African
Revolutionary Writers, Part 2
W. E. B. Du Bois
Dr W. E. B. Du
Bois is a legend. How much is owed to this man’s life’s work is
impossible to over-estimate. He began his political career in the 19th
Century and went on through the 20th Century, eventually dying in
independent Ghana, where he had gone to serve the revolution, although well
into his 90s by that time.
Yet in spite of his eminence and the great amount that he
wrote, it has been extremely difficult to find original documents of Du Bois’
on the Internet, especially documents that coincide with his leadership, together
with Paul Robeson, of the Council on African Affairs,
based in New York, after the anti-fascist war of 1939-1945, when the
independence of African countries started to get under way. The first was
Libya, on 24 December 1951.
Eventually a friend in New York sent the two rare documents
that can be downloaded via the link below. What they at the very least
demonstrate is the very broad consciousness that Du Bois had, together with his
tremendous sense of history and of historical time.
The 1946 letter to the New York Times is evidence of the
unique leadership that Du Bois gave on the national and colonial question,
while the article on M. K. Gandhi shows his great understanding of all the
difficulties.
Du Bois is also particularly famous for his role as an
organiser and participant in several of the five Pan-African Conferences, especially the
last one in Manchester in 1945.
- The above serves
to introduce the original reading-text: W. E. B. Du Bois, Two
Pieces of His Writing, 1946 and 1956.
- A PDF file of the reading text is attached
- To download any of the CU courses in PDF files please click here.
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