African liberation movements and the ‘end of history’

by Henning Melber, Pambazuka, 2008

When liberation movements take power, their governments are often marked by military mindsets, categorising people as winners and losers and operating along the lines of command and obedience. Such trends are evident in southern Africa. Democratic discourse in search of the common good would look quite different.

A knee-jerk reaction of ‘Tiers-Mondisme’ is to show solidarity with the struggle for freedom among the ‘wretched of the earth’. Sometimes struggles are glorified as was the case back in the 1960s. Frantz Fanon’s book ‘Les damnés de la terre’ (The Wretched of the Earth) was paradigmatic. His manifesto became a call to battle for the Algerian resistance movement against France, the colonial power.

Liberation Movements as Governments in Southern Africa: On the limits to liberation

by Henning Melber, 2010

Click here to download this paper which develops a strong critique of national liberation movements in Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.