Anti-colonial societies were promoted and remained active until 1910 or later. At one of their meetings Pierre Quillard, whom Picasso knew, made a remarkable speech in which he never condescended or pitied the Africans but asked his 'brothers of another skin and another color to please forgive us for the crimes we have committed against them' Quillard, like several of Picasso's friends, was a declared anarchist and although Picasso does not seem ever to have committed himself, at any rate politically, he was as open to appeal of anarchism as they were. For it was the anarchist cultivation of independence of mind, freedom of action and experience for its own sake that attrated artists and in tellectuals. The great interest suddenly taken by Picasso and his anarchist friends in the 'dark continent' and African art was motivated in this way.