Bankole Awoonor-Renner (1946): West African Soviet Union.
Nearly one hundred years before the ascension of Ibrahim Traoré and the Alliance of Sahel States, Bankole Awoonor-Renner1 wrote in a little red book about the West African Soviet Union, a federation spanning from Madeira to Congo. In this very timely collection of letters from the year 1937 onward, Awoonor-Renner explains the foundation for a liberated West Africa and calls on the youth to disregard artificial colonial borders. Crucially, he views the the differences between the various peoples insignificant enough to be of no hindrance to a common political entity. He also proposes a common language, Hausa, given its wide use across the region. Awoonor-Renner thus also argues for compulsory teaching of Hausa in an educational system that is free for all—from elementary school to universities and research institutions. And even though he maintains that organized Christianity has served as a vessel for the political and economic exploitation of West Africa, religion is not seen as a barrier for political cooperation. Asked about the differing roles of women in African tradition and Islamic societies, he responds that the oppression of women does not belong to the religion, and has as such not been adopted in West Africa. Furthermore, he references Article 123 of the Soviet Constitution, that states the equality of all citizens before the law. The fundamental economic task ahead, poses Awoonor-Renner, is the industrialization and the establishment of facilities to process raw materials, with land and main industries nationalized in the hands of the people and the state. Noting the one-sided nature of the present agreements between West African and imperial nations, he states the need for their immediate cessation, and propose mutual recognition with the Soviet Union, and progressively governed democratic states. While remarking the importance of West Africans for the liberation of Europe from fascism, Awoonor-Renner also recognizes that Europe itself will never be free as long as Africa is subjugated, economically, or otherwise. In some sort of ironical twist of history, the little book ends with the US Declaration of independence, delivering a plea and reasoning why West Africa as well must break away from Britain. Awoonor-Renner saw through the imperial play to trap Africans in ‘tribal’ denotations and respective geographical homelands.
Considering the famous words by Nkrumah, who was deeply influenced by this book, when Ghana eventually obtained its independence eleven years after its publication, one has to expand its conclusion. There was a time when Africans thought of a future way beyond West Africa, before the project of nation-building and modernization collapsed under its own weight in the face of the absence of a true working class leadership.
- A brief biography can be found here: https://encyclopaediaafricana.com/awoonor-renner-bankole. ↩︎