The American Committee on Africa (ACOA) was founded in 1953 to support the liberation struggle in Africa. It was a national organization supporting African struggles against colonialism and apartheid. ACOA grew out of the ad hoc Americans for South African Resistance (AFSAR) which was formed to support the Campaign of Defiance Against Unjust Laws...
The American Committee on Africa (ACOA) was founded in 1953 to support the liberation struggle in Africa. It was a national organization supporting African struggles against colonialism and apartheid. ACOA grew out of the ad hoc Americans for South African Resistance (AFSAR) which was formed to support the Campaign of Defiance Against Unjust Laws led by the African National Congress (ANC). The co-chairmen of AFSAR were Rev. Donald Harrington of the Community Church of New York and Rev. Charles Y. Trigg of Salem Methodist Church in Harlem. In 1953, following the end of the Defiance Campaign, AFSAR met and decided to form ACOA, an organization supporting the whole anti-colonial struggle in Africa. Based in New York, NY, ACOA had a national focus and a broad range of constituencies including students, labor, civil rights, religious and community leaders and elected officials. In 1954 ACOA launched the magazine Africa Today, which in 1967 became independent under the control of Africa Today Associates (see separate entry) and is now published by Indiana University Press. In 1966 ACOA founded The Africa Fund, a 501(c)3 organization (see separate entry); the two organizations shared office space and staff but had separate boards and budgets. In 1967 ACOA established a Washington Office (Washington, DC). In 1972 the Washington Office was reorganized as an independent organization sponsored by five organizations including ACOA and renamed the Washington Office on Africa (see separate entry). ACOA's scope included anti-colonial struggles throughout the continent including Algeria, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Western Sahara, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. ACOA staff traveled extensively in Africa, attending all the All African People's Conferences, visiting newly independent countries and the Frontline States to meet with African leaders, attend conferences and visit refugee camps. ACOA published newsletters including Africa-UN Bulletin, ACOA Action News, Student Anti-Apartheid News, and the Public Investment and South Africa. ACOA played a key role in campaigns related to South Africa especially for sanctions and the divestment which resulted in churches, universities, states and cities selling their stock holdings in companies that did business in apartheid South Africa. ACOA supported some post-colonial struggles such as for democracy in Nigeria during the dictatorship of Sani Abacha and against slavery in Mauritania and Sudan. In 2001 ACOA, The Africa Fund and the Africa Policy Information Center (see separate entry) merged to form Africa Action based in Washington, DC. The New York office was closed in 2002. The Executive Directors of ACOA were George Shepard (1952-1953), George M. Houser (1955-1981), Jennifer Davis (1981-2000) and Salih Booker (2000-2001). For more information see
No One Can Stop the Rain: Glimpses of Africa's Liberation Struggle by George M. Houser (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1989) and "Meeting Africa's Challenge - The Story of ACOA" by George M. Houser,
ISSUE: A Quarterly Journal of Africanist Opinion, Volume VI, Numbers 2/3 Summer /Fall 1976. Some material of ACOA has been microfilmed and is available in some libraries or purchase from UPA/Lexis/Nexis as
Records of the American Committee on Africa, including: Part 1 (6 roles): ACOA Executive Committee minutes and National Office memoranda, 1952-1975; Part 2 (35 roles): Correspondence and subject files on South Africa, 1952-1985. This represents a limited amount of the ACOA material.
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