📖 Biography

T. Ras Makonnen was born George Thomas Nathaniel Griffith on 7 October 1909 in Buxton, British Guiana, and studied in the United States at Cornell University before travelling to Denmark and settling in London in 1937, sharing a flat with Pan-African leader George Padmore.

Deeply moved by Italy's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, Griffith adopted the name Ras Makonnen in solidarity with the Ethiopian cause, and moved to Manchester in 1939, where he built a thriving business empire of restaurants, a nightclub, a bookshop and rental housing along Oxford Road.

Makonnen's Manchester businesses doubled as political meeting spaces and financial lifelines for the Pan-African movement; one of his restaurant employees was a young Jomo Kenyatta, years before Kenyatta led Kenya to independence, and the two remained friends for over thirty years.

Using profits from his business empire, Makonnen helped finance and organise the historic Fifth Pan-African Congress, held in Manchester in October 1945, bringing together figures including W.E.B. Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta in a gathering that shaped the decolonisation of Africa.

Makonnen later moved to Ghana to advise President Nkrumah, and then to Kenya, where he worked with President Kenyatta's government until his death in Nairobi in 1983, having spent nearly fifty years as one of Pan-Africanism's most important, if underrecognised, financiers and organisers.

🕰️ Timeline
1909
Born in Buxton, British Guiana.
1932
Studies agriculture at Cornell University, United States.
1937
Settles in London, sharing a flat with George Padmore.
1939
Moves to Manchester and builds a business empire on Oxford Road.
1945
Helps organise and finance the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester.
1983
Dies in Nairobi, Kenya.
✦ Achievements
  • ◆Financed and helped organise the historic 1945 Fifth Pan-African Congress
  • ◆Built a business empire of over ten restaurants, clubs and a hotel in Manchester
  • ◆Gave Jomo Kenyatta employment in London years before Kenyan independence
  • ◆Served as an adviser to Kwame Nkrumah's government in newly independent Ghana
  • ◆Worked with Jomo Kenyatta's government in Kenya until his death
"
Makonnen's entrepreneurship is evident from his growing business empire: from a single Manchester restaurant and nightclub, it gradually grew to encompass over ten eateries, clubs, a bookshop and a hotel.
— Historian Jack Bowman, on Makonnen's business empire
🕊️ Legacy
Ras Makonnen's Manchester business empire directly financed the 1945 Pan-African Congress that brought together the future leaders of Ghana and Kenya, making him one of the most consequential yet least publicly recognised architects of African decolonisation.
💡 Leadership Lessons
  • →Business success can directly fund political change. Makonnen used the profits from his Manchester restaurants and clubs to underwrite the Pan-African Congress.
  • →Behind-the-scenes organisers shape history as much as visible leaders. Makonnen is often remembered as a financier rather than a leader, despite his central role in bringing Africa's future presidents together.