The gathering that helped shape decolonisation
Witness History

The gathering that helped shape decolonisation

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 23, 202610 min
  • Documentary
  • History

The Fifth Pan-African Congress was held in Manchester, England, in 1945, helping to shape the post-war struggle against colonialism and racial discrimination. Prominent black activists, intellectuals and trade union leaders from around the world attended, including Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta, who would later become the leaders of independent Ghana and Kenya. In 2020, Alex Last explored the story through archive recordings of one of the delegates, the late African National Congress activist and writer Peter Abrahams, and spoke to Professor Hakim Adi of the University of Chichester about the significance of the meeting. Witness History is...

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city of Manchester, England for the 5th Pan-African Congress, a meeting that helped shape the

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1:11

Today we go back to 1945, when around 200 people gathered at a town hall in the bomb-damaged city of Manchester, England for the 5th Pan-African Congress, a meeting that helped shape the striddle against colonialism. Alex Last guides us through archive recordings of one of the delegates, Black South African activist and writer Peter Abrahams.

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