West African Students' Union - Origins

Origins

WASU was founded on 7 August 1925 by twenty-one law students, led by Ladipo Solanke and Herbert Bankole-Bright. Solanke had founded the Nigerian Progress Union (NPU), for London-based students with a Nigerian background, the previous year. With the support of Amy Ashwood Garvey, it had begun to campaign for improved welfare for all African students in London, and for assorted measures for progress in Britain's African colonies.

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, 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 to join together to form a single organisation for West African students, inspired by the Indian Students' Union. Many students joined together to form the WASU, and Solanke became the new organisations' secretary-general, while J. B. Danquah became its first president. J. E. Casely Hayford was the new grouping's first patron, and he used this post to promote African nationalism.

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, it was difficult to secure satisfactory lodgings. While the Colonial Office 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.

WASU also undertook some political campaigns within Britain. In 1929, it successfully stopped plans for an African village exhibition in Newcastle, which it felt would be exploitative. This campaign was taken up in Parliament by Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) Member of Parliament Shapurji Saklatvala. During the 1930s, the group developed increasing links with communist groups, such as the League Against Imperialism (LAI) and the Negro Welfare Association, in particular in its campaigns against the colour bar and against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.

While in Africa, Solanke founded more than twenty branches of WASU, in the Gold Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Belgian Congo. While these organisations were short-lived, they formed the initial membership of the Nigerian Youth Movement and the Gold Coast Youth Conference.