The centrality of culture in the struggle for a new world: Amilcar Cabral and Ken Saro- Wiwa

The centrality of culture in the struggle for a new world: Amilcar Cabral and Ken Saro Wiwa. Firoze Manji, Eco-Instigator, 22: 18-23

Cabral and Saro-Wiwa were separated by two eras, the one involving the struggle for independence in Africa, the other dealing with the consequences of the failures of independence and the rise of neoliberalism. There were continuities between the two eras. “Cabral and Saro-Wiwa sit together in this transformative and unfinished space,” wrote He- len Fallon, “asking questions that remain important in Ireland as in Africa.”

Despite this separation, they had much in common.

Both sought self-determination for their people. Both were clear that self-determination, not se- cession, was what they were fighting for.

Self-determination and secession are often got confused and considered synonymous. Self-determination is about the struggle for justice, dignity and an attempt to establish an inclusive Universalist humanity, whe-reas secession is by definition an act of exclusion, defining the self through the exclusion of the other. …

 

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