Gruffydd Jones, Branwen  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9204-1621
2026.
Placing the West before a tribunal:
Strategies of critique in African anticolonial discourse.
Barros, Víctor and Almada e Santos, Aurora, eds.
Amílcar Cabral and the PAIGC’s Binational Struggle for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde,
The Routledge Global 1960s and 1970s Series,
London:
Routledge,
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Abstract
The history of African independence is conventionally remembered, within the disciplines of International Relations and in public discourse in the West, as a history of European powers “granting” independence to their colonies. This way of understanding the history, practice and agency of decolonisation remains consistent with the legitimisation of colonial rule: as a process designed to guide African peoples to the point where they were deemed fit or mature enough to govern themselves. This chapter draws on the history of the anticolonial liberation struggles of Portugal’s former colonies in Africa (Guinea-Bissau, Cabo Verde, Angola, Mozambique, São Tomé e Príncipe) in order to develop an alternative analysis of African independence, sovereignty and self-determination. The leading figures of the anticolonial liberation movements elaborated a significant international discourse addressed to the world beyond their own societies regarding the international legality of their struggles, and the illegality of colonialism and of Portugal’s position. Amílcar Cabral, leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cabo Verde, was especially vocal in articulating this shared discourse. Drawing on various Cabral’s speeches and reports, as well as other documents produced by the liberation movements and their collaborative organs the Anticolonialist Movement, African Revolutionary Front for National Independence and Conference of Nationalist Organizations of the Portuguese Colonies, this chapter examines the content and reasoning of the liberation movements’ international discourse. I show how Cabral and his fellow anticolonial militants both made use of the contemporary principles and arguments of international law, and set out a pointed critique of the prevailing international order and the actions of Western powers.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Status: | In Press |
| Schools: | Schools > Law |
| Subjects: | J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration |
| Publisher: | Routledge |
| ISBN: | 9781032069814 |
| Related URLs: | |
| Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 26 November 2025 |
| Last Modified: | 28 Nov 2025 09:56 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/182557 |
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