The American Society of African Culture (AMSAC) was an organization of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

writers A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, plays ...

artists An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, the ...

, and

scholars A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher ...

. The society was founded as a result of the

Congress of Negro Writers and Artists The Congress of Black Writers and Artists ( French: ''Congrès des écrivains et artistes noirs''; originally called the Congress of Negro Writers and Artists) was a meeting of leading black intellectuals for the purpose of addressing the issues of ...

in 1956 based on the idea of the French '' :fr:Société africaine de culture''. In June 1957, the American Society of African Culture (AMSAC) was officially founded by five African-American intellectuals. During its heyday in the early 1960s, AMSAC had around four hundred members. One of the main goals of the organisation was to expose African Americans to their African heritage. This aim was pursued through organising exhibitions, lectures, music performances, and conferences in the United States (primarily New York) and Africa (occasionally).

Office in Lagos, Nigeria

In 1961, AMSAC opened an African office in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. The opening was celebrated with a two-day

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

of music performances, dancing, panel discussions, and art exhibited by Africans and African Americans in December 1961.

CIA Funding

AMSAC had received federal tax exemption the year prior and thus large grants became available to the organization for specific projects from various entities. This financial backing was how they were able to organize the large festival in Lagos. The grants were later revealed as CIA pass-throughs. After 1967, AMSAC's membership sharply declined after it was named as one of the organizations that was funded by the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

(CIA). Cooke, Alistair (February 18, 1967), "More Organisations Find They Are On CIA's Fund List", ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', p. 9; Neil Sheehan, "5 New Groups Tied To C.I.A. Conduits", ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 17 February 1967, pp. 1, 16, and Richard Harwood, "8 More Groups Linked to CIA's Fund Activities", ''The Washington Post and Times-Herald'', February 21, 1967, p. A6; Hugh Wilford, ''The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008); Wilford in: Dongen, ''Transnational Anti-Communism and the Cold War: Agents, Activities, and Networks'', p. 30.

References

African-American arts organizations African-American literature Black studies organizations American artist groups and collectives Clubs and societies in the United States American writers' organizations 1956 establishments in the United States Arts organizations established in 1956 {{AfricanAmerican-stub