The West African Students' Union (WASU), founded in London, England, in 1925 and active into the 1960s,"History of WASU" The WASU Project. was an association of
student
A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject.
In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...
s from various
West Africa
West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
n countries who were studying in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
Origins
WASU was founded on 7 August 1925 by twenty-one
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
-based students with a
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
n background, the previous year. With the support of Amy Ashwood Garvey, it had begun to campaign for improved welfare for all
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
n students in London, and for assorted measures for progress in Britain's African
colonies
A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...
.Hakim Adi, ''West Africans in Britain 1900–1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism'', London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1998. .
As early as 1923, Solanke had proposed that the Union of Students of African Descent (USAD), a Christian social organisation dominated by students from the
West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
(and which had grown out of the earlier West African and West Indian Christian Union, founded in 1917), should incorporate itself into the National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA). In 1925, Bankole-Bright of the NCBWA called on USAD, the NPU, the African Progress Union and the Gold Coast Students' Association (GCSA) to join together to form a single organisation for West African students, inspired by the Indian Students' Union. Many students joined together to form WASU, and Solanke became the new organisation's secretary-general, while J. B. Danquah became its first president. J. E. Casely Hayford was the new grouping's first patron, which post he used to promote
African nationalism
African nationalism is an umbrella term which refers to a group of political ideologies in sub-Saharan Africa, which are based on the idea of national self-determination and the creation of nation states.
The new organisation made opposition to the colour bar its first priority, while also including the promotion of political research, support for the NCBWA and the provision of a student hostel in its founding aims.
WASU began publication of a journal, ''Wasu'', in March 1926. Solanke and Julius Ojo-Cole wrote the majority of articles in what was intended as a scholarly publication, circulated both in Europe and Africa.
The aim of founding a hostel was taken directly from USAD and the NPU. Many African students in Britain found that, due to
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
, it was difficult to secure satisfactory lodgings. While the
Colonial Office
The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created in 1768 from the Southern Department to deal with colonial affairs in North America (particularly the Thirteen Colo ...
showed some interest in establishing such a hostel, WASU was keen to maintain control of the project, and in 1929, Solanke left for a fundraising journey through West Africa. Despite this, the Colonial Office assembled a secret committee to plan for a hostel under its control, and attempted to secure private funding for its construction. This became Aggrey House, which WASU exposed in their pamphlet '' The Truth About Aggrey House – An Exposure of the Government Plan to Control African Students in Great Britain''.
WASU also undertook some political campaigns within Britain. In 1929, it successfully stopped plans for an African village exhibition in
Newcastle
Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
, which it felt would be exploitative. This campaign was taken up in Parliament by
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...
communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
and the
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...
. While these organisations were short-lived, they formed the initial membership of the
Nigerian Youth Movement The Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) was Nigeria's first genuine nationalist organization, founded in Lagos in 1934 at Stanley Orogun, with Professor Eyo Ita as the founding father and many others, including Samuel L. Akintola, Chief Shonibare, and C ...
and the
Gold Coast Youth Conference
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal, a group 1 ...
.
Activities in the 1930s
By 1932, when Solanke returned to Britain, ''Wasu'' had ceased to appear, and membership had fallen amid disputes between Nigerian and Gold Coast members. However, he had raised sufficient funds to open a hostel in Camden in March 1933 named "Africa House". In addition to providing accommodation for students, the hostel also offered rooms to West African visitors to London, and it housed reference materials on West Africa. The new hostel did nothing to settle the disputes within WASU, and Solanke was accused of wasting money while in Africa, and of attempting to personally control the new lodgings. Almost all the Gold Coast Students' Association (GCSA) members left WASU, and even an intervention by
William Ofori Atta
William Ofori Atta (10 October 1910 – 14 July 1988), popularly called "Paa Willie", was a Ghanaian founding member of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) and one of the founding fathers of Ghana as one of " The Big Six" detained by the ...
was unable to settle matters.
The Colonial Office determined to open a rival hostel, at which political discussion could be monitored and discouraged. WASU opposed the scheme, and formed an "Africa House Defence Committee", including Reginald Bridgeman of the LAI, also gaining the support of the
National Council for Civil Liberties
Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes huma ...
and
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...
, who was awarded the title "Babasale of the Union". Aggrey House opened in October 1934, but a WASU-led
boycott
A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...
left it unfilled, until the Colonial Office offered WASU official recognition and financial support to run Africa House. In financial difficulties, WASU accepted the deal, and also accepted funding from organisations such as the United African Company.
In 1937, the Gold Coast Farmers Union wrote to Solanke, asking for his assistance in breaking the cocoa
cartel
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...
of
Cadbury's
Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational corporation, multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International (spun off from Kraft Foods, Inc., Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second-largest c ...
and the UAC. With Labour Party MPs Reginald Sorensen and Arthur Creech Jones, WASU campaigned in support of the 1938 Gold Coast cocoa hold-up, where small farmers attempted to pressurise the companies by disrupting their supplies. The campaign also convinced most members of the GCSA to rejoin WASU.
In July 1938, with grants from various West African governments and British companies, WASU opened a new hostel, on Camden Square. This also solved the union's financial problems, and enabled it to step up its campaigning activity. WASU became increasingly identified as an
anti-colonial
Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. The meanings and applications of the term are disputed. Some scholars of decolon ...
group, and it called for
dominion
A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...
status and
universal suffrage
Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...
for the West African colonies.
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. At ...
gave a speech to the union in which he suggested that the
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II, months before the US officially entered the war. The joint statement, later dubbed the Atlantic C ...
would apply to all nations, effectively endorsing WASU's aims, but
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
insisted that
self-determination
Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage.
Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...
could only apply to European nations.
Activities in the 1940s
In 1942, WASU organised a "West African Parliamentary Committee", chaired by Sorensen. It also published a call for the immediate internal self-government of Britain's West African colonies, to be followed by independence within five years of the end of the war.
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nickn ...
trade union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
movement, WASU was a significant supporter of the Nigerian general strike of 1945.
In the mid-1940s, Solanke returned to West Africa to undertake further fundraising, with H. O. Davies becoming acting Secretary-General. WASU also affiliated to the World Youth Movement, and in 1946 it held a joint conference with
Kwame Nkrumah
Francis Kwame Nkrumah (, 21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained ...
anti-imperialism
Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is opposition to imperialism or neocolonialism. Anti-imperialist sentiment typically manifests as a political principle in independence struggles against intervention or influen ...
and
socialism
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
. Nkrumah also became Vice President of WASU. The following year, WASU called for an immediate decision on independence for the West African colonies, and criticised the Labour government for its failure to deliver this.
Final years
Solanke returned from West Africa at the end of the decade, with sufficient funding for a new hostel to open on the
Chelsea Embankment
Chelsea Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and walkway along the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England.
The western end of Chelsea Embankment, including a stretch of Cheyne Walk, is in the Royal Borough of ...
. However, he fell out with WASU's executive, each accusing the other of excessive expenditure, and in 1949 he stepped down from his positions in the group. In the 1951 elections to WASU's executive, he organised an
anti-communist
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...
slate, which failed to take control from the largely communist leadership of Joe Appiah and Ade Ademola. In 1952, WASU determined to close their Camden hostel, but Solanke instead took control of it.
WASU affiliated to the
International Union of Students
The International Union of Students (IUS) was a worldwide nonpartisan association of university student organizations.
The IUS was the umbrella organization for 155 such students' organizations across 112 countries and Territory (administrative ...
Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
replacement for ''Wasu''. Following further financial problems, it sold its hostel on the
Chelsea Embankment
Chelsea Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and walkway along the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England.
The western end of Chelsea Embankment, including a stretch of Cheyne Walk, is in the Royal Borough of ...
and opened cheaper premises on Warrington Crescent in 1956. The same year, it underwent a major reorganisation and passed a motion disassociating it from all political organisations. In 1958, it joined the Committee of African Organisations and lost importance, but it remained active into the early 1960s. The National Union of Nigerian Students was one of the organisations set up in the wake of the demise of WASU.
Legacy
In 2004 a new West African Students' Union based in
Ghana
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
was founded to unite students' unions throughout the region. It describes itself as a formal resuscitation of the earlier organisation.
Also inspired by the original West African Students' Union, The WASU Project aims to document the history of West Africans in Britain, especially those who campaigned for an end to colonial rule and against all forms of racism during the 20th century, by presenting information, photos, and eventually a film about WASU."Introduction" The WASU Project.