Was King a Pan-Africanist? Martin Luther King and the African Liberation Movements

Hist 101.
12/14/12
Was King a Pan-Africanist? Martin Luther King Jr. and the African Liberation Movements. By Kenechukwu Nwosu
The King-era civil rights movement coincided closely with the peak of freedom struggles on the African continent. When the Montgomery bus boycott began in December 1955, all but four African nations were under colonial rule; when King delivered his last public speech on April 3, 1968, thirty-six African countries had gained their independence. Most scholarship on King’s international involvement neglects his relationship with Africa, focusing instead on his dealings with India and Vietnam. The few scholarly works that exist tend to paint far too simplistic a picture of this relationship, suggesting that the activist King was always a Pan-Africanist, who held the unchanging opinion that all people of African descent were homogeneous, and must work together to overcome white oppression. From a close study of King’s speeches, writings and actions regarding Africa, I arrive at a different conclusion. I posit, firstly, that King’s view of Africa was essentially dynamic—prior to 1957, King possessed only a cursory concern for the continent; his Ghana trip in March 1957 precipitated genuine interest in African affairs; and his continued interaction with Africans after that trip motivated him towards a deeper involvement and commitment to African issues. Secondly, I argue that despite this increasing engagement in African affairs, King never truly adopted the philosophy of Pan-Africanism.
King grew up in an environment that was infertile for the cultivation of a positive attitude towards Africa. The African-American education system at the time seldom included topics dealing with Africa and its peoples. As Carter Woodson made clear in his 1933 book, The Mis-education of the Negro, “the African was excluded altogether” from the educational curriculum. “No thought was given to Africa except so far as it had been a field of exploitation for the

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