Pan-Africanism-from-below and Caribbean Emancipation

Recently, the St, Lucian academic worker Tennyson Joseph offered a blueprint for Caribbean liberation entitled “A Pan-African Manifesto for the English-Speaking Caribbean” in the publication Pambazuka News. Comrade Tennyson provides us with a guide to direct our political organizing behind an anti-colonial Pan-Afrikan agenda that links the destiny of the Anglophone Caribbean and Africa. This public document is a call for action issued to the members of this region, and I am taking it for granted that it is also an invitation for reasoning or grounding with its target group.

Importance of Revolutionary Ideas

Comrade Tennyson looks favourable on oppositional ideas within an anti-colonial and Pan-Afrikanist framework to advance the emancipation of the Anglophone Caribbean. In tackling the issue of the emancipation of the wretched of the earth in the region, we must be explicit in naming the systems of oppression that we are targeting, and the ideas that are at the foundation of our solution. Amilcar Cabral reminds us in the paper “The Weapon of Theory” that “if it is true that a revolution can fail even though it be based on perfectly conceived theories, nobody has yet made a successful revolution without a revolutionary theory.”

The ideas that we are offering for twenty-first century liberation in the Caribbean and Afrika must be revolutionary in scope and have the capacity to throw hierarchy and domination into the cesspool of history. Our Pan-Afrikanism must be centred upon the idea that the people are the architects of revolution on the stage of history and shall never serve as props and extras in it by movement elites or principal leaders. Unfortunately, the Pan-Afrikanism that is peddled in the marketplace of ideas is built on the notion of the governed and the governor. 

Pan-Afrikanism-from-below is in alignment with the communist idea of the administration of things and not the governance of people. Pan-Afrikanism-from-below demands self-organization of our common affairs and not people being the subject of governance or political rule by forces above them. In our current struggle to end patriarchal, racist and capitalist systems of domination, the structures and processes that we use must be the embodiment of the self-emancipation of the masses.

Ideological Deficiency about Capitalism

Comrade Tennyson highlights an important question that came from a gathering of Pan-Afrikanists commemorating Afrikan Liberation Day 2025: “what does a present-day Pan-African agenda look like particularly when English-speaking Caribbean states are outwardly democratic and where the condition of life of present-day citizens is not as outwardly “unfree” as that of our ancestors who endured the ‘barbarity times’ of slavery and the dehumanizing experiences of the post-slavery period prior to the onset of flag independence?” This query speaks to the lack of ideological clarity among the Afrikan labouring classes about the nature of the oppressive conditions under which we live and have lived in the Caribbean. 

The above question betrays the fact that many members of the Anglophone Caribbean do not see bourgeois or liberal, capitalist democracy as an authoritarian system of governance controlled by the minority capitalist class or bourgeoisie. There is nothing ‘outwardly democratic’ about political life under bourgeois democracy, which is defined by the masses not having the power to substantively shape the public policies and programmes that impact their lives. 

A disturbing element of the question is the failure to perceive the constancy of capitalism as a system of oppression during slavery, the post-emancipation period and the current era of ‘flag independence.’ We emancipated ourselves from chattel slavery under capitalism to become wage-slaves of capitalism. Eric Williams made it clear in Capitalism and Slavery that the enslavement of Afrikans in the Caribbean was motivated by capitalism’s need for a regimented, controlled and available pool of labour to facilitate wealth extraction. Capitalism is so normalized in our consciousness that many of us are unable to identify it as the problem.

A revolutionary theory of Pan-Afrikanism puts capitalism on trial for past and present wrongdoings. This revolutionary outlook makes clear that life under capitalism has always been a Hobbesian nightmare for those of us from the ranks of the great unwashed masses: ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.’

Worker Control and Cooperative Economics

In the manifesto issued by Comrade Tennyson, he states that the Caribbean economy is ‘owned, controlled and dominated’ by local and international capital in the hands of people of European descent. The problem is that under capitalism, regardless of race, the productive resources or means of production are largely under the control of the minority capitalist class. Unfortunately, the manifesto did not suggest a transitional economic direction or programme.

In the Caribbean, the economic programme of Pan-Afrikanism-from-below is supportive of worker control of the workplace in order for capital to become a servant of labour. Worker control is a way to limit the exploitation of labour and prepare us for the stateless, classless and self-organized (communist) society. Furthermore, Pan-Afrikanism-from-below embraces a general programme of cooperative economics that advances the principle that economic activities should be fundamentally aimed at meeting the needs of the people and not to make profit for a minority.

Assembly of the People and the Administration of Things

Comrade Tennyson rightly condemns the inherited and unchanged political processes and institutions of the colonizer. He asserts that “The breaking of ties with the British Monarchy and the establishment of republican constitutions remains an important next step in completing Caribbean independence.” A Pan-Afrikanism-from-below goes beyond republicanism and calls for the creation of participatory-democratic spaces of the people in civil society wherein the administration of things instead of the governing of people would be the political norm. This political space would be an oppositional fount of direct democracy that is an expression of a dual power strategy to get rid of the capitalist class and state.

The anarchist theorist and activist Wayne Price, outlines a dual power strategy within anarchism:

[This dual power strategy] proposes to build mass movements and popular struggles, democratically organized from the bottom up. These include labor unions, anti-racist community associations, anti-war coalitions, tenant unions, and environmental struggles, among others. These would create alternate sites of power, which might also be called “dual power.” At some point, it is expected that there would be a confrontation with the state and the capitalist class—that is, a revolution. If successful, the revolution would be followed by a period of popular rebuilding of society.

According to Price, the above dual power strategy has a gradualist dual power counterpart that creates alternative structures such as “various types of co-ops, small workshops using advanced technology, associations with farmers, bicycle clubs, progressive schools, and so on” to crowd out and eventually displace the capitalist class and state. I do not embrace the idea of two distinct strategies. The mass movement-building and the alternative institutions that meet the needs of the people are critical elements of a prefigurative politics of liberation.

Pragmatically, the people would still participate in bourgeois electoral politricks with our class enemies to articulate the demands coming out of the direct democracy assemblies and mass movements of the people. As a transitional strategy, the participation in bourgeois electoral politricks is aimed at extracting economic and political concessions from the capitalist class and state. Our elected officials would function as delegates of the social movements with a specific mandate and answerable to them.

Toward Complete Decolonization in the Caribbean

I am in complete agreement with Comrade Tennyson that Western imperialism’s remaining colonies in the Caribbean “continue to frustrate the development of the Caribbean as a liberated, pan-African space pursuing a sovereign and integrated development.” The mass demand for political independence in the remaining colonies of France, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands will get a boost when economic development in the independent territories can match the facts on the ground in the North American and European centres of imperialism. The colonized territories are quite aware of the high rates of brain drain or migration of Caribbean nationals to Europe and North America in the search for better economic opportunities.

We should continue to stand in solidarity with the political independence movements in the colonies.

Caribbean Unification of Peoples or States?

If we are advancing a revolutionary Pan-Afrikanism-from-below, we are politically obligated to organize for the unification of Caribbean peoples and not the federation of Caribbean states. The federation of states will not translate into the power in the hands of the wretched of the earth as is evident in politically federated states such as Nigeria, the United States, Canada, Russia, India and Germany. 

In organizing for the unification of Caribbean peoples, we will pressure the neocolonial, capitalist states across the region to build the social and physical infrastructure to facilitate people-to-people cooperation under the dual power strategy highlighted above. The political and economic Pan-Afrikan ties that are developed with Afrika would be with the peoples and their movements, and not the presidential-monarchies on that continent.

Caribbean Economic Development through Cooperation with Afrika

A credible Pan-Afrikanism is only possible with embracing the Caribbean territories as pieces of Afrika abroad. Therefore, the economic destiny of the Caribbean must be tied to the potential for economic development in Afrika. We need trade agreements that give mutual access to markets, labour and natural resources of Afrika and the Caribbean, as if we are a part of a unified, contiguous land mass. It would allow Caribbean economies to overcome current economic vulnerabilities and limitations of size and limited natural resources. 

When we speak of economic development, we are not seeking to advance the interests of the parasitic and predatory Afrikan bourgeoisie or capitalist class. It is a non-capitalist economic development approach that we are advancing and that is non-negotiable since we are not invested in being wage-slaves and pursuing economics that are not primarily about meeting the needs of the labouring classes.

Reparations as a Site of the Class Struggle

Warren Buffett, the capitalist billionaire and investor, quite truthfully and correctly tells us, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.” In pushing for reparations in the Caribbean and Afrika, the advocates must not ignore the fact that the state is an instrument being used to transfer wealth from the working-class to the capitalist class under the banner of neoliberal policies and programmes – a manifestation of primitive accumulation of capital. Most Caribbean advocates of reparations focus on the financial compensation that imperialism must pay to the people for slavery and colonialism.

However, we ignore the fact that the Caribbean states have resources and the power to contribute to the material betterment of the sufferers. In the area of land reform or making arable land accessible to the labouring classes, these states can demonstrate a commitment to reparatory justice by declaring the right of use to land. Therefore, the size of our pocketbooks would be irrelevant to using land for housing, economic livelihood, recreation and other uses. With the right of use to land, we would remove this category of land from the capitalist marketplace forever. Land reform under the “right of us” approach must be a basic reparatory justice demand.

Reparatory justice from the Caribbean states can take the form of material support to worker control or self-management of the workplace. We are demanding the investment of resources to enable the working-class to own, control and manage their workplaces. The Caribbean states would establish loan funds for the creation or expansion of worker cooperatives or labour self-managed firms. These states would commit themselves to purchase a minimum percentage of the output of worker cooperatives, and they would develop agencies to provide technical assistance to the democratically controlled workplaces. Cooperative economics would become a part of the curriculum in primary schools right up to colleges and universities.

There are other reparatory justice initiatives that may be carried out that have the capacity to encourage the self-organization of the people and support our dual power strategy.

Concluding Thought

The Caribbean working-class is racially and ethnically diverse, and a Pan-Afrikanism-from-below that centres the class struggle will unite this enchained class. A class struggle Pan-Afrikanism is not a zero-sum proposition in the Caribbean, and it is the proverbial tide that lifts all boats. Pan-Afrikanism ought not to be about reinforcing the political power of the petite bourgeoisie through a centralized Caribbean state. Therefore, all Pan-Afrikan initiatives being peddled must contribute to the realization of the classless, stateless and self-organized (communist) society.

Ajamu Nangwaya is a member of the Toronto-based Caribbean Solidarity Network. He is a former Cultural and Rastafari Studies lecturer at the University of the West Indies. Ajamu is an editor with Adwoa Onuora and Anna Kasafi Perkins of Rough Riding: Tanya Stephens and the Power of Music to Transform Society.