George Padmore
28th June 1903 - 23 September 1959
“Pan-Africanism looks above the narrow confines of class, race, tribe, and religion. It embraces the amalgamation of self-governing countries into a United States of Africa.”
Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse
George Padmore was a prominent twentieth-century pan-Africanist, journalist, and author. He established an independent intellectual and organizational position during the 1930s and 1940s anti-colonial and international movements for change.
Padmore was instrumental in the organization of the 5th Pan African Congress, which took place in Manchester in 1945. Padmore is particularly well-known for shaping the theory of pan-Africanism in the first half of the twentieth century, perhaps more than anyone else.
Early Life
Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse (commonly known as George Padmore) was born on 28 June 1903 in Tacarigua, Trinidad. His father was James Hubert Alfonso Nurse and worked as a local schoolmaster and his mother, Anna Susanna Symister, was a naturalist. Padmore went to Tranquillity School in Port of Spain before attending St. Mary’s College from 1914-1915. He graduated from Pamphylian High School in 1918 and moved to the United States to study at Fisk and Howard Universities in 1925 (two historically black universities).
Communism
Padmore dropped out of Howard's law school in 1928 and joined the American Communist Party, adopting the name George Padmore shortly thereafter. He quickly established himself as an expert on imperialism and race and rose to prominence within the party. Padmore relocated to Moscow in the Soviet Union in 1929 to head the Comintern's International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers (ITUC-NW) and edit the widely read Negro Worker. The ITUC-NW was a burgeoning organization that organized an international conference of Negro workers in Germany. However, in 1933, the Comintern suspended the Negro Workers and disbanded the ITUC-NW, prompting Padmore's resignation from the Communist Party. Padmore later converted to anti-communism and denounced the Comintern's alleged manipulation of black liberation struggles.
Pan-Africanism
While Padmore repudiated Stalinism, he remained a socialist. Padmore relocated to London in 1936, where he contributed to the establishment of a radical environment of Pan-Africanist intellectuals, including his childhood friend C.L.R. James. In 1935, in response to Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, Padmore founded the International African Friends of Ethiopia (IAFA). IAFA evolved into the International African Service Bureau (IASB), which served as a focal point for anti-colonial activity among the Caribbean and African intellectuals. Padmore led the IASB through the 1930s and early 1940s, until 1944 when it was absorbed into the Pan-African Federation.
Padmore was instrumental in organizing the Fifth Pan-African Congress in 1945, which was held in Manchester, alongside fellow Pan-Africanist W.E.B Du Bois. He met Kwame Nkrumah in London, who aided in the congress's organization. This congress laid the groundwork for African colonial liberation movements in the postwar period. During this time period, Padmore wrote numerous essays and articles, which appeared regularly in the Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier, and The Crisis, as well as in newspapers throughout the United Kingdom, West Africa, and the Caribbean. Padmore and Nkrumah had a strong relationship, and Padmore assisted Nkrumah from the time he returned to the Gold Coast in 1947 until its independence. He accepted Nkrumah's invitation to relocate to Ghana but was unable to do so due to liver cirrhosis. Padmore died in London on 23 September 1959.
References
George Padmore | Encyclopedia.com (2021). Available at: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/historians-and-chronicles/historians- miscellaneous-biographies/george-padmore (Accessed: 16 February 2021).
George Padmore , Father Of The African Revolution* (2021). Available at: https://www.modernghana.com/news/798245/george-padmore-father-of-the-african- revolution.html (Accessed: 16 February 2021).
George Padmore | Making Britain (2021). Available at: http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/george-padmore (Accessed: 16 February 2021).
George Padmore | Trinidadian author and Pan-Africanist (2021). Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/George-Padmore (Accessed: 16 February 2021).
Salter, D. (2007) George Padmore (1901-1959) •, Blackpast.org. Available at:https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/padmore-george-1901-1959/ (Accessed: 12 February 2021).
Who was George Padmore | George Padmore Institute (2021). Available at: https://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/Who%20We%20Are/who-was-george- padmore (Accessed: 12 February 2021).
