Pan-Africanism channeled revolutionary energies away from the masses and into exile-led politics

Evidence

Azinna Nwafor, in one of the most forceful critiques of the Pan-African movement, sees the Manchester conference as one of the more progressive moments in Pan-Africanism. Nevertheless, Nwafor concludes: “Pan-Africanism did not offer a revolutionary choice to the emancipation of Africa from its centuries of conquest, domination, and colonial exploitation. The necessarily progressive role which the movement played in the evolution of Africa to independent status should not be underestimated, but the severe limitations of the scope and method are such that it contributed in no small degree to the disarray of the contemporary African scene and the general disenchantment with the fruits of political independence. It would seem that the storm centres of popular uprising for African emancipation were in fact headed off with the aid of Pan-Africanists, who represented themselves to the colonial authorities as the only forces capable of curbing the violence of the masses.” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2429

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s stated need for the downfall of the Black radical tradition — this is an account of how the movement was defanged from within.
• QUESTION: Nwafor claims Pan-Africanists functioned as buffers for colonial authorities — worth pursuing how far this applied across different colonial contexts.