#2- An African Liberation Day Resource List

This week marks the fiftieth anniversary of African Liberation Day (ALD), which was first commemorated by Africans throughout the diaspora on May 27, 1972. ALD activism led to the development of the African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC) in 1973, which represented mass-based popular support for anti-imperialism, anti-Fascism, anti-racism, and the liberation of the Portuguese colonies and white settler colonies (e.g., Rhodesia, South West Africa, and South Africa). Despite internal tensions and contradictions that ultimately led to the decline of the ALSC by 1975, the ALD/ALSC insurgency nonetheless epitomized Black internationalist radicalism, grassroots organizing, and trans-territorial linkage. African Liberation Day remains important because the struggle of African people everywhere against (neo-)colonialism, capitalist imperialism, warmongering, antiblack racial oppression, and ideological confusion is ongoing. Thus, African unity and unification toward the end of liberation, economic democracy, and human flourishing remain imperative. As Ahjamu Umi writes, “If you want a key to ending African poverty, patriarchal oppression against our women and non-men, exploitation of our children, ragged terrorism against us by state police and agencies, etc., the total liberation of Africa under scientific socialism is a must.” Such liberation demands “the international organization of African people into a worldwide fighting force that will facilitate a worldwide revolution against the forces of capitalism.” ALD provides a collective opportunity to recommit ourselves to political eduction, organizing, and sober analysis as our material conditions rapidly deteriorate and the need for a viable alternative becomes more urgent.

The following resources provide invaluable historical and contemporary information about ALD and ways to continue its legacy:

  • Abdul Alkalimat, Dialectics of Liberation: The African Liberation Support Movement, https://africaworldpressbooks.com/dialectics-of-liberation-the-african-liberation-support-movement-by-abdul-alkalimat/

  • “African Liberation Day (1972),” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhMqaAvBu1k

  • African Liberation Day Website: https://africanliberationday.net/

  • African Liberation Support Committees, “ALSC Handbook for Struggle: Repeal the Byrd Amendment,” https://projects.kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/210-808-11397/ALSCHand1opt.pdf

  • Ahjamu Umi, “Fight White Supremacy: Celebrate African Liberation Day!” https://hoodcommunist.org/2020/05/21/african-liberation-day/

  • All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, “30 Years of African Liberation Day,” http://www.a-aprp-gc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/30-Years-of-African-Liberation-Day-SE-Region-Update-1988.pdf

  • Black Alliance for Peace, “On African Liberation Day, the Black Alliance for Peace Demands US Shut Down AFRICOM,” https://blackagendareport.com/african-liberation-day-black-alliance-peace-demands-us-shut-down-africom

  • Cedric Johnson, “From popular anti-imperialism to sectarianism: the African liberation support committee and black power radicals,” https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0739314032000145206?journalCode=cnps20

  • Hood Communist, “#AfricanLiberationDay: We Unify or We Die,” https://hoodcommunist.org/2021/05/20/africanliberationday-we-unify-or-we-die/

  • Institute for the Arts and Humanities: African Liberation Day, 1974: https://dh.howard.edu/iah_alc74/

  • Walter Rodney, “The Meaning of African Liberation Day” (with introduction by the Black Agenda Review Editors), https://blackagendareport.com/speech-meaning-african-liberation-day-walter-rodney-may-27-1972

Resource ListCharisse Burden-StellyAfrican Liberation Day, Resource list