The Fifth Pan-African Congress

Marking the seventieth anniversary of the Pan-African Congress, this show presents rarely seen photographs by John Deakin of the influential 1945 meeting. Assigned by the Picture Post to cover the Manchester event, Deakin documented key delegates like the Kenyan independence leader Jomo Kenyatta (pictured) and the American civil rights activist W.E.B Du Bois who travelled from the USA to attend. Condemning capitalism and racial discrimination, the seminal gathering insisted that millions of African’s living under colonial rule had to be liberated. Hardly covered by the British press at the time, this exhibition featuring over thirty photographs and a selection of ephemera from the Congress, highlights the importance of this assembly that believed in peaceful action towards decolonalisation and equality.