same conversation.

8:41And there was a list of demands that they had being about kind of education, freedom of the press. in the colonies. I think that was really important because it meant that everybody had kind of a shared ideology of what that liberation looked like. People like Kwame Nkrumah, post the Congress, went on to become the first prime minister and then president of Gold Coast, which is now Ghana. And my last warning to you is that you all should stand firm behind us so that we can prove to the world that when the African is given a chance, he can show to the world that he's somebody.

9:18And then you have Jomo Kenyatta, who became the first president of Kenya.

9:25You've got Amy Ashwood Garvey, who at the time in her own right was doing work around women's rights, but also she was known as being the first wife of Marcus Garvey. Hello, citizens of Africa. It is for me to inform you that the Universal Negro Improvement Association is an organization that seeks to unite into one solid body the 400 million Negroes of the world for the purpose of bettering our industrial, commercial, educational, social and political conditions. As you are aware... Marcus Garvey's legacy, specifically in black liberation and the return back to Africa, was really prominent. There was a point when Garveyites were in their millions and he sold out Madison Square Garden.

10:07Like four million people followed him. and Amy was a part of that legacy and when they then had a divorce she continued to do her own activism. Well I think they find a lot of ignorance displayed towards them. They ask silly questions where did you learn to speak English? Have you always worn clothing? I do not think it is really dislike basically I do not believe the British people hate anyone. I think one of the key things is that it allowed people to have global conversations in ways that they were not able to have them before. We've already heard a speech that you wrote for Amy. Can you tell us a bit about her and what she added to the pan-Africanism of the Congress?

10:50So during the Congress, Amy was also the chairman. So she led the opening of the Congress and her talks were revolving around women and women's rights and more specifically around women's rights in Jamaica. And what I wanted is like to have this, I guess, kind of a split between seeing Amy in the Congress, but also kind of seeing Amy behind the scenes. How does she experience misogynoir? How does she experience being such a formidable figure in that world? But also knowing that a lot of the time she's being asked to sacrifice. And we're in 2025 now. What was it that made you want to write this play at this time?

11:28Well, the theatre was really interested in having a play that explored a moment in Manchester's history. And I think the research is like really important. But there's a question around, particularly when you're making pieces of drama, how do you also speak to a contemporary audience? And what are some of like the points that translate throughout time? And what's been really fascinating is that a lot of like their asks around being anti-racist and thinking about freedom of the press, thinking about all the rights of women. All of those things are really relevant to where we're at today. It's so interesting watching what's happening today in the way that laws are being changed and the way that protest is being kind of redefined, the way that being an activist is being defined to terrorism.

12:07I'm so fascinated in that experience of like, what is the thing at the heart of it that makes you go, I must still continue. I must still fight. I must still make a change. Yes, I mean, I really love the play. I could feel that relevance. And what struck me was the way that it explored personal liberation, political liberation, the conflicts between the two and those resonances with today like you've described. What lessons from the Pan-Africanism of 1945 did you try and draw out for today's audiences? They were on the ground. And I think today when we think a lot of our activism, a lot of it is happening online.

12:44So there's something specific and something special about what happens when a group of people meet. When they meet and they say, we are going to sit together and plan change. and I think that for me was really interesting and like what does it take for you to do that? What is like the level of commitment for you to travel and come to do that? You have to show up. You have to be in person. You have to call up on your friends. You have to call up on your allies and come and do the work. But also one of the crucial things as well is like we have to think about allies in that conversation too and in order for that change to come about we also have to address that you have to also be uncomfortable.

13:22I'm really fascinated in the idea of us addressing this notion that to be an activist or to take part in activism isn't going to be messy. And that everybody that does it is always going to have this perfect biography and perfect story. They're not going to be that. People are really kind of complicated. Whereas I think now we're very quick to also consider counseling people very quickly. There's no more kind of conversation around kind of complexity. because what I wanted of the characters was for an audience to understand that underneath what we know of them now as these really kind of formidable figures.

13:55Personally, we also did a lot of things that are very difficult to reconcile with, but they still brought about change. So we have to maintain that complexity.

14:15talking with Dambizodwa has really got me thinking about what the Pan-African Congress actually involved it wasn't just a set of heroes agreeing on a plan it was a room full of complex people finding a way to actually make something happen and they really did. Nkrumah went on to lead Ghana, Kenyatta became president of Kenya, Hastings Banda ran the government in Malawi and Obafemi Owolowo and Jaja Wachuku came to power in Nigeria. Within two decades of the Manchester Congress taking place almost all African nations had won their nominal independence. In some circles, Pan-Africanism is more of a political roadmap.

14:55In others, it's more of a romantic idea, especially if, like me, you grew up in the diaspora. To try and understand a bit more about the realities of what Pan-Africanism might mean, as opposed to just the vision, I know just the person to speak to. How's it going? Are you okay? Have a seat. So we're here at the Guardian's offices in Manchester, and I'm here with my colleague Keisha Thompson. Keisha, you joined just like I did in the last year or so as part of the Guardian's response to the discovery of their links to enslavement. Now in my role I cover issues of race, religion, migration and class here in Manchester and beyond.

15:37You wear many hats, you're a poet, you're an educator, you're an artist. In your role at the Guardian as programme manager, what does that involve? That means going out, engaging with people, raising consciousness around the Guardian's specific links to the colonial history that is situated in Manchester, because that's where the newspaper was founded. And we're speaking on the 80th anniversary of the Pan-African Congress. Did you know about the Congress growing up? You grew up in Manchester like I did or about Pan-Africanism generally? So I am really grateful in that the cultural education that I received as a young Mancunian was pretty good.

16:22I went to a brilliant primary school and I learned about people like Marcus Garvey from a very young age and actually where I grew up was an area called Marcus Garvey Court. So you would think that I would have known about this happening in Manchester, this significant event, the Pan-African Congress. But I didn't until I was, I think I was in my 20s. So you grew up steeped in Pan-African ideas, but you didn't know about the Congress itself. What way would you say the Pan-African ideas inspired the people around you? I am Jamaican and Guyanese in heritage, but I used to go to the Nella James Centre, which was right near to my house, and I was part of Abbasindi and I learned about African drumming.

17:09I learned about various dances from different countries. So, and not even countries, you know, tribes. Learning about the costume and the storytelling and all of that. And I got introduced to the concept of colonialism and the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved people from quite a young age. and that really grounded me. I think a lot of people worry that telling children about that stuff kind of dismantles them but it did the opposite to me because I completely understood why there were black people in the Caribbean and it didn't diminish my sense of self or identity. I was like right that's cruel but you can see it was about trade, it's about trying to make money, it's about resources and that's cruel that we then treat humans in a certain way just to make money or so that we can put sugar in our tea or whatever but it didn't make me feel any less and actually made me feel like I had a stronger sense of I need to reconnect with my African roots as much as possible but there's never going to be a specificity to that because I don't know where my family's from like they were literally displaced but that's okay because that is a part of my history.

18:26You mentioned two iconic organisations in Manchester's 20th century black history. There's the Nello James Centre, which was a centre that was really dedicated to black empowerment, education and self-help, named for the Trinidadian historian C.L.R. James, the great Caribbean intellectual, who was also a cricket correspondent for The Guardian. And you also mentioned the Abbasindi Collective, which was a black women's collective who were really active on the ground, spreading Pan-African ideas in the community in the 1980s. Two key things that we see Pan-Africanism tackle are identity and place.

19:09Would you say, with that in mind, that Pan-Africanism has helped you to feel grounded in multiple identities? I think so. For me, getting people to embrace the concept of Pan-Africanism, it feels positive and transgressive as a mindset. Again, it leans to that sense of internationalism of like, I don't have to look to the UK as a reference for how I can exist differently. So the fact that I went to Guyana when I was five was extremely impactful for me because I saw a society that represented me throughout. So I saw leaders, I saw doctors, I saw cleaners, I saw teachers, everyone was black. It gave me that sense of just normalisation.

20:02You can be in a society that's predominantly black and it's just not a thing to be black. And it's something that my siblings have said to me because I'm the only one, I'm the youngest of five, but I'm the only one that's born in the UK. So all of my siblings were raised in Guyana. But my siblings say to me that they didn't know they were black until they came here. And you hear a lot of people saying that. And again, that was just very empowering for me to go, oh, right, OK, so you don't have to be categorized in this way. And it's a term that's been placed upon us. And when you unpack it just a little bit, it's nonsense.

20:37So yeah, I think coming back and thinking about pan-Africanism, it allows you to appreciate the vast spectrum of what the African identity can be. So it just flies above blackness because blackness sits in contention towards whiteness, as far as I'm concerned. Whereas I feel like pan-Africanism allows you to think differently. And as individuals today, what do you think Pan-Africanism asks of us? When I first heard about the phrase Pan-Africanism, it was very tantalising to me, but I know I latched on to it in a way that felt quite idealistic, let's say. And then now I'm very much about being pragmatic.

21:28So there are certain people currently in power in certain countries in Africa who are being recognised as being like pan-African leaders, let's say. I'm guessing you're talking about Ibrahim Traore, the young, charismatic leader of Burkina Faso who came to power in a coup. Yes, that's exactly who I was thinking of. People across Africa and the diaspora are talking about one man. We African heads of state must stop behaving like puppets who dance every time the imperialists pull the strings. Among Traore's popular moves, kicking out French troops and attempting to rewrite mining contracts to bring in more revenue for Burkina Faso.

22:10They're pushing against governments and they're challenging Western powers and all of that's very encouraging. But am I going to sit here and say that I'm completely comfortable with the way that he goes about things or the way that certain leaders have made decisions that affect queer communities and, you know, things like that. So I'm like, I can't just sit here and say, all of the leaders that are pushing for a Pan-African vision on the continent represent me, but I can't be so simplistic about it. And I'm just more concerned with anyone that's doing something that feels Afrocentric. If you reset in the dialogue, if you're shifting the structures in some way if you're making an economic argument that will serve us if you're challenging the idea that all of us have got colton and cobalt in our devices I'm interested in stuff that feels tangible and specific as opposed to being kind of like idealistic so yeah I feel quite conflicted at the moment in terms of what it personally means to me because as you would have heard my introduction to it was not whimsical but you know I was little and I was fed this narrative and told about all these amazing heroes and figures and that's how history comes across to you anyway as a child you're just like oh it's all massive and amazing like I loved Harriet Tubman like she was my hero for years she still is now but you know she felt like a superhero to me but then as you get older you will start asking questions thinking would I have liked Harriet Dougman would we get on be like does that matter so it's like what do I take from looking to this person what is it that I'm trying to understand that will then help me what can I feed into what am I going for so I suppose to come back to your question pan-Africanism serves me in terms of like feeling like I'm part of a bigger thing and a bigger movement that's about African people coming together but when I actually then challenge it and go okay number one does that actually mean then I'm just a bit more functional about it and just thinking who's making change who's shaking stuff up and making stuff more Afrocentric that's what's interesting to me.

24:49It was inspiring speaking to Keisha and hearing about how she sees Pan-Africanism as helping to ground her and give strength to people in the diaspora. I also found what she said about adopting a practical approach to the concrete and tangible objectives that Pan-Africanism might achieve in the world really fascinating. But what are the goals of Pan-Africanism today now that formal colonial rule has come to an end and who is trying to achieve it? When it comes to Pan-African leaders Mia Motley of Barbados has often been held up as a global figure advocating on behalf of all people of African origin.

25:25But I have to say in the last year it's been Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso who's really been blowing up on social media as a new figurehead of the Pan-African movement. That's the person who Keisha mentioned as having a complicated relationship to. The videos all over social media show this dynamic leader in a beret, saying enough is enough when it comes to French imperialism. He's portrayed as supporting economic development through agriculture, through factories and through ensuring that ordinary people get a share in the country's mineral wealth. But on the other side, there are allegations surrounding Truro, of military-linked violence against civilians and disinformation campaigns.

26:07Burkina Faso has dismissed a report from a rights group accusing the military of executing 223 civilians, including more than 50 children. Human Rights Watch says Burkina Faso's army carried out the killings in two northern... It's difficult. Given that it's hard to think of any African leader that is covered favourably by Western media, it's hard to get a nuanced picture that covers the things that Traore is doing to improve or free his country, as well as these worrying reports by human rights organisations. To find out one view of what Pan-Africanism now and into the future might look like, I'm going to call someone who's really plugged in.

26:48Is that what you call people from Manchester, Mancunians? Mancunians. Boy, I learned a new word today. We know we have a Manchester here in Jamaica too. My name is Stephen Golding. I'm the president of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. It is an old Pan-African confraternity founded by the right excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey in Jamaica in 1914. Historically, it is the largest mass movement of black people ever organized. I'm also a member of the National Council on Reparations for Jamaica. I'm a professor of Garveyism, a teacher, And we're currently working on a project aimed at decolonizing the educational curriculum here in Jamaica, particularly at the early childhood level, focusing on repairing the narratives of the centuries old British nursery rhymes that are still being taught to children in the 21st century.

27:47So Stephen, you're speaking to us from Kingston, Jamaica, and we're speaking on the 80th anniversary of the 1945 Pan-African Congress in Manchester. The significance of having a Pan-African Congress in Manchester after the Second World War, looking back from 2025, what would you say it was? You know, the United Kingdom, I don't think really recognizing the pivotal and even essential role it has played in the Pan-African movement. The UK has a history going back to even groups like the Sons of Africa in fighting for abolition. There have always been Africans and African descendants in the UK who have been very active behind the philosophy of Pan-Africanism.