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liberation. Consequently, in many ways, Cabral represents “the zenith” of twentieth-century Pan-African revolutionary theory and praxis. 2 Third, and finally, Cabral’s writings and reflections provide us with a series of unique contributions to radical politics and critical social theory, which – with those of W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James (see Morris and Cudjoe in this volume), Claudia Jones, George Padmore (see Duggan in this volume), Aimé Césaire, Léopold Senghor (see Irele on Césaire and Senghor in this volume), Louise Thompson Patterson
the work I had chosen. 2 – F RANTZ F ANON F RANTZ F ANON WAS BORN into an upper-middle-class family on 20 July 1925 in Fort-de-France, capital of Martinique, which became a French overseas department from 1946. He rose to become a major Pan-African philosopher, revolutionary and diplomat whose short intellectual and political career (he died at the age of 36 on 6 December 1961) is remarkable for the insights it throws on the complex
empire’ and this resulted not only in an increase in the numbers of black residents but also the spread of a diasporic black consciousness through pan-Africanism and Garveyite black nationalism. With the ‘race riots’ in Britain and elsewhere in 1919 a stronger concern over the ‘colour problem’ emerged that continued throughout the period. 25 This growth of black unrest was
would have contributed to in Caribbean, Pan-African, and African solidarity and socialist circles in London following Rodney’s death, 4 nor does this view diminish the originality of the poem in any way. Rather, my point is to highlight the interplay between his poetry, Rodney’s politics, and James’s assessment of Rodney’s praxis, intriguing connections that help to situate a poem in which Rodney’s life becomes a political metaphor for exigencies of revolutionary politics. Rodney and Johnson were active in the same
and non-material interests. The idea of pan-Africanism and how it shaped regional interests along with the collective experience of the African region under colonialism and immediately after independence, in addition to advocacy by African leaders, played a major role in determining the norms chosen at the advent of the OAU. Likewise, the normative shifts within Africa cannot be seen as largely attributable to shifts in global politics or the influence of major states or international institutions. The transformation of the understanding of pan-Africanism, the
This book recounts the little-known history of the mixed-race children born to black American servicemen and white British women during the Second World War. Of the three million American soldiers stationed in Britain from 1942 to 1945, about 8 per cent (240,000) were African-American; the latter’s relationships with British women resulted in the birth of an estimated 2,000 babies. The African-American press named these children ‘brown babies’; the British called them ‘half-castes’. Black GIs, in this segregated army, were forbidden to marry their white girlfriends. Up to half of the mothers of these babies, faced with the stigma of illegitimacy and a mixed-race child, gave their children up for adoption. The outcome for these children tended to be long-term residency in children’s homes, sometimes followed by fostering and occasionally adoption, but adoption societies frequently would not take on ‘coloured’ children, who were thought to be ‘too hard to place’. There has been minimal study of these children and the difficulties they faced, such as racism in a (then) very white Britain, lack of family or a clear identity. Accessibly written and illustrated with numerous photographs, this book presents the stories of over forty of these children. While some of the accounts of early childhood are heart-breaking, there are also many uplifting narratives of finding American fathers and gaining a sense of self and of heritage.
more concerned with the content than the context of historiography.12 As such the work can be seen as a genuine sample of African historical studies in the second half of the twentieth century. In line with pan-African ideology, moreover, contributing authors came from all parts of the continent as well as the diaspora.13 The pan-Africanism practised in the GHA included Arabic North Africa. The historians who led the project came together as the ‘International Scientific Committee for the drafting of a general history of Africa’ (ISC). This ISC was thirty
satiric, a joint venture of acidic creativity coloured by a gallows humour that characterises much of Mengestu’s work. 19 As Yogita Goyal notes, ‘even as they parody the dream of African freedom in this macabre game, their friendship also evokes a pan-African tradition, albeit in ambiguous fashion’. 20 In his ‘sober hours’, Joseph is working on a cycle of poems that tries to elaborate another kind of African history, one attuned to the legacies of colonialism and imperialism. His work traces ‘the history of the Congo from King Leopold to the death of Patrice Lumumba
capacity across her oeuvre to engage with continental Africa and its diaspora that marks Emecheta’s work out as Pan-African in its vision and scope. Within the different societies that she explores, there are recurrent thematic concerns: dislocation, displacement, and the sense of not belonging. We see her characters – primarily black females – struggling against the constraints that patriarchal society has placed upon them, as they seek to find a place to call home and a supportive community of their own. Given that many of her texts incorporate migration narratives
the notion of diaspora. The appearance of the notion of diaspora within reggae lyrics echoed its elaboration within the Rastafari movement, and took place in the 1970s, although Marcus Garvey had based his ideology on its existence; the increasing interest in the North American struggle and the African movements of independence and against apartheid in reggae songs is an indicator of a progressive construction of a concrete diaspora in reggae music. African independences and the struggle against apartheid As Zips (1994: 56) points out, “African identity, pan-African