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JAMES POPE: So to think about the American Committee on African Affairs, established in 1953, in the latter part-- or going into the-- well, the 20th century is important to look at this

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in a more longer genealogy. We cannot look at the American Committee on Africa without looking at the genealogy of relationships, particularly here in the United States or in the diaspora,

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without paying attention to the long history of African-Americans in the diaspora and their relationship to Africa itself. So again, one of the things I think is important to do is

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to start at the 1900s, the 1900 to 1945 Pan-African Conference, which is 1900. And then, of course, you have the Pan-African congresses after that.

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Henry Sylvester-Williams, who was a lawyer, started the Pan-African Conference in 1900. And then, of course, by 1919, which is when the conference is started that was led by W. E. B.

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Du Bois, or Du Bois, as he likes to be called, this is when he switches from conference to congress. And there's a systematic way, and an important way, a reason or purpose in doing that.

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Moving from conference to congress becomes important. And then, of course, you have, from 1942 and the 1940s, you have the Council on African Affairs with Alphaeus Huntington, W. E. B. Du Bois again, Paul Robeson,

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and other people. Rayford Logan and other people were involved in that particular organization, which was absolutely in the genealogy specifically of the American

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Committee on Africa, again, in 1953, which purpose was to support African liberation struggles. And that's anticolonialism. And I'll talk a little bit about the difference

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between anticolonialism and decolonialism because I think that's an important distinction because the American Committee on Africa, in 1953-- supporting African Liberation, support struggles

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of anticolonialism is an important distinction. Decolonialism is different or is the precursor to anticolonialism. Decolonialism is the removal of colonial apparatus

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and, of course, anticolonialism is the consistent resistance of the re-institutionalization of colonialism itself. So keeping along with the genealogy or situating the American Committee on Africa in the longer genealogy going

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into the 20th century, of course, you have-- and you cannot talk about this without talking about the 1945 period, which is the end of World War II, which, again, ushers in the Cold War.

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And I'll talk a little bit more about that Cold War and the split and the work that the Committee was doing in the context of that, along with a number of other organizations that were doing that.

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Again, I talked about the Council on African Affairs, the Pan-African Congresses, Chicago Conference on Africa. There's different things that come out of that.

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1947, W. E. B. Du Bois writes something that's very, very important, which is called "An Appeal to the World." I'm not going to go through the long particular title of that, but it's called "An Appeal," as we call it,

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but the actual long title is "An Appeal to the World-- a Statement on the Denial of Human Rights." I'm not going to continue that because it's a very long title. That's 1947.

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1948 becomes a very important period as well because you have the UDHR, which is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ratified December 10 in 1948. Then of course, you have 1951.

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The We Charge Genocide petition that is developed by William Patterson-- and then again, this becomes important in the genealogy of the context when you have the American Committee on Africa,

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which is formed in 1953. Now, this is important. And these are just highlights. And these are important points to highlight the genealogy that

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punctuates and also accelerates the American Committee on Africa. Of course, the entire Global South is experiencing apartheid, Jim Crow, colonialism.

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1953, the American Committee is developed at a particular time where you have a robust uptick in African liberation movements in conjunction or in continuity

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with struggles that are happening in the United States itself. Most people look at that struggle and shrink it into that 10-year period between 1955 to 1965.

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And they call that the Civil Rights struggle, but that was a fraction. What I attempted to do was to give a longer genealogy that-- Africans and people of African descent

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were in communication as far back as the Civil War-- this is not the context of that, but-- in continuity and struggling against oppression, Jim Crow, slavery, and so forth, and so on.

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This period of the World War II becomes important because the committee is formed at a period when you have the world split. Into the Cold War, you have what is called

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the socialist communist East. And then, of course, you have the democratic West. This is important because if we're talking about anticolonial struggles and supporting that, you have all of these other

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organisations that pop out, such as Corps and other things that happen there. So this is important-- this period, this environment. What did the American Committee on Africa do?

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Of course, they lobbied the UN. Very important because you have the UDHR, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948. They're very clear about this, but as I've shown,

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so was Du Bois in 1947. So was the Council of African Affairs, so forth and so on. They lobbied the US government, of course, to support African liberation independence movements.

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I think it's important to talk about a few people, particularly Bill Sutherland, of course, George Houser, Rustin as well. There was some ideological positioning which was rooted in nonviolence.

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This is very important, but I want to say nonviolent direct action is very important to understand that. So this is really the contextualization

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of the committee that was formed. It's important to note, too-- Houser, who travels to Africa in 1954, who links with Sisulu, Kwame Nkrumah--

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these are all anti-apartheid, which is Sisulu. But then Kwame Nkrumah is Ghanaian, and he's from Ghana. Ghana frees itself in 1957, which also is very important in the context of liberation movement,

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particularly the Black liberation movement in a global context. So that becomes important. I want to also talk about 1955--

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Brown versus Board of Education. This is important to note because this was also a window into the environment that produced not only organizations that the Committee was engaged with,

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not only people such as Houser, such as Esther Cooper Jackson, and other people, but this was a very, very important watershed moment in the global context because what ends up happening with Brown

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versus Board of Education-- most people don't realise that case was actually decided not based upon solely a moral issue of segregation, but also, what was happening in an international context.

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African nations were becoming free. They began to join the UN. They began to send delegations, diplomats to the United States during Jim Crow.

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What ended up happening was is that a lot of these folk were getting arrested, accosted, murdered, lynched, arrested. I think I said arrested twice, but there are many different things that was happening to them because the police,

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particularly in the South, but not only in the South-- also in the North, Midwest, California-- did not make a distinction between African diplomats, and also, of course, people of African descent

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or African-Americans in the United States. So that's an important watershed moment because then you have the State Department, who are writing amicus briefs.

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And this is all in the context of what work and what was the Committee attempting to use in order to address equality and equity in the United States and the equality and equity

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as being championed by African liberation movements? This is a huge question. And I'm going to make sure that I highlight-- when we're talking about what we would consider to be

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the crosscurrents of resistance in relation to groups that are fighting for liberation outside of Africa, the role of organizations such as the Committee in making sure that there's a continuity in practise and in thinking,

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in conceptualizing freedom with those fighting in anticolonialist movements on the continent of Africa, this is very important. I want to start with 1972 and work backwards and then

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forwards. The reason why I want to start with 1972 is because this is an important period in the context of the United States

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because you have the African Liberation Support movement-- 1972, 1973, 1974. Now, what I want to do is work backwards. I want to talk about, in the context of this, sharing

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of the ideas of liberation and fighting and struggling both on the continent and in the diaspora here in the United States. I want to point to a few people.

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Amilcar Cabral, who is fighting for liberation against Portuguese colonialism for Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Kwame Nkrumah, of course, frees Ghana.

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Now, the reason I want to talk about these two people is because they also are directly linked to people here of African descent here because Amilcar Cabral actually

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receives an honorary doctorate of law from Lincoln University. Kwame Nkrumah went to and graduated from Lincoln University, which are HBCUs. Very important because Lincoln University

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is one of those particular linchpins when we're talking about a direct, clear connection between intellectuals and revolutionaries and radicals and also activists here in the United States, and also in the continent of Africa.

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I also want to talk about A. B. Xuma. A. B. Xuma was the first president of the ANC, which is the African National Congress, which is the anti-apartheid arm.

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Now, he's the first president of that, A. B. Xuma. And I want to also pull in Madie Hall Xuma, who is his wife, who is from Winston-Salem, who graduated from Winston-Salem State University.

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And she is considered to be the African-American mother of an African nation in South Africa because they were very, very involved at the very early stages of the formation of the ANC,

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having those direct connections. So all of the work that Madie Hall Xuma was doing here in North Carolina-- and she moves to Florida-- but also in Harlem becomes important

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because she learned. She took the skills of developing and organizing against-- right before Jim Crow really becomes

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a real, solidified, concretized system, she moves to South Africa, where apartheid, at the same time, is coming in. This is very interesting because even

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though we have Jim Crow laws, particularly as they're coming out of, obviously, 1865, moving from Jim Crow, United States, as it's really becoming a very, very concretized system, going to South Africa when apartheid is actually

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being implemented-- very, very important. I also want to talk about Malcolm X Liberation University, which comes from Greensboro University, which is also connected to SOBU, which is the Student Organization of Black

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Unity. North Carolina is a very, very important place. And a lot of organizations that really set the groundwork before and after--

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even though I'm talking about 1972, there is a before and after that's happening. I'm just leading up and talking about these. There's also Sixth-PAC, which is the sixth Pan-African Congress.

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You have SNCC at Shaw University. Ella Baker-- you have Kwame Ture. You also have TransAfrica. North Carolina again becomes a very, very important place

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that really is just an entry point or a lens through which one can understand the contextualization of an organization such as the Committee, which comes before that, but is a continuation

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of that particular work. So by the time we get to 1972 and the formation, particularly, of the African Liberation Support Movement, we have a clear, intentional effort

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where there is different ideological positions, different strategies that are coming together because, of course, the Committee and CORE represent one particular tendency in the Black freedom

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movement. Then of course, you have SOBU and other particular organizations that represent another tendency. There's some attempts to synthesise those.

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One of those is SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and their particular role in making sure that Africa and the liberation for African people worldwide is the centre of their work because they make this statement at the formation.

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Of course, we have Ella Baker, who is one of the people who was part of many organizations, including SCLC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of course, where Dr. King is.

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And then I wanted to say the last one is Malcolm X, who actually gives a speech at one of the 1960 conferences or meetings of the Committee. This is very important because, of course,

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we know that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a part of the board of the Committee. So was Malcolm X. So this notion of the differences between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King

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is shown in the history and the development of the Committee because this is one of those places that attempts to find synergy and continuity in the different tendencies in the movement, ideological, but also,

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strategic institutional practises for liberation, both on the continent and in the diaspora. The question of the influences of African liberation movements and their impact on the movement,

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particularly here in the diaspora, are very, very deep. I touched on a lot of that particularly. And it goes back further than the 1940s, but just contextualizing it, when we think about the sources

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that are available in the archive, there are many, many different instances. There's many instances within which, again, I think it's important to look at the African liberation

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leaders themselves. But let's talk about the anti-apartheid movement just to centre that a little bit more clearly in the conversation of the continuities.

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The anti-apartheid movement, of course, is a movement against apartheid in South Africa. It is a natural continuity and resistance to that because if we think about the imposition and the development

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of apartheid as a system itself, it mirrors literally almost directly with the imposition and the development of Jim Crow here in the United States.

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There are many particular sources in the archives that talk about this, but I want to really highlight the fact that Jim Crow in the US South and also in the North-- we must not forget

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it just was not in the South. It was in the North as well, but in the South, in its most articulate form, was a direct inspiration for apartheid.

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Now, it becomes very important to understand that continuity. And when we think about the different organizations and the people, particularly the anti-apartheid movement that comes to fruition as a product of the 1970s,

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a product of the late 1970s, once you get to the 1980s, it becomes very important. You have a lot of students who are in school who are part of SNCC, who are part of different organisations,

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particularly, again, the Student Organisation for Black Unity that produces organizations and educational organizations, such as Malcolm X University. Malcolm X himself is understanding the Mau Mau

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movement in Kenya. He's travelling in Africa. He's engaged with a number of particular revolutionaries. Martin Luther King, Jr. is actually

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invited to the celebration of Ghana's independence in 1958. Very, very important because this also produces the All-African Peoples' Congress in 1958. So these continuities are very, very deep.

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Some of them go into organizational and institutional formation. Some of them go into intellectual formation. Some of them go into activism.

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There's a number of organizations, such as the Institute of the Black World, started by Vincent Harding, of course, a peace activist. Du Bois is a peace activist.

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So the idea here is that you have a deep continuity in organizations and then people, not only particularly in South Africa. And when we think about South African liberation movements,

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it's important to understand South Africa as the nation state, but we also have to be clear about the South Africa itself and all of the liberation movements that was happening there.

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It was great, great-- you know, Mondlane, African liberation leader, Sisulu. It's a deep continuity there that reaches back to, again, 1800s.

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But I think about it in that particular context. There's a number of organizations-- SNCC, I think, is important. Obviously, CORE is important.

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And what is happening here is because of the practise and the supremacy, or the racial supremacy in whiteness, articulating itself in Jim Crow, but also in apartheid, you have a natural continuity there.

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The role that the Committee played was an important role, but not without its limitations. Its limitations was in its political ideological expressions, which also was tactical and also strategic.

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This is something that was constantly worked out in resistance movements that were trying to find continuity. With African liberation movements-- and I'm talking resistance movements here in the United

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States-- that formulated itself, again, in the African Liberation Support conference in 1974, where there was a huge, big ideological debate,

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strategic limitations were the dissemination of information and education on what was happening in liberation movements. To be very clear, the CIA and different organizations were

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engaged in disinformation and misdirection of the information that the committee and other organisations were attempting to share. And also, very, very--

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they played an important role in divisiveness and creating division between the strategic positions, ideological positions, and where movements were going, particularly here in the United States,

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but also, on the continent itself. When we're thinking about lobbying in the UN, we think about lobbying the United States government to support African independence movements, that

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was a strategic era, I would say, but not necessarily an era that did not produce other formations or articulations because you have TransAfrica. You have different organizations, again,

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that came out of that-- nationalist organizations here in the United States, Pan-African organizations, educational organizations. So the idea was how do we get a clear understanding of what

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was happening on the continent, but also, the direction of particular movements? Also, I think it's important to talk about historic organizations such as Freedomways.

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Esther Cooper Jackson, James Jackson, with the help of W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and other people-- was one of those instances.

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You have the Council on African Affairs and their particular ways of trying to disseminate information. So the Committee itself played an important role,

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but there were some political limitations there, some strategic limitations of how to go about the work, but also, who to target for actually getting policies passed that actually benefited not

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only communities on the African continent, but also here in the United States. So it's a very wide and deep question. A lot of the resources that are available in an archive

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and other-- speak to this. There's a letter by Dr. King that talks about this. There are speeches that you can read where these were debated.

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So the limitations, while they were strategic and political, in the moment, they did produce a reverberation that we are seeing today in a lot of particular Black studies, Africana studies programmes that are still talking about

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or engaged in the questions that these movements and the people involved in them were actually attempting to address.