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Fri 19 Apr, 15:45

"Seek Ye First the Political Kingdom"? Learning from Kwame Nkrumah's Failures in Ghana Apr 04 by Tokologo African Anarchist Collective 1 comments

Ghana, West Africa, was a British colony called "Gold Coast" until 1957. It became the first independent country in "black" Africa after reforms and struggles in the 1940s and 1950s. The new president, the brilliant Kwame Nkrumah, and his Convention People's Party (CPP), had fought for independence. Now they aimed at major changes in the society, even speaking of socialism. And Nkrumah proposed a united African government for the continent: Pan-Africanism.

But by the mid-1960s, hopes were fading. There were good reforms in education and services and self- respect for Africans that helped remove colonialism's damages. But the CPP has become a dictatorship, with a personality cult around Nkrumah. Unions and struggles were suppressed. The economy was in trouble. A new elite hijacked independence and resources. When the military seized power in 1966, people celebrated in the streets. Today Ghana is one of the poorest African countries.

What went wrong and what can we, anarchists in Africa, learn from this experience?

To Cure Africa's Heart-Rending Misery, we Need Working Class/Peasant Counter-Power, Anarchism Apr 04 by Tokologo African Anarchist Collective 1 comments

"Africa today lies prostrate, bleeding, and embattled on all fronts, a victim of capitalist and, to a great extent, state socialist ambitions. The heart-rending misery of its peoples, the conditions of abject poverty, squalor and disease in which they live, exist side by side with the wanton luxury, rapacity, and corruption of its leaders." Sam Mbah and I.E. Igariwey, 1997, African Anarchism: The History of a Movement, Sharp Press: Tucson, Arizona. Our vast continent, Africa, is the poorest in the world, host to dozens of wars and conflicts, and marked by instability and inequality. The root causes of the instability lie in political corruption and the profiteering system run by local and international elites. The local ruling classes are interested in making profits and getting wealthy, by any means necessary. The elites are not promoting the development of the working class and peasants (small farmers), but only worsening our conditions. If the choice is between building a road in a poor area or pocketing the money, they will pocket the money.

Απελευθέρωση από τ&#... Apr 04 by Πέτρος Πέτκας 0 comments

... Γι’ αυτό και πρέπει να επανασυνδεθούμε με την σκέψη εκείνων των στοχαστών του παρελθόντος που αγωνίσθηκαν για να «ανθρωπέψει ο άνθρωπος», που «ύψωσαν τις φωνές τους σαν πυρσούς από μακριά και καλώντας από ψηλά σαν από αθέατη βίγλα» μας υπενθυμίζουν διαρκώς ότι χρειάζεται μεν να πατάμε γερά στην γη, αλλά και να ατενίζουμε και τον ορίζοντα· γιατί ο κόσμος μας απογυμνωμένος από προσδοκία, γίνεται ψυχρός και γκρίζος. Κάτι του λείπει!