African Revolutionary Writers, Part 2
W. E. B. Du
Bois
Dr W. E. B. Du Bois is a legend. How much is owed to this man’s life’s work is impossible to
over-estimate. He began his political career in the 19th Century and
went on through the 20th Century, eventually dying in independent
Ghana, where he had gone to serve the revolution, although well into his 90s by
that time.
Yet in spite of his
eminence and the great amount that he wrote, it has been extremely difficult to
find original documents of Du Bois’ on the Internet, especially documents that
coincide with his leadership, together with Paul Robeson, of the Council on African Affairs,
based in New York, after the anti-fascist war of 1939-1945, when the
independence of African countries started to get under way. The first was
Libya, on 24 December 1951.
Eventually a
friend in New York sent the two rare documents that can be downloaded via the
link below. What they at the very least demonstrate is the very broad
consciousness that Du Bois had, together with his tremendous sense of history
and of historical time.
The 1946 letter to
the New York Times is evidence of the unique leadership that Du Bois gave on
the national and colonial question, while the article on M. K. Gandhi shows his
great understanding of all the difficulties.
Du Bois is also
particularly famous for his role as an organiser and participant in several of
the five Pan-African Conferences, especially the
last effective one, in Manchester in 1945.
·
The above serves to
introduce the original reading-text: W. E. B. Du
Bois, Two Pieces of His Writing, 1946 and 1956.
No comments:
Post a Comment