All-African People's Revolutionary Party Explained

All-African People's
Revolutionary Party
Abbreviation:A-APRP
Founder:Kwame Nkrumah
Wing1 Title:Women's wing
Wing1:All-African Women's Revolutionary Union[1]
Ideology:Nkrumaism
Pan-Africanism
Black nationalism
African socialism
Communism
Scientific socialism
Anti-colonialism
Anti-Zionism
Position:Left-wing to far-left
Country:United States

The All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) is a socialist political party founded by Kwame Nkrumah[2] and organized in Conakry, Guinea in 1968. The party expanded to the United States in 1972 and claims to have recruited members from 33 countries.[3] [4] According to the party, global membership in the party is "in the hundreds".[5]

Nkrumah's goal in founding the party was to create and manage the political economic conditions necessary for the emergence of an All-African People's Revolutionary Army that would lead the military struggle against "settler colonialism, Zionism, neo-colonialism, imperialism and all other forms of capitalist oppression and exploitation."[6] [4]

Concept and philosophy

As described by Dave Blevins and other scholars like Carole Boyce Davies, "the ideology of the A-APRP is Nkrumahism—Toureism, which takes its name from the founder, and his primary colleague in arms, President Ahmed Sekou Toure."[7]

Kwame Nkrumah, the founder, introduced the party's concept and philosophy in his book, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare - released in 1968 by Panaf Books,

Some of the key concepts include:

  1. promotion of African unity[7]
  2. embracing the need and characteristics of African civilization and ideology[7]
  3. working for economical and technological advancement[7]

The party supports:

  1. Pan-Africanism — "a total liberation and unification of Africa under Scientific Socialism"[7]
  2. Black Power — "the belief that real black freedom will only come when Africa is politically united"[7]
  3. Scientific Socialism — "the idea that modern technology can be reconciled with human values, in which an advanced technological society is realized without the social upheaval and deep schisms that occur in capitalist industrial societies"[7]

In an attempt to articulate effectively the issues facing African people and the African woman, the A-APRP also infused gender politics into its ideology and organisational structure. This resulted in the formation of the All-African Women's Revolutionary Union in 1980. This women's wing of the party emerged specifically to address issues surrounding gender oppression with racism and classism.[1]

Chapters

The building of the A-APRP began to take form in 1968 with the creation of "the first A-APRP Work-Study Circle in Guinea under the leadership of Kwame -Ture", and later in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, England, France, and numerous countries in Africa. Since 1968, the A-APRP "has recruited Africans born in more than 33 countries."[8]

Bibliography

Mazama, Ama; Cérol, Marie-José; Encyclopedia of Black Studies, SAGE (2005), pp. 77–8, https://books.google.com/books?id=RcBkDlJ7qjwC&pg=PA77 (Retrieved 19 July 2019)

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Springer, Kimberly, Still Lifting, Still Climbing: African American Women's Contemporary Activism, NYU Press (1999), p. 174, https://books.google.com/books?id=OuVYpQybg6gC&pg=PA174 (Retrieved 19 July 2019)
  2. [Henry Louis Gates, Jr.|Gates, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.]
  3. Web site: A-APRP Official Website: Historical Origins of the A-APRP.
  4. [Molefi Kete Asante|Asante, Molefi Kete]
  5. (DOC) All-African People's Revolutionary Party Zizwe Poe - Academia.edu. Encyclopedia of Black Studies. January 2005. Poe. Zizwe.
  6. Web site: A-APRP Official Website.
  7. Blevins, Dave, American Political Parties in the 21st Century. McFarland (2006), pp. 8-9, https://books.google.com/books?id=IfVWBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 (Retrieved 19 July 2019)
  8. [Carole Boyce Davies|Boyce Davies, Carole]