Gandhi and Pan-Africanism (1919-1945)

Various Pan-Africanist intellectuals showed interest in India’s struggle for independence, and were captivated by Gandhi’s personality. W.E.B. Du Bois proposed the example of Gandhi to the readers of the NAACP press, and Marcus Garvey expressed his admiration for the leader of nonviolence in his speeches at the UNIA conventions. Black journals on both sides of the Atlantic have brought to their readers’ attention the successes and limits of the Gandhian movement, and they have consequently presented a mixed and ambivalent reception of the Gandhian model. The various expressions of Pan-Africanism gave different interpretations to Gandhi’s thoughts and deeds. The creation of a parallelism between white supremacy in the US and British Imperialism helped to highlight Gandhi’s leadership as a model. This analysis reconstructs how Pan-Africanism interpreted Gandhi’s example in the first half of the 20 th century, and tries to answer the question about why Pan Africanists foregrounded Gandhi’s movement, whereas they glossed over his racial discrimination during his South African years.