Conference for the Promotion of the Pan-Bahian Idea
The Conference for the Promotion of the Pan-Bahian Idea (Gaullican: Conférence pour la Promotion de l’Idée pan-baïenne), sometimes referred to as the Pan-Bahian Congress of 1907 (Gaullican: Conférence pan-baïenne de 1907) was a conference of key Bahian and Diasporic authors, intellectuals, colonial secretaries, religious figures, and journalists which met in Sainte-Germaine, the capital of the Baséland colony in order to discuss the political future of the Bahian subcontinent. It was organised by Daniel Amankose, a Mirite author who was living in Verlois at the time, in coordination with several of his friends among the diaspora in Gaullica. Over the four days of the conference topics such as reparations for slavery, racial equality, democracy and the viability of peaceful reform to the colonial system were discussed. At the closing of the conference, a treatise was drawn up which would form the ultimate basis of the Pan-Bahian Democratic Party's constitution several months later. This document was widely published in the media and translated into Estmerish as well as several native Bahian languages.
Background
While resistance to colonial control of Bahia had always been present, this primarily took the form of localised revolts based around individual Karanes or religious authorities and did little to menace the colonial structure. The Sougoulie was the first large-scale uprising against colonialism and saw many initial successes, before divisions among the rebels led to their defeat one by one. In the aftermath of the Sougoulie many Bahians were disillusioned with violent resistance towards the Eucleans, seeing it as futile due to the strength of the Euclean armies. For a large number of Bahian and diasporic intellectuals, however, the failure of the Bahians had not been their technological inferiority but their lack of unity. This line of thinking was strongly represented by much of the Bahian diaspora, as their experiences of slavery and racism had led to the formation of a far more expansive Bahian identity as opposed to the more narrow clan or religious identities present in Bahia. In 1898, 10 years after the failure of the Sougoulie, Daniel Amankose published The Revolt of the Métis, a novel in which he outlined his belief in a united Bahian identity through the character of Cacambo, a Métis in Gaullican Asteria who fights in court to defend the rights of Bahians in the colony. This led to an increased interest in the potential for a Pan-Bahian identity, with several other writers expressing their support for the movement.
In 1904, having received correspondance from Bahian diasporic associations such as the TBD in Imagua, Amankose began preparations for a conference in order to delineate this new political current and to begin to organise political actions with the goal of Bahian independence. While Verlois, the capital of the Gaullican Empire, was initially chosen as a location for the conference, it was moved to Sainte-Germaine (modern day Mambiza) due to the sympathies of the governor Charles Dumont and Sainte Germaine's significance as the center of colonial rule in Bahia. The event went ahead the 13th of May 1907, hosted in Saint-Pierre Hall, with participants from across Bahia, Euclea and Asteria.