George Padmore and Decolonization from Below ― Pan-africanism, the Cold War, and the End of Empire

The consolidation of anti-colonial and anti-racist movements in the first half of the twentieth century is often described through a narrative of 'moments' and 'moods'. Tempering this tendency, this book emphasizes that the rising tide of anti-colonialism and anti-racism after the 1930s should be considered a turning point not just in harnessing a new mood or feeling of unity, but primarily as one that viewed empire, racism, and economic degradation as part of a system that fundamentally required the application of strategy to their destruction.
The book traces George Padmore's politics through the ongoing influence of the Caribbean and the legacy of the Garvey movement; the international communist movement and Soviet decolonization; debates about fascism and colonialism; the new 'reform' rhetoric apparent in the Second World War; the beginnings of the Cold War; and post-war African politics that confronted a wealth of new dynamics including independent Ghana, apartheid South Africa, and the Mau Mau Emergency. The book shows that within the ideas and political practice of this forthright man lie a number of common questions about the circulation of ideas, the shape of black radical thought, and the weight of Cold War politics within the modern history of European imperialism and the end of empire.

Leslie James is a Lecturer in World History at the University of Cambridge, UK. She previously held the post of Pinto Postdoctoral Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and has taught at the LSE and at Goldsmith's College, University of London, UK. She is also co-editor with Elisabeth Leake of the forthcoming volume, Decolonization and the Cold War: Negotiating Independence.