3 - From Mao to Cabral: Towards a Cultural Theory and Practice for National Liberation

Born three decades apart, Amílcar Cabral (1924-1973) and Mao Zedong (1893-1973) were two of the most important African and Asian revolutionary leaders and for the Third World project. Cabral and Mao are often seen as “men of action” in their roles as leaders of revolutionary parties – the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) and the Communist Party of China (CPC), respectively. However, in addition to mobilizing the peasantry into a political force and being military strategists, Cabral and Mao were both poets and provided essential contributions to the theory of art and culture in advancing the national liberation struggle.

This presentation seeks to provide a comparative analysis of Cabral and Mao’s cultural writings, arguing that their contributions form part of an art and cultural theory and practice of national liberation. Through Cabral’s writings, such as ‘Analysis of Different Types of Resistance’ (1969) and ‘The Role of Culture in the Struggle for Independence’ (1972), and Mao’s seminal text, Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Art and Literature (1942), they emphasized the essential role that culture plays in advancing a revolutionary struggle and formulated a cultural practice and program. Their thinking on the development of national and political consciousness, raising of literacy and artistic levels of the people, building a cultural army of new intellectuals, and creating a new culture that “critically assimilates” past traditional, colonial, and capitalist culture are important legacies in the cultural work and thought of Afro-Asian and Third World liberation struggles.