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Lumumba: May Our People Triumph

LeoPard books has collected the speeches, writings, letters and telegrams of the former Prime Minister of DR Congo, Patrice Lumumba in “May Our People Triumph” (2016). It also collects a set of articles written about him after his murder. The book has some editorial errors and formatting issues, but nonetheless is a useful collection to […]

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The Green Book – Gaddafi

The former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi explained his political philosophy in The Green Book. The Green Book is a short work (the English translation is 92 pages) presented in short chapters on a wide range of topics, organized into three parts. The first part is a critique of Western forms of democracy and a proposal […]

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Sankara, An African Revolutionary

If you have heard of Thomas Sankara but don’t know much about him and his life, Ernest Harsch’s “Thomas Sankara: An African Revolutionary” (2014) is a useful introduction. However, the book is quite brief (152 pages in a small sized book) – it is part of the Short Histories of Africa series. For a more […]

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An African Renaissance: Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Ngugi wa Thiong’o is one of the most important voices on language and decolonization. His works include Decolonizing the Mind (1986) and Theory and Politics of Knowing (2012). This post shares some notes on his 2009 Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance (copy appears available here). “colonialists did not literally cut off the heads […]

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Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book on the Obama years (We Were Eight Years in Power, 2017) attracted the scorn of Cornell West. Coates’ earlier book, Between the World and Me (2015), is a bestseller. In the form of a letter to his son, the book tells his journey of his own experiences and reflections of being Black […]

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A Dying Colonialism – Fanon (1959)

Fanon is well known for his Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and Wretched of the Earth (1961). Another of his works, A Dying Colonialism (1957), seems less spoken about (originally titled L’An Cinq, de la Revolution Algerienne). The first chapter reminded me of Said’s Orientalism, which was written much later (1978). Going back to Orientalism, […]

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Nkrumah – The Struggle Continues

This is the third of Kwame Nkrumah’s publications I have shared notes on. The first was the Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare (1968) and the second was Class Struggle in Africa (1970). This post shares some notes from The Struggle Continues (1973), a collection of short publications that were written between 1949 to 1968. A reprinted […]

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Class Struggle in Africa

Kwame Nkrumah wrote a number of books and pamphlets. Here are a few notes from his “Class Struggle in Africa” (1970): “Many members of the African bourgeoisie are employed by foreign firms and have, therefore, a direct financial stake in the continuance of the foreign economic exploitation of Africa. Others, notably in the civil service, […]

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Theory and the Politics of Knowing

Ngugi wa Thiong’o is one of the most influential and read postcolonial literary critics. His Decolonizing the Mind (1986) is essential reading. He has also penned many works of fiction and theatre, as well as other non-fiction works. The following are some notes from his 2012 Globalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing (which is […]

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Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare

One of the great leaders and thinkers of the liberation struggle across Africa was Kwame Nkrumah, who would become President of Ghana. He has penned several works, one of which is “Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare” (1968). Reading this book makes clear why writings such as this are not as commonly on reading lists as are […]

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