African and Caribbean Politics: From Kwame Nkrumah to the Grenada Revolution

by Manning Marrable

What explains the proliferation of authoritarian regimes some calling themselves socialist in contemporary African and Caribbean politics One of America s leading black scholars assesses the historical and social forces that have undermined democracy and social reform in the societies of Africa and its diaspora. In a brilliant historical sketch of the evolution of revolutionary nationalism, Marable illustrates how the legacies of slavery, forced labor and colonialism have combined to stunt the development of popular self-representation. Considering in detail the key cases of Ghana and Guyana, he explains why mass anti-colonial movements eventually decayed into personalistic and repressive cults around Nkrumah and Burnham. The core of the book is an impassioned and searching analysis of the tragic self-destruction of the Grenadian Revolution in 1983. Increasing reliance on a corrupted democratic centralism within the New Jewel Movement led to its violent implosion followed by Reagan s invasion. While defending the achievements of the martyred Bishop regime, Marable argues that African and Caribbean socialism must find new commitments to egalitarian democracy and pluralism."

Genres: History, Africa

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Joelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Difficult and academic book but I'm grateful I took the time to read it. So many things I had no clue about.

[Christian Gurdin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite reads of 2024 so far. It is expertly researched and equally well argued. It is considerate of the many narratives, positions and elisions regarding postcolonial politics in Ghana, Guyana and Grenada principally but also of the wider African and Caribbean political landscape too.

The chapter on the Grenada Revolution was particularly compelling. It tackles many reductionist analyses of the demise of the Grenada Revolution and provides illuminating and precise theorisations of the contingent and ambivalent nature of the divisions in the NJM which engendered the Coardist seizure of power.

In short, this is an indispensable text for those learning about postcolonial revolutionary movements.