Black History Month Sandwich Seminar: The New Negro Movement and Decolonization in Africa, by Bekeh Ukelina, Africana Studies and History departments, Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

The period after the Great Depression was a significant moment in Africa's decolonization movement. The myths and lies that colonialism is a benevolent mission crumbled beneath the heavy weight of the economic crisis. Many colonial governments were unable to provide essential social services even as they continued to expand and intensify taxation. African nationalists were no longer content with accepting the status quo, and they worked to expose the illegitimacy of colonialism and to demand full rights, including the right to self-government. Two notable leaders in this movement were Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. Both nationalists had studied in historically black colleges and universities in the United States and had embraced the New Negro protest movement and culture which emerged in the 1890s. The ideas of activists such as Marcus Garvey, Alaine Locke, W.E.B. Dubois and Ida Wells Barnett were influential in shaping their activities. Azikiwe and Nkrumah embraced the rhetorical strategies of the New Negro Movement in their decolonization mission. They founded newspapers in Africa and adopted the style of African American yellow journalism as a means to mobilize the people against British colonial rule. This paper is a transnational intellectual history and argues that the Harlem Renaissance had far-reaching impact beyond the United States and  the Caribbean. It also demonstrates that the struggle of black people to cross the color line is a nexus of ideas, dreams, and aspirations flowing between people of color in Africa and the diaspora.