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Pan African movement - Time Line1945– 4th pan-African Conference. Manchester – 1945 – 1963 UK is chaired Trinidad’s by eminent Pan-Africanist, George Padmore and attended by Liberation Heroes such as Tanganyika’s Julius Nerere, the Gold Coast’s Kwame Nkrumah and Peter Abrahams. It was the first of such congresses to bring together participants from the so called Anglophone and Francophone elements of colonial Africa. Also, the Manchester Conference marks beginning of the eventual transfer of the movement from its base in the West Indies to the African continent. 1957 – 5th pan-African conference opens in Accra coincides with newly named Ghana’s independence celebrations. The presidency of the movement is officially handed to President Kwame Nkrumah in an historic and moving ceremony moment, by Dr. W.E.B. DuBois the great pillar of black redemption politics. 1958 - Ghana and Guinea (Conakry) formulate draft charter conceived to become a foundation of a future Union of African States (U.A.S.). October 1960 – March 1961 – Three related conferences are held in Abidjan – Ivory Coast. Brazzaville – Republic of Congo and Yaunde – Cameroon by 12 so-called ‘Francophone’ countries. This group later excludes itself from Casablanca Conference which it perceived as ‘too Anglophonic’. 1961 – Casablanca Conference in Morocco. An African Charter is drafted which included instruments such as a joint military command and an African common market. September 1961 – The Francophone bloc meet in Madagascar and drafts Antananarivo Charter establishing the Organization Commune Africane et Mauricenne (OCAM) May 1961 – A Monrovia (Liberia) conference manages to gather 19 countries: Cameroon, C.A.R, Chad, Congo Republic, Dahomey (Benin), Ethiopia, Gabon, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Togo, Tunisia and Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) January 1962 – Monrovia conference has follow-up in Lagos, Nigeria with all 19 participants of former in attendance except Tunisia but with the addition of the Belgian Congo (later, Zaire and currently D.R.C). Lagos Conference approves draft charter for an Organization of Inter African and Malagasy States (OAMS) and forms a permanent secretariat as well as a standing committee of finance ministers. May 22-25 1963 – Finally and none too soon at, the Addis Ababa Conference is achieved the long sought continental consensus, gathering under one platform the various blocs split along linguistic, regional and political lines. Also, compromise is brokered between the Monrovia Group which preferred a loose association and the Casablanca Group, led by Ghana, which was keen on a federal structure. Ethiopia’s important role as symbolic African synthesis sealed not least due to the distinguished stature of Emperor Haile Sellasie and the huge respect accorded to his continental leadership. (Continues) Click HERE to go to the source of this article. |