All-African Peoples' Conference

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The All-African Peoples' Conference (AAPC) was partly a corollary and partly a different perspective to the modern Africa states represented by the First Conference of Independent Africa States held in 1957. In contrast to this first meeting where only states were formally represented, The All-Africa Peoples Conference was conceived in the tradition of Pan-Africanism and invitees primarily included independence movements and labor unions, as well as representatives from ethnic communities and other significant associations across the continent. as well as observer delegations from the United States, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, and a number of other countries. The All-Africa Peoples Conference was conceived by Ghana's Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah, his advisor George Padmore, and others to continue the tradition of the Pan-African Congress, which had last met in 1945 in Manchester. It represented the opinion that the end of European colonial rule was near, and in the words of the conference's Chairman the Kenyan Tom Mboya, that it was time for them to "scram from Africa."^[1]

In the Conference's own words, it was open to "all national political parties and national trade union congresses or equivalent bodies or organizations that subscribe to the aims and objects of the conference."^[2] The Conference met three times: December 1958, January 1960, and March 1961; and had a permanent secretariat with headquarters in Accra. Its primary objectives were independence for the colonies, and strengthening of the independent states and resistance to neocolonialism. It tended to be more outspoken in its denunciations of colonialism than the Conference of Independent African States, a contemporary organisation which, being composed of heads of state, was relatively constrained by diplomatic caution. Immanuel Wallerstein says that the All-African Peoples' Conference was the "true successor to the Pan-African Congresses." The subject matter and attitudes of the Conference are illustrated by the following excerpt from its second meeting:

The Conference

  Demands the immediate and unconditional accession to independence of all the African peoples, and the total evacuation of the foreign forces of aggression and oppression stationed in Africa;
  Proclaims the absolute necessity, in order to resist the imperialist coalition more effectively and rapidly free all the dependent peoples from foreign oppression, of coordinating and uniting the forces of all the Africans, and recommends the African states not to neglect any form of co-operation in the interest of all the African peoples;
  Denounces vigorously the policy of racial discrimination applied by colonialist and race-conscious minorities in South and East and Central Africa, and demands the abolition of racial domination in South Africa, the suppression of the Federation of Nyasaland and Rhodesia, and the immediate independence of these countries;
  Proclaims equality of rights for all the citizens of the free countries of Africa and the close association of the masses for the building up and administration of a free and prosperous Africa;
  Calls on the peoples of Africa to intensify the struggle for independence, and insists on the urgent obligation on the independent nations of Africa to assure them of the necessary aid and support;...^[3]