"Networks of Solidarity" in the Print Media : A Transnational Anti-Colonial Discourse, 1937-57

Title data

Edeagu, Ngozi:
"Networks of Solidarity" in the Print Media : A Transnational Anti-Colonial Discourse, 1937-57.
2021
Event: Africa Challenges , June 7-11, 2021 , Frankfurt am Main/online.
(Conference item: Conference , Paper )

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This paper thus seeks to explore the journalistic network of solidarity between these two central figures to close the gap in our understanding of the anti-colonial movement from a transnational perspective. The academic literature on anti-colonial movements and the attendant decolonization of African colonies have emphasized trans-Atlantic journalistic "networks of solidarity' that enabled individuals of African descent to support each other in liberation of the black race. For instance, Race Against Empire articulates this through the critical role of the black press in “reshaping international political debates” (von Eschen 1997, 5). As print media became a conduit for the circulation of ideas across national boundaries, the political contestations in colonial Africa reverberated in black American communities where they too were “facing equivalent forms of political discrimination, social exclusion, or rights denial” (Thomas and Andrew Thompson, 2018). As a global phenomenon, decolonisation locked journalists on both sides of the Atlantic in ‘networks of solidarity' in the fight for “freedom”. Two key figures in this process were George Padmore and Nnamdi Azikwe.

Padmore “ferreted out colonial rulers’ misdeeds and news of revolt in virtually all corners of the imperial world … and distributed these reports on several continents” (Polsgrove 2009, xii). Padmore, in the capacity of London correspondent supplied news about Africa for African American newspapers like the Pittsburgh Courier, Amsterdam Star News and Chicago Defender and wrote regular columns for the NAACP’s Crisis aided by his status as African correspondent for the Associated Negro Press—“a syndication service subscribed to by nearly two hundred papers, or 95 percent of black American newspapers” (von Eschen 1997, 8). Padmore occupied the latter position until 1947. Between 1934 and 1949 he had produced about a thousand articles for these African American newspapers (James 2016, 55) enabling them to regularly report on news from Africa “a constant reminder of the connection between America and Africa” (Muhammad 2011, 9). On the other hand, Azikiwe’s journalistic links with the United States date back from his student years there. From 1928 to 1934, Azikiwe had been “a general and sports correspondent” of the Philadelphia Tribune and a university correspondent for the Baltimore African American at Lincoln University (Jones-Quartey 1965, 93). His relationship with Padmore stems from 1927 when they first met at Howard University (Hooker 1970, 6). After Azikiwe became editor of the Gold Coast’s African Morning Post, Padmore became “an important contributor” to the paper (Ralston 1973, 91) and this relationship continued with the West African Pilot where Padmore wrote 508 known articles for the newspaper between 1937 and 1950 (James 2015, 81).

Contesting the privileging of the prevalent nationalist perspective on anticolonialism through the lens of print media will increase our understanding of transnationalist journalistic networks in a colonial context.