Makonnen single-handedly organized the 1945 Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester.

Evidence

Makonnen had first come to Britain in 1935. He returned two years later and took up residence for 20 years. He was a Pan-Africanist when he arrived and remained so, deserving to be ranked along with Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, and Padmore in that movement. Indeed, he was more responsible than anyone else for bringing the movement together at Manchester in 1945 for the Fifth Pan-African Congress—the last time many of them would meet as ideologues without power. As a publisher, Makonnen had been the first to publish Eric Williams’s work and had published some of the writings of Kenyatta and Padmore as well. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1228

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: what made Manchester 1945 the ‘last time they met as ideologues without power’ — what followed to shift their roles?