Revolutionary Movements in Africa: An Untold Story

While the revolutionary leftist movements of the 1960s and '70s in Europe, the United States and Latin America have been the subject of abundant literature, similar movements that emerged in Africa have received comparatively very little attention. This book sheds new light on these political movements.

Africa's left were extremely active in these years. With pro-Soviet movements, Maoism, Trotskyism, Guevarism, Pan-Africanism and the Black Panthers, the rumble of revolution was felt across the continent. From feminist student rebels in Nigeria to pro-democracy moments in Liberia, the exciting and complex interplay between these many actors changed Africa forever.

Can we see echoes of these movements in African politics today? What can we learn from the people who lived through these decades? This unique collection will open the eyes of leftists across the world who will find new and important insights into an important chapter in global history.

Pascal Bianchini is a sociologist and independent researcher based in Senegal. He has written extensively on social movements, protest, class and education in Africa including École et Politique en Afrique Noire.

Ndongo Samba Sylla is a Senegalese development economist. He has previously worked as a technical advisor at the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal, and is Programme manager at the West Africa office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. He is the co-author of Africa’s Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story and author of The Fair Trade Scandal.

Leo Zeilig is a writer and researcher. He has written extensively on African politics and history, including books on working-class struggle and the development of revolutionary movements. He is an editor of the Review of African Political Economy and is the author many books, including A Revolutionary for Our Time: The Walter Rodney Story.

‘An incredible book … Activists whose voices have long been silenced, many of them Africans with first-hand knowledge of political struggle, here recall their demands and their actions to confront oppression, and how they organised workers, students, and other collectivities of the repressed. Thought-provoking and powerful.’

—Janet Bujra, Review of African Political Economy

‘A remarkable volume on the vicissitudes of the revolutionary left in postindependence Africa. The volume bravely attempts to tell an untold story which continues to unfold in the more repressive milieu of neo-liberalism in the midst of the beating of new “cold war” drums. A pioneer work which hopefully will inspire a couple more to complete what is essentially a “work in progress”.’

—Issa Shivji, Professor Emeritus at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

‘This collection covers over a dozen French- and English-speaking countries from all parts of Africa [enabling] readers to grasp the true revolutionary moment of the African anti-colonial and anti-neocolonial political and social movements. A majority of the authors are African academics with activist credentials [who] present genuine new information gained from original historical research. Twenty-first-century radicals should find new inspiration for action in this untold history.’

—Jean Copans, anthropologist and sociologist

‘Without rejecting Marxism-Leninism as a useful theory of popular emancipation and political transformation, the essays in this book show that it is not the only theory of successful political change … From the Tubu nomads of northern Chad to peasants, workers and students throughout the African continent, we see how the leaders of these social strata can use old and new ideas to mobilise emancipatory struggles for change. The editors of this volume are to be congratulated for making it possible. We hope to read more studies of great revolutionary movements leaders like Amilcar Cabral, Chris Hani, Ibrahima Abatcha, Thomas Sankara, Ruben Um Nyobe, and Pierre Mulele.’

—Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, Professor of African and

Global Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill