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Amílcar Cabral and the International: Race, Colonialism, Liberation

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The Palgrave Handbook of International Political Theory

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Abstract

This chapter explores the international political thought of Amílcar Cabral. Cabral was the leader of PAIGC, the national liberation movement of Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde. He played a leading role alongside his peers and fellow militants Agostinho Neto, Mário Andrade, Eduardo Mondlane, Marcelino dos Santos and others in the liberation of the Portuguese colonies in Africa and, as such, was a key figure in the liberation of the African continent from colonial rule. From his own times to today he has been widely recognised as an anticolonial leader and thinker of considerable stature. Until relatively recently, however, his work has not been generally or widely taught in the disciplinary area of Politics and International Relations—attention to Cabral would be more the concern of African Studies or Postcolonial Studies. This chapter explores various dimensions of his thought which speak to the international. In doing so, the chapter additionally elaborates a meta-reflection on what it means today to consider the question of political thought and, especially, international political thought. In what ways is anticolonial thought a historically specific form of political thought? These broader historical and epistemological questions arise inherently from an exploration of Cabral’s international political thought, they pertain to central concerns of postcolonial theory (in other words they arise inherently from a consideration of the relationships between colonialism and knowledge), and, in particular, they resonate with contemporary energies and popular demands regarding decolonising academic minds, disciplines and institutions. The first section of the chapter provides some brief contextual and biographical discussion of Amílcar Cabral. The central body of the chapter explores his international political thought through a focus on questions of race, colonialism, and liberation. The concluding section draws together an argument about the specific character of anticolonial political thought.

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  • 03 January 2024

    A correction has been published.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK

    Branwen Gruffydd Jones

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  1. Branwen Gruffydd Jones
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Correspondence to Branwen Gruffydd Jones .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Howard Williams

  2. School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    David Boucher

  3. School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Peter Sutch

  4. Department of Philosophy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    David Reidy

  5. School of Psychology and Humanities, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK

    Alexandros Koutsoukis

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Gruffydd Jones, B. (2023). Amílcar Cabral and the International: Race, Colonialism, Liberation. In: Williams, H., Boucher, D., Sutch, P., Reidy, D., Koutsoukis, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of International Political Theory. International Political Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36111-1_12

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