The Fifth Pan-African Congress: 75 Years On

30 October 2020

3:00-4:30pm (GMT)

An online discussion hosted by Durham University Centre for Contemporary African History

Speakers:

Leslie James (Senior Lecturer in Global History, Queen Mary University of London)

Marika Sherwood (Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies)

Theo Williams (Lecturer in Twentieth-Century British History, Durham University)

The Fifth Pan-African Congress, held in Manchester in October 1945, was a landmark event in the history of African liberation. Delegates from across Africa and the African diaspora gathered to demand their freedom and to plot a route to political and economic independence from the colonial powers. As Kwame Nkrumah, one of the Congress’s organisers and later the first president of Ghana, remembered, ‘we went from Manchester knowing definitely where we were going.’

In this online event, leading historians of Pan-Africanism — Leslie James, Marika Sherwood and Theo Williams — discuss how the 1945 Pan-African Congress came about, the politics that informed it, and its significance and legacies. Join us as we celebrate Black History Month by marking the 75th anniversary of this remarkable Congress.

This event is open to anyone interested in African and African diasporic history, and there will be time for a Q&A session. If you have any questions about the event, please contact theo.p.williams@durham.ac.uk

Please register for the event here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-fifth-pan-african-congress-75-years-on-tickets-125152850545