Conversing with Africa - the Politics of Change (Paperback)

The narrative of Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change is an effort to engage the past for the present, to stand witness to present times, and to express the need to restore a radical dialogue in Africa. The author speaks to a new generation of activists who are trying to answer Fanon's call that "each generation must out of relative obscurity find its mission--fulfill it, or betray it." He reflects on ways to approach this statement today, arguing for example, that it is important to situate African struggles in the context of other struggles, especially those of Latin America. He examines the Chinese, Russian, Grenadian, and the Haitian revolutions; the examples of Burkina Faso's Thomas Sankara; the ANC of South Africa and the negotiated political settlement; and how the South African example falls far from the ideal of revolutionary democracy. The book further addresses the twin questions of history and the role of the intellectual in society; African intellectuals and Western Africanists; African philosophy as a tool of liberation; the consciousness of the oppressor and the oppressed, the complicity of Africans in their own unfortunate history; and the future of a radical pan-Africanism.