ABSTRACT
From 1893 onwards politically conscious men of African blood began to summon Pan-African meetings and to organise themselves into pressure groups, thus transforming Pan-African notions into a movement. As an attempt to institutionalise Pan-Africanism the Pan-African Association had great symbolic value and was therefore of considerable historical significance. After the collapse of the Pan-African Association the task of keeping Pan-African ideals alive and airing colonial grievances was left to individuals. The cult of the African Personality reached its zenith in Edward Blyden's series of articles on 'African Life and Customs' in The Sierra Leone Weekly News. The growing racial awakening and the sporadic excursions into the African past were canalised in the Negro Society for Historical Research. The feeling of solidarity had begun to manifest itself as early as 1917 when West Indian and African students in London launched a Union for Students of African Descent primarily for literary and social activities.
