Episodes
Famous for his killing at the hands of the Apartheid government in South Africa, Steve Biko was also a deep thinker, who introduced the notion of Black Consciousness.
Published 04/16/23
The political and musical revolution of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, and the social critique of his cousin, the playwright Wole Soyinka.
Published 04/02/23
How the Rastafari movement grew from trends within Africana philosophy, and then passed into global popular culture in the music of Bob Marley and other reggae artists.
Published 03/19/23
Sun Ra and Parliament-Funkadelic return to claim the pyramids, and Octavia Butler uses science fiction to confront the brutal past of slavery.
Published 03/05/23
Abdias do Nascimento, a leader in Brazilian theater and politics, and his theory of Qilombismo.
Published 02/19/23
The career and ideas of Nelson Mandela up to the time of his imprisonment, in the context of the founding of the African National Congress.
Published 02/05/23
Two scholars of the same name join us to shed further light on Amílcar Cabral.
Published 01/22/23
Amílcar Cabral, leader of a revolution against colonialism in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, rethinks culture and Marxist theory as bases for his struggle.
Published 01/08/23
The first leader of independent Tanzania grounds his socialist ideas in traditional African values.
Published 12/25/22
After Albert Cleage and James Cone propose a liberatory interpretation of Christianity, William R. Jones wonders whether God is a white racist. We also follow Black Theology among “Womanist” authors and in South Africa.
Published 12/11/22
African American literature of the late 1960s reflects the Black Power movement, in the works of such authors as Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Haki Madhubuti, Larry Neal, and Sonia Sanchez.
Published 11/27/22
The controversial career of the Pan-Africanist philosopher Maulana Karenga, inventor of the holiday Kwanzaa.
Published 11/13/22
The philosophical underpinnings of a “vanguard of revolution” led by Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver: the Black Panther Party.
Published 10/30/22
How the controversial slogan “black power,” used by activists like Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown, relates to ideas of militancy, separatism, and the power of language.
Published 10/16/22
The underestimated radicalism of Lorraine Hansberry, author of the famous play "A Raisin in the Sun".
Published 10/02/22
We're joined by a leading Fanon expert to talk about a range of themes in his work: Negritude, psychiatry, and violence.
Published 09/18/22
Fanon’s incendiary final work explores the violent process of decolonization.
Published 09/04/22
Frantz Fanon combines existentialist philosophy and psychiatry to diagnose the condition of the colonialized target of racism.
Published 07/24/22
The first leader of independent Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, writes against neocolonialism and in favor of socialism and Pan-Africanism.
Published 07/10/22
Two Nigerian activists lead the struggle for independence, and clash over the competing values of national unity and ethnic diversity.
Published 06/26/22
The Cuban activist and author Juan Rene Betancourt urges racial solidarity and reckons with the revolution under Castro and the island’s turn towards Communism.
Published 06/12/22
After 1963, the views of Malcolm X and MLK came closer together, on topics including internationalism, political engagement, and economics.
Published 05/29/22
Chike joins Peter to look back at our coverage of Africana philosophy in the first half of the 20th century.
Published 05/15/22
The life and career of Malcolm X up to 1963, with a focus on his separatist black nationalism and his critique of non-violent protest.
Published 05/01/22
An interview about the role of the emotions, including anger and feelings of dignity, with MLK expert Meena Krishnamurthy.
Published 04/17/22