Hope, snares and surmise of Amilcar Cabral’s revolutionary socialism

Abstract

Africa as a continent has been ravaged by numerous threatening issues ranging from Slavery Colonialism, Underdevelopment, Neo-colonialism, and Poverty among others. Although these structural misfortunes faced by most African nations arise from the legacies or the pitfalls of colonialism, colonialism forcefully distorted and wiped away the African way of life, her socio-economic and political institutions and imposed new ones that were so strange to Africans. Hence, the foundation of terrible conflicts were sewn. In an attempt to extricate herself from these conundrum, few thoughtful African leaders initiated various programmes with the intent to reposition Africa towards development. These were done by espousing different ideological structures that would perhaps propel her to compete side by side with other continents. Prominent among these ideologies was socialism, which they believe has been part of the African indigenous culture. Amicar cabral being one of the most lucid and brilliant leaders in Africa at that time believed that the Western socialism appropriate class struggle within its socio-economic whole. He however aimed at ensuring the total disappearance of class, as a historical inevitability. This paper therefore attempts to make a critique and to reposition the philosophical perspectives of Amilcar Cabral on his socialist revolutionary theory and place it as paradigm for a successful development in Africa. In any case, the philosophical tool of analysis is employed as the basic fundamental approach in laying bare the views of Amilcar Cabral on his Socialist Revolution and its impacts on African socio-economic development.