"I would rather be a member of the African race now than a Greek in the time of Alexander, a Roman in the Augustan period, or an Anglo-Saxon in the nineteenth century." Edward Wilmot Blyden

Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912) was a leading black intellectual and scholar of African culture, as well as an early proponent of the philosophy of Pan-Africanism. Born in the Virgin Islands, Blyden moved to the West African nation of Liberia in 1851 and wrote very influential works on the achievements of black Africans and the importance of African culture.

In 1902, Edward Blyden (not sure if its the same person or a relative) was the first person to use the term ‘African personality'. "Every race has a soul, and the soul of a race finds expression in its institutions."

Another important book in this tradition was published in 1911 by a West Indian, Casely Hayford, Ethiopia Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation.

The following points should be noted:

The concept of ‘race' was accepted by these early pan Africanists; this carried the idea that blacks as blacks shared a great deal in common (i.e., that many traits, even cultural ones, were genetic). Thus, it has been called a black racism. Frequently, they advocated separation to maintain this uniqueness.

There was optimism about the future and an assertion of pride in being black. With the on-going denigration of black people, this has been a recurring necessity and a more recent expression of the same objective was the ‘Black is beautiful' movement in the 1960s & 70s.

The Blydens and others in this diaspora tradition (including Marcus Garvey whom we shall discuss shortly) knew little of Africa and its culture. Most never went there. Blacks, like the Blydens, immigrating to Africa in Sierra Leone & Liberia, did not integrate very fully with the local indigenous population. These immigrants have always behaved more like Creoles or mulattos. This split between the coastal cities where the immigrants settled and the inland, indigenous people is still a prominent aspect of politics and the civil war in Liberia in spite of the fact that the migrations took place about 200 years ago in Sierra Leone and over a century ago in Liberia.

the influence of these early writings was primarily on diaspora blacks, not Africans.