Clr James Pan Africanist, Essay Example

Pan Africanism is a socio political world view and a movement geared towards uniting African states and those that have African heritage to be one community. This is aimed at bringing a unified Africa. This is a movement that started many years before many of the African states gained their independence. There are many people who have come up of support of this ideology. The dreams of a united African state have been in the ideologies of many African leaders’ and scholars who have tried to put it into real practice. However, this has not been attained due to some challenges that most of the African states face. In this paper I will look at C.L.R James who was a prominent pan Africanist.

C.L.R James is one of the famous figures in pan African political movements. He is well known in the struggle of the Caribbean federation independence. He worked within Johnson forest tendency. This contributed to have a definition of a perspective which was ahead of its time. He is accredited for expanding and clarifying the political and the theoretical heritage of Marx and Lenin.  In the 1940’s he made great speeches and writings concerning the issues that were of great concerns to the Negroes. He led civil right movements aimed at fighting for the rights of the Negroes. He was much concerned about the liberation of the black people and also their descendants. He participated in the development of the international labour movements which foresaw the supervened absolensce of the vanguard party. His work is known to have covered a range of interest in many fields. He was involved in as a historian, writer, commentator, and in other activities (Farrukh 53-60).

He was a political person who aimed at liberating the black man from the dominance of the white man concept. This is according to the Marxist political ideologies. He argued that politics incorporated all, the activities that man engaged in. His political intervention played a great role in the labour revolt that broke in the Caribbean in 1937.

He had joined the first independent labour party and also the Trotsky movement. He was led by the notion that Marx held “when I’d finished [with Lenin, Marx and Trotsky’s writings], I said, well, Marxism says that you have not only to read but to be active… so I joined” (Rethinking C.L.R. James p. 21). Later in 1935 he joined international friends of Abyssinia which was later known as IAFE for Ethiopia. This is a movement which fought against the invasion of the Italian army of that country. This is one of the movements that led to development of pan Africanism. In his book “The black Jacobins” which is a very well known book in the 18 century history, he made a definition of the relationship that existed between Europe and those colonies in their struggle for independence. His major contribution to the understanding of when there were a lot of wars, discrimination and also of brutality. According to him this kind of evils that were going on are part of civilisation process. The struggle to him was the fight between socialism and barbarism.

Three main ideas of C .L.R James had were political democracy, revolution socialism and Marxism. He developed the idea of revolution after he observed the brutality that the slaves went through and also their composition. He also observed that it was the black people who were being mistreated. This necessitated him to come up with this ideology of the democratic revolution. He adopted the ideologies of Marxism. He placed much emphasis the struggles of the classes which allowed the socio economic impetus for revolution. He held that the issue of race is subsidiary to the class question in political issues.  He also held that thinking of imperialism in terms of racial differences was dangerous.

His main argument was that the predicament of the colonial oppression could not be held as racial oppression, but was more of class antagonism or the opposition that existed among the people of the countries that were being colonized. He gave the example of San Domingo, which was a crucial colony because of its large sugar plantations where class conflict existed because of the working classes but not because of race. He gave race a small relevance in the colonial oppression.  He held the class difference was the main cause of oppression that happened in post African states. There were differences in classes among the people in the countries. For instance the leaders who took power after independence of many African countries belonged to different classes from the masses that fought for this independence. According to him this caused the dream of pan Africanist to be realized. His ideology of class conflict has its bases from the principle of Karl Marx (Simon 23-38).

He had great ideas on revolution, which he stated that had relation with the struggles that existed among most blacks in the colonies. He held that the classes and the class interests had an impact on revolution and the subsequent history that followed many of the black African states. He gave the example of Haiti where the social classes played a major role in the revolution that took place there. His emphasis on revolution in Africa and the Caribbean had great relation on Marxist revolutionary ideologies. His ideologies on revolution had direct relation to the classes that existed in the society.

His ideologies on reality were very exciting. He made Marxist revolution a reality in the black people minds. He held that the history of the black people was not to be taken as just history of poor oppression. He held that this was a show of vibrant and conscious people that had many ways on which they would resist the oppression they were going through and also struggle to be liberated. He used the ideologies of Lenin in a very constructive manner in making the in depth analysis of the black communities.  He created a reflective theoretical view in assisting the United States revolutionaries. According to James the black people who were the most oppressed people especially in the American society were the people who had great elements of revolution in the whole society. This was necessitated by their historic past.  He held that true revolution would not occur until the revolutionally socialists engaged themselves to work with the African –American masses. Consistency, non compromise struggles by the black people would offer great challenge to capitalism and those who were in power (Simon 23-38).

He also held that the Africans Americans would be encouraged by their oppressive history to fight for development of their own state. They would first make demands to have full control for their destiny. He stated that the support that the blacks would give to the idea of revolution would play a big role in their revolution. This would also enhance their incorporation into the United Socialist States of America.

He held two guiding principle in revolution praxis. One of the first principles was state abolition and the second was education of the peasants. He knew very well that the African and the Caribbean leaders had failed in dismantling the colonial states. With this reason most of the post colonial African states fell. The other issue that faced the post independence countries is the fact that the leaders who took power after independence distanced themselves from the popular masses that fought to bring the independence (Eugene and Sonnenburg 340).

He claimed that the idea of self determination was very important in the revolution of the black people I the USA. The issue of self determination according to James meant that the blacks had to determine their destiny in the future. One aspect of self determination involved separation where the blacks would crate their own distinct nation. This according to James would be realized or not. Determination according to him would also mean African having a focus on their future. This was one of James principle of revolutionary Marxist. James held that the blacks would establish their own state and have their own leaders who they would elect by themselves without interferences by the whites. This desire had to be supported even if it would take a form of aggressive means to attain it (Nicole 86-90).

His notion about democracy made him break from the European traditions. This is where he saw the future of the Caribbean. He held that the Caribbean people would emerge as a dynamic force at independence. This shows his recognisation of the importance of the power, creativity and self organisation capacity among the people. This was his main theme in his article the “carnival”.

According to the letters that he wrote after he left America he   focused on the contemporary trends that existed in the carribean, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Unirted States. These trends are the ones that raised the prominence of power which lead the ordinary people to engage in the struggle for civilisation. He challenged the political structures that were oppressive in the 1950s. This was one of his intentions from the earlier years. He saw the appearance of the black and the colonial people as very essential and decisive force in shaping the modern society. He held that independence would give the population of the colonial territories a chance by which they would be in a position to plan their future. He was interested in making the Caribbean people that they were involved in the fight of the finding of a new society.

His ideologies were much occupied on the relation that existed between democracy and creativity. This has the basis from revolutionary Marxism. He believed that during the time when the conception of democracy were being broken and expanded through the political struggle, that  is when there was the release of tremendous creative power.

As can be seen James proved himself to be a real Pan Africanist. He had a comprehensive and a multifaceted approach to the world around him. He so much concerned himself within the struggle and the libration of the black communities. This was because of the way they were oppressed. It was because of the oppression that he realized that great qualities of revolutionalists. His view to the struggles and the way that he defined socialism was very reflective. According to him the struggles for socialism meant the struggle for proletarian democracy. He held that this democracy would not be attained because of socialism but socialism was the result of the proletarian democracy. The socialist revolution is advanced according to the extent by which the proletariat mobilizes itself (Simon 23-38).

From the above ideas of James on panafricanism it is possible to note that the ideology of panafricanism is still relevant today. Many people look at the issue of panafricanism as concerning the past states. However, this is still relevant to the lives of Africans. The idea of the establishment of an African state union should exceed state to state relation and make the people of those states be in a position to live in a harmony. The meetings of the union should not only be of the leaders of the states but should also involve the citizens, for example, mothers, small scale business people etc. This would enhance the development of the sates and increase the integrity of the states. For this to happen, there is a need for transformation to occur in Africa. The transformation is supposed to be led by people, should be led in a democratic way and in a transparent manner. This is the only way that the continent will be in a position to attain the dreams that the panafricanists like James had.

Work cited

Dhondy, Farrukh. C.L.R James: a life. 1^st Ed. Califonia: University of California, 2001.

Featherstone, Simon. Post colonial cultures. 1^st Ed. Edinburg: University press, 2005.

King, Nicole. C. L. R. James and Creolization: Circles of Influence. 1^st Ed. Mississippi: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2007.

Page, Eugene and Sonnenburg Penny. Colonialism: an international, social, cultural, and political Encyclopedia, Volume 1, ABC-CLIO publication, 2003.