The West African Students’ Union: An African Pressure Group In Britain (1920s-1950s

Résumé: By the late 19th century, the number of African students in European universities grew considerably. Britain in particular was the destination of many students from her West African colonies: the Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Nigeria. In the beginning, most African student organizations in Britain came down to some clubs that were set up to ease the students’ homesickness, exchange information and news about the mother country, and solve problems relating to life in a foreign country. Therefore, most of those clubs were short-lived, since they remained active as long as their leaders lived in Britain. Nevertheless, other student bodies stood the test of time and lasted for decades. Besides, their activities transcended student aspirations to encompass political, economic and cultural matters related to Africa. The West African Students’ Union (WASU) is an example of such organizations. It was founded in London on 7 August, 1925 by a group of twenty-one West African students, under the leadership of a Nigerian law student named Ladipo Solanke and a Sierra Leonean doctor called Herbert Bankole-Bright. What characterized the WASU was that it was neither a West African nor a student organization. Its membership was not restricted to West Africans only but was rather open to all African students. Moreover, some of its members were not students. The aim of this paper is to trace some of the most outstanding activities of the WASU from the 1920s to the 1950s, and the impact of this body on political matters in Britain and Africa. In addition, the WASU is taken as an example that illustrates the importance of voluntary work within an organized body, and the position an organization or association may enjoy as a partner in the policy-making process.

Publié dans la revue: مجلة الحقيقة