After its detailed examination of the intellectual contexts provided by the Negritude Movement and Frantz Fanon, Concepts of Cabralism dives into a masterful reading of works by the important, but currently overlooked, figure of Amilcar Cabral. It is a must read for scholars of Cabral, the larger Black Radical Tradition, and the even larger field of contemporary Africana thought. A timely contribution to all of these fields.
Concepts of Cabralism fills a lacuna in the 21st century black studies archive. It is a book that demands that Amilcar Cabral no longer be a footnote in the scholarship on and about the black radical tradition. Reiland Rabaka clearly and cogently provides a valuable matrix to understand Cabral in relation to other great Africana thinkers. Concepts of Cabralism illustrates that Cabral's ideas are not dead, but of extreme contemporary import.
Rabaka contributes to radical black politics and Africana critical social theory and exceeds expectations on both counts. Six chapters guide readers through a corpus that 'draws from a diverse array of often eclectic and enigmatic sources and, therefore, offers no closed system or absolute truths.'. . . .Rabaka's critical introduction outlines Cabral's biography and the genealogy of his thought. Chapter 1 begins with a provocative claim: 'in many respects Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral represent the pillars and pinnacle of the Africana tradition of critical theory in the second half of the 20th century.' The author situates the dialectic task before black thinkers as 'challenging both whites' demonization and Blacks' romanticism' of Africa. Chapter 2 carefully outlines Fanon's challenge to negritude. Fanon's method for apprehending the totalizing effects of European colonialism becomes cartographic in Rabaka's reading of Cabral's engagement with colonialism, neocolonialism, imperialism, Marxism, and history. The book ends by articulating Cabral's usefulness for Rabaka's larger vision of Africana critical theory. An original contribution to Africana philosophy and studies, critical theory, and currently reemerging anticolonial paradigms throughout the academy. A must-have. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.
Reiland Rabaka has brought together a comprehensive review of Amilcar Cabral and his intellectual legacy that will be indispensable for researchers and students alike. Contextualising Cabral's ideas and praxis within the framework of those of Frantz Fanon, and Marxist and Africana critical theory, makes this an extraordinary tour de force.