“Historical evidence reveals that Africa had its renaissance centuries, if not millenniums, before Europe. Some of Africa’s past civilizations were in the Nile, Zimbabwe, Congo and Ghana. It was the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism which destroyed Africa and underdeveloped it. Slavery and colonialism were made possible by the so-called European Renaissance. Today these forces have their Pan-Europeanism through their European Union, making them a powerful economic bloc. They are integrating socially and politically and working for a borderless Europe. On the other hand, Africa is wallowing in the quagmire of underdevelopment, poverty, endless border wars, economic domination and the . . .
Research Papers
The Imperative of Political Education in a Miseducated Society
Introduction Education is under attack. Book bans and ahistorical curriculum adjustments have been sweeping the nation yet again, ranging from demonizing queer folks and literature to parroting watered-down (at best) recollections of chattel slavery and other historical travesties. The upheaval over “critical race theory” being supposedly taught in K-12 schools has been the trojan horse overshadowing the erosion of the few inclusive, diverse, and critical perspectives in public education curriculum. Experienced teachers are being pushed out of the profession by unlivable wages and unrealistic expectations of how to support students’ learning, lending towards the admitted right-wing goal of defunding and . . .
From Martin Delany to Marcus Garvey
“My duty and destiny are in Africa, the great and glorious land of your and my ancestry, I cannot, I will not desert her for all things else in this world, save that of my own household, and that does not require it as it will thereby be enhanced.” Martin Delany Martin Delany died on 24 January 1885 two years before the birth of Marcus Garvey. The revolutionary legacy of both men while coming from different eras of the struggle was defined by black nationalism and Pan-Africanism. The Pan-African movement has come a long way producing many revolutionary leaders advancing . . .
Equality Through Equal Participation: Eritrean Women
The participation of women in the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) was not only significant but central to the movement’s success. Women made up one-third of the armed struggle and played vital roles, from combat to nursing and mechanics, teaching, driving, and radio and clandestine operations. The EPLF was highly progressive in organizing women at the grassroots level and encouraging them to join the national liberation movement.Despite facing cultural, religious, and patriarchal obstacles, Eritrean women fought for their rights and shattered oppressive barriers through equal participation. Their contributions to the struggle challenged traditional gender roles and redefined the capabilities of . . .
The Murders of Malcolm X & Pio Gama Pinto
On the 21st of February, 1965, Malcolm X was killed in the Washington Heights neighborhood while speaking to an audience in Harlem, New York. Malcolm had just formed a new movement, the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), having left the Nation of Islam the previous year. He was 39 years old. Three days later, on the 24th of February 1965, Pio Gama Pinto, a socialist revolutionary in Kenya, was assassinated outside his home in Nairobi. He was 38 years old. The assassination of both Pinto and Malcolm X in the same week has long raised serious questions and conspiracy theories . . .
To Save Black Mental Health, Destroy Racial Capitalism
“Amerika trips me and proceeds to ask me how I fell; whips me, then asks me how to stop the bleeding.” There is no conversation about the state of mental health in Amerika’s Black communities without discussing the violence wrought on them by racial capitalism—a term coined by Cedric Robinson. Robinson, a pioneer in the study of the Black Radical Tradition, argued that the “development, organization and expansion of capitalist society pursued essentially racial directions.”1 It is this pursuit that has helped shape many of today’s societal ills, including poor rates of Black mental health. Historical oppression, including slavery, sharecropping, . . .
A Short History of the US War Against Black Musicians
Introduction The polarizing nature of the Black Power Movement captured the attention of the entire nation. The revolutionary rhetoric espoused by prominent Black organizations and activists also earned the full attention of intelligence agencies in the United States hell-bent on quelling any support of socialist economic practices at the height of the Cold War. Covert operations like the FBI’s infamous Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) identified, surveilled, defamed, and often murdered Black leaders they deemed capable of leading an organized rebellion against the US government. The rise of radical organizations like the Black Panther Party produced a counterculture that encouraged cultural pride . . .
Imperialism Was Built on Settler-Colonialism
Abstract This paper builds on Nkrumah’s approach of starting from the point of knowing the enemy. Collective imperialism, sham independence and neo-colonialism as described in Book One Chapter One of Nkrumah’s Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare are re-examined in the context of 21st century globalization. Capitalism was built on the theft of land and resources in the process of colonization. The most extensive exploitation of land and resources resulted in the near extermination of indigenous peoples and the creation of powerful settler regimes that serve to support the dominance of USA-European capitalism. Racism played a key role in justifying the barbaric . . .