Radical Philosophy Review

Volume 25, Issue 1, 2022

The Weapon of Theory Reconsidered
Anti-Colonial Marxism and the Post-Cold War Imaginary

In this article, the author argues that anti-colonial Marxism has been obscured and distorted by the contemporary post-Cold War imaginary. The author analyzes the historical-political context in which the narrative of Marxism and decolonization develop during and after the Cold War. Focusing on the writings of Frantz Fanon, Amílcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara, and Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the author reconstructs the “principles” of anti-colonial Marxism, attempting to ameliorate the scholarly deficit of theoretical literature on the anti-colonial Marxist tradition. In conclusion, the author argues that the “revolutionary theory” of these thinkers remains relevant to persistent, present-day conditions of neocolonialism and capitalist imperialism, becoming increasingly relevant with the progression of catastrophic climate change.