The Pan African Conference (1900) and the Frankland Family Archive

To celebrate Black History Month, this article remembers the Pan African Conference of 1900, using documents from the Frankland Family Archive.

The Pan African Conference, held in London in July 1900, was a significant event in promoting the political voice of people from Sub-Saharan Africa and the African diaspora.

The Conference was primarily the work of Henry Sylvester Williams (1869-1911), a Trinidadian barrister working in London. Williams had previously established the African Association in 1897, and devoted great energy to planning the Conference, which opened on 23 July at Caxton Hall, London. In promoting the Conference, Williams said it “would be the first occasion upon which black men would assemble in England to speak for themselves and endeavour to influence public opinion in their favour.”

The Conference was attended by around 50 delegates and observers, mainly “men and women of African blood and descent” from the United States, West Indies and Africa, and including representatives of the independent Black states – Liberia, Ethiopia and Haiti.

Over the course of three days, delegates discussed a wide range of issues including racial discrimination, the ‘Colour Bar’ in the USA, repressive labour legislation in South Africa, inadequate educational and employment opportunities in the British West Indian colonies, as well as the promotion of African history.

However, the most memorable speech was made by the American delegate W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1932) in a concluding address to the Conference, “To the Nations of the World”. Du Bois passionately argued that racial justice would be one of the major themes of future politics:

“The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line, the question as to how far differences of race, which show themselves chiefly in the color of the skin and the texture of the hair, are going to be made, hereafter, the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization.”

His address was included in a Conference memorial sent to the US and European governments, demanding improvements to race relations in their countries and colonial possessions. Perhaps one of the most important outcomes of the conference was the call by some delegates for self-government to be extended to British colonies in the West Indies and Africa, in the same way as had been granted to Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

After the Conference, Williams re-established the African Association as the Pan African Association, with clearer political objectives, which included “to approach Governments and influence legislation in the interests of the black races; and to ameliorate the condition of the oppressed negro in all parts of the world.”

A signed list of Conference attendees is present in the papers of Sophie Colenso, the daughter of Sir Edward Frankland, and is part of the Frankland Family Archive. The signatories include the Conference chair, Bishop Alexander Walters (1868-1917), a prominent American civil rights leader, Benito Sylvain, a diplomat, representing the Ethiopian and Haitian governments,  F. E. R. Johnson, ex-Attorney General of Liberia,  Jane Rose Roberts, widow of the first President of Liberia, J. R. Archer, who was one of the first Black mayors in  Britain (Battersea) and later chair of the 1921 Pan African Congress in London,  Henry Downing, an American civil rights activists and novelist who had worked for the Liberian government, and two Trinidadian lawyers Alexander Pulcherie Pierre, and R. E. Phipps, who went on the build a successful law practice in the Gold Coast (Ghana). Unfortunately, neither Williams nor Du Bois signed the document.

The final signatory of the list is the composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), who was of partly Sierra Leonean heritage. Coleridge-Taylor, best known for his Hiawatha cantatas, was notable for using African and Caribbean  themes in his compositions. He was the youngest delegate at the Conference and organised a musical concert for the delegates.

Coleridge-Taylor was a friend of Sophie Colenso and her husband Frank, and corresponded with them frequently before his untimely death in 1912. Coleridge-Taylor was inspired by the Conference to join the executive council of the Pan African Association.

It is not known whether Sophie and Frank Colenso attended the Conference, but Frank’s brother Robert, who served as treasurer, did. Frank Colenso sat on the executive committee of  Williams’ Pan African Association. The Colenso family, particularly Frank’s father, John, bishop of Natal and his sister, Harriette, were well-known for campaigning against racial injustices in South Africa, especially in defence of the Zulu people.

You can find out more about the Colensos in the Frankland family archive catalogue. Some Colenso family papers are also held at Rhodes House Library, Oxford.

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In writing this article I am indebted to:

• Marika Sherwood, Origins of Pan-Africanism: Henry Sylvester Williams, Africa, and the African Diaspora (2011)
• Gwilym Colenso and Christopher Saunders “New Light on the Pan African Association” African Research and Documentation, 107-108 (2008)

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