George Padmore

George Padmore was a Trinidadian who lived most of his life in Britain. He became a communist in the 1920s, but became disillusioned and rejected communism by 1933 because he argued that communists were only using Africans and black people for their own purposes.

George Padmore wrote an influential book, Pan-Africanism or Communism, in which he argued that these were the choices facing Africans in their struggle to gain independence. However, as noted, he rejected communism, and therefore, he advocated choosing pan-Africanism.

He founded the Committee of the International Friends of Ethiopia at the time of the Italian invasion, and he also organised the Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945.

He became a friend and advisor to Nkrumah until his death in 1958 and had an important influence on pan-Africanism.