AfricaBib 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | The politics of cultural existence: Pan-Africanism, historical materialism and Afrocentricity |
| Author: | Lemelle, Sidney J. |
| Year: | 1993 |
| Periodical: | Race and Class |
| Volume: | 35 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 93-112 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Africa |
| Subjects: | cultural philosophy ethnicity attitudes pan-Africanism |
| Abstract: | This paper first highlights some of the philosophical contradictions contained in the current Pan-African debate. Then it examines the practical implications of this debate by contrasting the works of several important groups of writers and theorists. The first group is represented by Molefi Kete Asante, who has popularized a modern-day version of liberal cultural nationalism. The second group is represented by several radical diasporan authors including A. Sivanandan, C. Robinson, M. Marable, B. Magubane, and G. Lipsitz. All have provided a historical materialist critique of Asante's Afrocentric notions for many years. While both groups have argued that an understanding of culture and politics is essential in the struggle for Black liberation in Africa and the diaspora, the author maintains that the philosophical and practical implications of their arguments are quite different. Finally, the author analyses the implications of the works of both groups vis-à-vis Pan-Africanism and Afrocentricity from a historical materialist perspective. He argues that the potential of revolutionary Pan-Africanism as a counterhegemonic discourse and tool for working-class liberation is superior to Afrocentricity, because it allows for a concrete, material analysis of society that breaks with the dominant idealistic discourse in a way that Afrocentricity can not. Notes, ref. |