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

In London, Padmore became the mentor of many young African students
who were later to achieve fame in the independence movements of their
countries later. It was he who met Kwame Nkrumah when Nkrumah arrived
in London as a student from the USA in May 1945. A strong bond of
friendship grew between them and together, they organised the most
famous Pan-African Conference of all – that at Manchester in October
1945.
Nkrumah returned to Ghana in 1947 and organised the Convention People’s
Party (CPP), with which he fought for and won independence for Ghana on
6 March 1957. In his Independence Day speech at the New Polo Ground in
Accra, Nkrumah told the whole world that ‘The Independence of Ghana is
meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the whole
African continent.’ He indicated his willingness to put this idea into
practice by inviting George Padmore to come to Accra to be Nkrumah’s
advisor on African affairs. Padmore needed no second invitation: he saw an
opportunity not only to work with a personal friend, but also, to
implement the ideas on pan-African unity and African independence to
which he had devoted his life.
Within a few months of arriving in Accra, Padmore had organised a
‘Conference of Independent African States’ there in April 1958. Its purpose
was to link the independent African states in Africa, so that they could
adopt common positions in world affairs, especially at the United Nations.
Padmore followed that up by organising an ‘All-African People’s
Conference’ in December of 1958. Lumumba was there and Padmore took
him to meet Nkrumah. Lumumba was assured of Ghana’s full support from
then on. He was made a member of the permanent organisation of the
conference and stayed in touch with Ghana from then on. One historian
has observed that after the conference, Lumumba’s ‘outlook and
terminology, inspired by pan-African goals, now took on the tenor of
militant nationalism.’ George Padmore established links in Paris, Brussels
and Congo-Brazzaville, through which funds and political advice could be
secretly transmitted to Lumumba and other Congolese politicians, when
necessary.
In late 1959, the Belgian government embarked on a programme intended
to lead, ‘in five years’ to independence. The programme started with the
local elections mentioned earlier (which were held in December 1959.)
Lumumba and other Congolese leaders saw the Belgian programme as a
scheme to install puppets before independence and at first announced a
boycott of the elections. The Belgian authorities responded with repression
and sought to ban the meetings of Congolese parties.
On 30 October 1959, the Belgians tried to disperse a rally held by
Lumumba’s MNC in Stanleyville. Thirty people were killed. Lumumba was
arrested and imprisoned for ‘inciting a riot’. More clashes occurred around
the country, and it was then that the Belgians, in an attempt to defuse the
situation, organised an all-party ‘roundtable’ constitutional conference in
Brussels. All the parties accepted the invitation to go to Brussels. But the
MNC refused to participate without Lumumba. The Belgians thereupon
released Lumumba and flew him in triumph to Brussels.
At the conference, he observed that the Belgians were trying their old
trick of ‘divide and rule’ by playing on the ethnic rivalries of the Congolese
delegates. Lumumba outflanked the Belgians by getting the delegates to
focus on a date for independence. Eventually, a date was agreed upon: 30
June 1960. National elections were to be held in May.