Return to the Source: Cabral, Fanon, the Dialectic of Revolutionary Decolonization/Revolutionary Re-Africanization, and the African Renaissance

Abstract

In the most general sense, the African Renaissance entails Africans combatting the racialization, colonization, and neo-colonization of Africa and committing to the decolonization, re-Africanization, and liberation of Africa. When Amilcar Cabral and Frantz Fanon’s radical theory and revolutionary praxis (i.e., Cabralism and Fanonism, respectively) are placed into critical dialog a groundbreaking dialectic of revolutionary decolonization and revolutionary re-Africanization emerges. This article argues that this dialectic is sorely needed to reanimate—perhaps even radicalize and, indeed, revolutionize—contemporary conceptions of the African Renaissance. To that end, first, this article will explore the conceptual connections between Cabral’s theory of “return to the source” and Fanon’s theory of “the wretched of the earth.” Next, it will investigate Cabral’s distinct discourse on revolutionary decolonization and its implications for the African Renaissance. Lastly, the discussion will examine the ways in which Fanon’s theory of radical political education is key to understanding his and Cabral’s conceptions of, and key contributions to, both revolutionary decolonization and revolutionary re-Africanization, as well as their reverberations within the discourse on the African Renaissance.