W. E. B. Du Bois’ Ambiguous Politics of Liberation: Race, Marxism and Pan Africanism

W. E. B. Du Bois summons the restless and provocative spirit of a Pan Africanism that, despite its association with the collapse of Kwamah Nkumah’s Ghanaian revolution, has not failed as an idea. Commentators have realised, to some extent, the ambiguities of Du Bois’ Pan Africanism. However, they ha...

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Main Author: Adam Geary
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Columbia University Libraries 2011-07-01
Series:Columbia Journal of Race and Law
Online Access:https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/cjrl/article/view/2261
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author Adam Geary
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description W. E. B. Du Bois summons the restless and provocative spirit of a Pan Africanism that, despite its association with the collapse of Kwamah Nkumah’s Ghanaian revolution, has not failed as an idea. Commentators have realised, to some extent, the ambiguities of Du Bois’ Pan Africanism. However, they have not shown how Du Bois’ deployment of the concept opens up a more radical political thinking. This Essay will trace the various twists and turns of Du Bois’ Pan Africanism as narrated in the text Dusk of Dawn. Pan Africanism demands a social, economic, and political revolution that goes beyond the civil liberties struggle and its focus on constitutional recognition. In leaving America for Ghana, Du Bois committed himself to a very specific understanding of the African revolution. Using the ideas of Etienne Balibar and Jacques Rancière, this Essay will argue that Du Bois’ Pan Africanism evoked energies of revolution that point at an unfinished, rather than failed, radical project.
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spelling doaj.art-3ad74d3f0e01457e9d349d92f8d88a6f2022-12-22T02:57:26ZengColumbia University LibrariesColumbia Journal of Race and Law2155-24012011-07-011310.7916/cjrl.v1i3.2261W. E. B. Du Bois’ Ambiguous Politics of Liberation: Race, Marxism and Pan AfricanismAdam GearyW. E. B. Du Bois summons the restless and provocative spirit of a Pan Africanism that, despite its association with the collapse of Kwamah Nkumah’s Ghanaian revolution, has not failed as an idea. Commentators have realised, to some extent, the ambiguities of Du Bois’ Pan Africanism. However, they have not shown how Du Bois’ deployment of the concept opens up a more radical political thinking. This Essay will trace the various twists and turns of Du Bois’ Pan Africanism as narrated in the text Dusk of Dawn. Pan Africanism demands a social, economic, and political revolution that goes beyond the civil liberties struggle and its focus on constitutional recognition. In leaving America for Ghana, Du Bois committed himself to a very specific understanding of the African revolution. Using the ideas of Etienne Balibar and Jacques Rancière, this Essay will argue that Du Bois’ Pan Africanism evoked energies of revolution that point at an unfinished, rather than failed, radical project.https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/cjrl/article/view/2261
spellingShingle Adam Geary
W. E. B. Du Bois’ Ambiguous Politics of Liberation: Race, Marxism and Pan Africanism
Columbia Journal of Race and Law
title W. E. B. Du Bois’ Ambiguous Politics of Liberation: Race, Marxism and Pan Africanism
title_full W. E. B. Du Bois’ Ambiguous Politics of Liberation: Race, Marxism and Pan Africanism
title_fullStr W. E. B. Du Bois’ Ambiguous Politics of Liberation: Race, Marxism and Pan Africanism
title_full_unstemmed W. E. B. Du Bois’ Ambiguous Politics of Liberation: Race, Marxism and Pan Africanism
title_short W. E. B. Du Bois’ Ambiguous Politics of Liberation: Race, Marxism and Pan Africanism
title_sort w e b du bois ambiguous politics of liberation race marxism and pan africanism
url https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/cjrl/article/view/2261
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