Black Revolutionary: George Padmore's Path From Communism to Pan-Africanism

Author: James R. Hooker
Publisher: Praeger
Year: 1970
Pages: 168

This is the first full-length biography of George Padmore, the “father of African emancipatoin.” After a brief career as a reporter in his natie Trinidad, Padmore immigrated to the United States. Described at the time as a “campus rebel,” he eventually joined the Communist Party and, in 1929, went to the Soviet Union, where he served as an agent for the Comintern’s African Bureau and as a member of the Moscow City Soviet.

Despite his powerful position, however, he became dis-illusioned with Soviet support of African aspirations, and, in 1935, after resigning from the Party, he moved to London. There, he continued his opposition to colonialism and, with  Milliard, Abrahams, Kenyatta, and Nkrumah, organized the first Pan-African Congress. He spent the last two years of his life in Ghana as an adviser to his former protege Kwame Nkrumah. The author of a number of books, pamphlets, and articles, Padmore is best known for his Pan-Africanism or Communism?