April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

It was shortly after Lumumba got out of prison that he became really
active in politics. In October 1958, he founded the Congolese National
Movement, NMC. Two months later, in December 1958, he travelled to
Accra, Ghana, to attend the first All-African People's Conference. I was
working in the newsroom of Radio Ghana at the time, and was posted to
Accra airport, to meet delegates to the conference, who were arriving at
all sorts of odd hours.
I remember Lumumba because of his goatee beard and his glasses, which
gave him the look of an intellectual. My French was not up to scratch, but
with the help of an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I was able to
talk to him for a while before he was whisked away by an official car. He
expressed his happiness to be in Accra, to seek inspiration from Ghana, the
first British colony to achieve independence, and to exchange ideas with
other freedom fighters.
Lumumba and other French-speaking delegates did not get much of a lookin
at the plenary conference, as far as the Ghanaian public was concerned,
because people generally don’t react well to translated speeches, which
take twice the time to make a speech in a language that is understood. But
I also think that delegates like Lumumba, who came from repressive
colonial regimes, were protected from the press as they could be
penalized on their return home, if they made any statements that did not
please their colonial masters.
The star of the conference was Tom Mboya of Kenya, who made a great
impression with his command of the English language. ‘In 1885, the
Europeans came and carried out a “scramble for Africa”,’ Mboya said. ‘We
are now telling them to scram from Africa!’ This statement of Mboya’s was
quoted widely around the world. Within a few years, he was Dead - struck
down by an assassin.
The All-African People’s Conference of December 1958 was notable not for
the speeches made or the resolutions passed, but for the personal contacts
that were made behind the scenes. The conference was the brain-child of
Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s Advisor on African Affairs, George Padmore. Now,
Padmore was a most experienced operator in international politics, having
been in charge of the Comintern’s section that dealt with African and
black trade union matters, in the 1930s. He was a most intelligent and
courageous operator: basing himself in Russia, Hamburg and Finland, he
befriended sailors of all colours, and was thus able to smuggle
revolutionary literature - and personal messages - to anti-colonial
politicians in Africa and all over the world where contacts with communist
organisations were illegal. He also made several visits, incognito to African
countries, including Ghana or the Gold Coast, as it was before it gained its
independence.
Padmore’s devotion to the black cause was so strong that when Josef
Stalin ordered him to tone down his attacks on Britain, France and other
European colonialists, with whom Stalin had struck an alliance, during the
Second World War, Padmore resigned from the Comintern.
This was a most dangerous thing to do, because Josef Stalin did not brook
opposition. Padmore knew that he could be chased around and murdered -
like Leon Trotsky. Indeed, the Kremlin tried to smear Padmore, claiming
falsely that he had embezzled funds, but he defended himself effectively.
He ended up in London where he set up as a writer of books and
campaigner on anti-colonial issues.