AfroAsian Coalitions

Afro-Asian Coalitions in History

By Shihab Moral: July 27, 2020

Throughout history, Afro-Asian relations have never been given much prominence compared to other events in history. Rather it is always another group that claims the limelight and presents itself as another part of history, whether good or bad. However, in the recent times and in a more globalized world, we have been seeing more and more coalitions between the two racial groups both abroad and at home within the United States. The coalitions themselves are a new creation and have been observed over the last few decades. Varying in size, many of these coalitions help support the ideal of a better world. Some of these include the notable Bandung Conference; the first meeting of African and Asian states, many of which were newly independent and formed. Other than conferences, we can see many coalitions form within the black and Asian populace in solidarity for many civil rights movements and in protest.

After World War II and as many countries were gaining independence and shifting into a global dynamic, a meeting consisting of twenty-nine African and Asian countries (representing 1.5 billion people -- 54% of the world population) was hosted by the new Indonesian president and India's prime minister.

The conference itself was to promote Afro-Asian economic and diplomatic cooperation under a nonaligned movement and opposed the idea of colonialism/neocolonialism under any other foreign superpower considering the fact that many of these nations had just achieved independence.

Non-Aligned Movement : A group of nations that do not want to officially be apart or against any major power bloc.

Although the conference itself and the discussions that arose were mainly about the idea of colonialism within its own reach such as Soviet Union policies, the conference itself was a unique time when many communist and capitalist nations, many of whom were newly minted, where on a global sphere. A lot of the documents signed helped approve the notion of the right of all nations to choose their own course of path rather than revolutionary ideologies.

In the grand scheme of things, the conference itself did not really create much change or shifts. Many Western nations saw it as a sham and as a joke within its news reports as we observed in class after viewing archives. Many of the nations in attendance themselves are at large tensions in the modern day, but it was a large stepping stone and a huge milestone as it was the first time African and Asian countries united under a single idea and conference in the modern world.

Although the Bandung conference itself was held internationally, there are many instances of coalition within the United States. When we examine race relations between these two groups, one can find more tensions than actual coalitions between the groups, however they indeed exist. During the 1960s and the Civil Rights Era, the Third World Liberation Front reclaimed the racist slur of "Yellow Peril" and repurposed that term to show solidarity to supporting Black Power and their respective liberation movement. The sign in the homepage of the website is a byproduct of this time period and the signs that emerged in a way to show Black and Yellow unity. Although the race relations that occurred during this time period is and still can be described as broken, the action of solidarity that occurred decades before us are important to learn and study.

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