Class ideology and African political theory

This dissertation is a study of the relationship between African political theory and the politics of liberation. It engages in a nuanced materialist analysis of the political and philosophical ideas of three African thinkers, Amilcar Cabral, Cheik Anta Diop and Kwame Nkrumah. It elucidates the dialectical inter-relationship between the political philosophical views of these thinkers and the political, social and economic contexts of their respective countries. The dissertation focuses on the examination of the petty bourgeois class nature of the ideas of the three African philosophers and the structural limits to a radical politics of liberation.; Specifically, the dissertation shows how the political ideas and the social, political and historical contexts of their life experiences, as well as the social source of their political leadership and vision served as significant counterpoints for pursuing a politics of transforming their societies. The dissertation situates the critical discussion within the broader transnational/global/international social, historical and political contexts and ensuing problems the thinkers (practically and philosophically) attempted to solve.