Communism was an international movement and the Soviet
government made an effort to support revolutionaries in the colonial world.
Although, the limited nature of Soviet material assistance and the
effectiveness of colonial repression severely hampered these efforts, they did
have some success, particularly in Asia. The greater distance, lower level of
aid, and more effective repression of communist movements by the European
powers in Africa meant that by the time most African countries received
independence that there were very few major communist movements on the
continent. The one large communist party in Africa in the 1950s and 1960s was
the Sudanese Communist Party.[1] It
owed its strength to the fact that it was the only political party in the
country that crossed racial and religious boundaries to have strong
representation from both the north and the south of Sudan.[2] But,
in 1970 the Sudanese government thoroughly crushed the Communist Party and
executed its leaders.[3] In
contrast by 1954 communist governments had been established in Mongolia, North
Korea, China, and North Vietnam. Large and powerful communist movements also
developed in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaya. Nonetheless, Africa was
not completely devoid of communists during the colonial era. The Sudanese
Communist Party founded in 1944 has already been mentioned.[4] There
was also an organized, although predominantly white communist party in the
Union of South Africa. Other regions of Africa, however, were also not immune
from communist agitation. There were individual communists active in British
West Africa including the Gold Coast despite harsh colonial repression. The
history of the international communist movement in the Gold Coast, however,
still remains largely unwritten. This article is a first attempt at rectifying
this lacuna and integrating West Africa into the history of the world communist
movement during the 20th century.
The 1930s saw the embryonic development of a communist
movement in the Gold Coast. It centered around Isaac Wallace-Johnson and
Bankole Awooner Renner. The first of these two men was from Sierra Leone and he
worked in the Gold Coast only briefly from 1933-1936 following his deportation
from Nigeria until he left to go back to his home country. Both Wallace-Johnson and Renner had been students of KUTV(Communist
University for Toilers of the East) in Moscow and in 1935 they founded the
Marxist West African Youth League in the Gold Coast. Wallace-Johnson had been
active along with George Padmore in the International Trade Union Committee of
Negro Workers (ITUCNW), a communist trade union for Blacks around the world established
by the Profitern in Hamburg Germany in 1930. The ITUCNW published a newspaper
by the name of the Negro Worker which
circulated in the British West African colonies.[5] At
this time there was no Gold Coast Communist Party separate from the British
Communist Party.
The KUTV was founded in 1921 and played an important role in
providing ideological training for African communists. Initially the university
only received students from Asia and the Middle East, but starting in 1923 a
few Africans began attending the institution as well. One of the first Africans
to enroll in KUTV was Bankole Awooner Renner from the Gold Coast. Renner had
become a communist while studying in the US and went to continue his studies at
KUTV in November 1925. While at KUTV Renner raised the issue of Soviet policy
towards sub-Saharan Africa both in person and in writing with Zinoviev, but was
never able to get any type of substantial answer.[6] The
Soviet government's policies towards Africa remained in an undeveloped state
throughout the 1930s and 40s.
After attending KUTV it appears that Wallace-Johnson and
Renner had some contact with each other in the League Against Imperialism
(LAI). Founded in 1927 in Brussels this Soviet front group sought to support
communist movements in the colonial world, particularly in India. It seems that
Wallace-Johnson was operating under the name of A.E. Richards at the time and
was secretary of the LAI for West Africa. But, overall the LAI's influence in
British West Africa was quite limited. It had far more success in French West
Africa.[7]
The ITCUNW proved to be a more effective instrument of communist agitation in
the Gold Coast than the LAI.
In response to the formation of the LAI and activities of
the Comintern the British colonial authorities in the Gold Coast passed the
Sedition Bill in 1934. This bill was to
ban the entry into the colony of people deemed subversive. Among those fitting
this description were people associated with the Communist Party, ITUCNW, LAI,
and the Profitern. The Inspector General of the police named four men he
considered to be especially dangerous subversives. These men were Essuman Gwira
Kobina Sekyi, Benjamn Wuta-Ofei, Alfred John Ocansey, and Emmanuel K. Caeser.
Among Sekyi's contacts in the above mentioned subversive organizations was
Wallace-Johnson. Both Renner and Wallace-Johnson were prominent in the Gold
Coast press and political organizations such as the West African Youth League
and Friends of Ashanti Freedom Society.[8] Wallace-Johnson's
journalistic criticism of the colonial regime in the Gold Coast especially
upset the authorities. On 1 June 1936, he was arrested for violating the
Sedition Act.[9] Although
convicted, Wallace-Johnson only received a 50 pound fine. In March 1937
Wallace-Johnson left the Gold Coast and did not return until after Ghana had
received its independence.[10] However,
communism as a movement lost out to the Pan-Africanist aspirations of Nkrumah
and the Convention Peoples Party during most of the first decade of
independence. The 1930s in fact like in many other places represented a high
point for the communist movement in West Africa.
[1] Vijay
Prashad, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World (NY: The New
Press, 2007), 158-159.
[2] Prashad,
160-161.
[3] Prashad,
161.
[4] Prashad,
160.
[5] Hakim
Adi, “The Communist Movement in West Africa,” Science and Society, 61, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 94-96.
[6] Woodford
McClellen, “Africans and Black Americans in the Comintern Schools,” The International Journal of African
Historical Studies, 26, no. 2 (1993): 373-374.
[7] John D.
Hargreaves, “The Comintern and Anti-Colonialism: New Research Opportunities,” African Affairs, 92, no. 367 (Apr.,
1993): 258-261.
[8] Stanley
Shaloff, “Press Controls and Sedition Proceedings in the Gold Coast,
1933-1939,” African Affairs, 71, no.
284 (July 1972)
[9] Shaloff,
257.
[10]
Shaloff, 259-260.
No comments:
Post a Comment