He helped organise the demands that ended colonial rule across Africa.
George Padmore was born Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse in Arouca, Trinidad, on 28 June 1903, and became one of the most influential anti-colonial organisers of the twentieth century.
A journalist, writer, and political strategist, he co-organised the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945 alongside Kwame Nkrumah and W. E. B. Du Bois, with Jomo Kenyatta among the delegates. The demands for African independence set out at that Congress became foundational to the decolonisation movements that followed.
He gave the cause its arguments in print, writing How Britain Rules Africa and Pan-Africanism or Communism, and connected anti-colonial campaigns across continents. After Ghana won its independence in 1957 he moved there to serve as Nkrumah’s adviser on African affairs, helping turn theory into the work of a new state.
He died in London on 23 September 1959, an architect of the ideas that remade a continent.
His record is in the Padmore papers at the Schomburg Center. His card is in the deck.
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Timeline
- 1903Born Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse in Arouca, Trinidad, on 28 June.
- 1945Co-organised the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester with Kwame Nkrumah and W. E. B. Du Bois.
- 1956Published Pan-Africanism or Communism.
- 1957Moved to Ghana to serve as Kwame Nkrumah’s adviser on African affairs.
- 1959Died in London on 23 September, aged 56.
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I salute George Padmore, who helped organise the demands that ended colonial rule.
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