The Bandung Conference Was a Symbol of Global Liberation

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Bandung Conference that brought together delegates from African and Asian countries as they were breaking free from colonial rule. Bandung became a touchstone for solidarity across the Global South.

Seventy years ago in April 1955, twenty-nine delegations representing countries in Africa and Asia convened in the city of Bandung, Indonesia, with the bold assignment of addressing the future of the world. The Asian-African Conference has since entered the realm of Third World myth, at once celebrated for the collective sense of solidarity it generated — a political feeling that became known as the Bandung Spirit — but also criticized for its limited effects in relation to the principles outlined in the meeting’s Final Communiqué.

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