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1. Bandung Conference, 1955
Source of text: http://www.blackpast.org/?q=gah/bandung-conference-1955
Bandung Conference, 1955

2. Map of Bandung Conference Participants
The Afro-Asian Conference, known generally as the Bandung Conference, was to that date the
largest gathering of Asian and African nations. On April 18 to 24, 1955, twenty-nine
representatives of nations from Africa and Asia came together in Bandung, Indonesia, to
promote African and Asian economic coalitions and decolonization. The Conference expressly
declared its opposition to both colonialism and neocolonialism not only by the European powers
then in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, but also by the United States and the Soviet Union.
Of the twenty-nine nations that were represented in the Bandung Conference, six were from
Africa: Egypt, Ethiopia, Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), Liberia, Libya, and Sudan. The
leading contributors to the Bandung Conference were the nations of Burma, India, Indonesia,
Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The primary organizer was Ruslan Abdulgani, former Prime Minister
of Indonesia.
The conference came during the midst of decolonization and against a backdrop of a world
increasingly divided between the Western democracies and the Communist nations. Conference
delegates vowed to take a middle ground in the ongoing Cold War. They also pledged support
for those nations still colonized by the Western states, especially the nations of Africa. The
delegates discussed and agreed upon economic alliances, respect for human rights in their
countries, and emphasized peace between Africa and Asia. The Africa and Asia nations also
pledged to mutually support their economic development, vowing to rely on themselves instead
of Western foreign aid.
Conference delegates adopted a 10-point program that called for, among other things, settlement
of all international disputes by peaceful means, respect for the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of all nations, and recognition of the equality of all races and the equality of all nations
large and small. The program also called for non-intervention in the internal affairs of other
nations and repudiated acts or threats of force against other nations.
Many western powers, including especially the United States, were wary of the alliance between
Africa and Asia. The United States feared that the nations of Asia and Africa, many of them
who had just received their independence from colonization, would become infatuated with the
leftist ideology. However, their worries proved unfounded as the members of the Bandung
Conference, for the most part, stuck to their vow to chart a middle course between the Western
Bandung Conference, 1955

3. democracies and the Communist nations
The Bandung Conference inspired the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement in
1961. Members of this Movement eventually became known as the Third World. The Non-
Aligned Movement allowed these countries to remain neutral during the Cold War between the
United States and the Soviet Union.
Sources: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/lw/97935.htm ; George McTurnan Kahin, The Asian-African Conference:
Bandung, Indonesia, April, 1955 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1956); Jamie Mackie, Bandung 1955: Non-alignment and
Afro-Asian Solidarity (Singapore: Didier Millet, 2005); Kweku Ampiah, The Political and Moral Imperatives of the Bandung
Conference of 1955: The Reactions of the US, UK and Japan (Folkestone, United Kingdom: Global Oriental, 2007).
Contributor(s):
Yoo, Jiwon Amy
University of Washington
Bandung Conference, 1955