Scholars interested in economic outcomes, regime types and stability, as well as political violence
in postcolonial African states have focused to a great degree on the impact of colonial structure,
policies and repression. This perspective omits the critical role of African anti-colonial activists and
networks in shaping processes of decolonization and the trajectories of postcolonial states. This paper
introduces a novel dataset that compiles the complete lists of delegates that attended seven key Pan-
African conferences from 1945 to 1961. This data allows researchers to trace and analyse Pan-African
networks and to leverage variation in Pan-African anti-colonial activism and networks as potential
explanatory factors for colonial policies and repression, decolonization processes and postcolonial
outcomes. Taking anti-colonial mobilization and networks seriously as an explanatory variable for
postcolonial outcomes is particularly important as anti-colonial mobilization is closely linked with
colonial policies and could thus be an important omitted or intervening variable in the relationship
between colonial factors and postcolonial outcomes.