Jan 16 2025 60 mins
The idea of democracy and its attendant operative mechanism, democratic citizenship, specifically the right to belong, is often lauded as a gift of Greco-Roman sociopolitical thought and Western European and American cultural contributions to a specific conceptualization of what comes to be known, in academic discourse, ‘modernity.’
From this historico-cultural perspective, a concept was needed to determine what it means to be human and belong in a particular form of sociopolitical organization and economic logic.
However, moving beyond rhetoric and paying critical attention to the origins of this worldview, democratic citizenship—as expounded by the Athenians, the lauded form of sociopolitical organization that was intellectualized by an Athenian elite class—was conceptualized to exclude others.
The inclusion of ‘Others’ was seen as a negation of order and the rule of law.
After all, was it not Aristotle who invoked the notion of ius sanguinis (meaning ‘right of blood,’ or ‘by blood’) to be an exclusionary tool serving the interest of the dominant class?
This operative mechanism in the application of ‘democracy’ or democratic citizenship as formulated in this cultural worldview was/is structured in the fabric of political discourse we hear today.
What is clear in our current historical epoch, as Modibo Kadalie aptly points out, younger people “are convinced that the nation-state is not offering them a future. Newer generations of researchers are now beginning to look for evidence of community and collectivity” (Intimate Direct Democracy: Fort Mose, The Great Dismal Swamp and The Human Quest for Freedom: 153). A collectivity that lies in the very fabric of Africana forms of knowing and ways of being, fully articulated in the various forms of resistance such as those found throughout the Americas, expressed as maroon communities.
Dr. Modibo Kadalie is a social ecologist, movement intellectual and lifelong radical activist within the Civil Rights, Black Power and Pan-Africanist movements and the Founding Convener of the Autonomous Research Institute for Direct Democracy and Social Ecology (ARIDDSE).
He is the author of Pan-African Social Ecology: Speeches, Conversations and Essays (2019); Internationalism, Pan-Africanism and the Struggle of Social Classes (2000); Intimate Direct Democracy: Fort Mose, the Great Dismal Swamp, and the Human Quest for Freedom (2022) and a number of other articles.
During the 1960s, early and middle 1970’s, Modibo Kadalie was an active member of a number of radical formations. In the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW), he served as a member of the Central Staff and Chair of the People’s Action Committee in Highland Park, Michigan. In the International African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC), Kadalie was a founding member of the National Steering Committee. He chaired the Detroit local committee in 1972 and 1973 and then continued as a member of the expanded International Steering Committee as a representative from Atlanta, 1973-1975. Within this Sixth Pan-African Congress, he chaired the Southern Regional Organizing Committee from 1974-1975 and was also a member of both the North American Delegation and the North American Left Revolutionary Pan-African Caucus.
Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native/indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana; Ayiti; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people.
listen intently. think critically. act accordingly.
From this historico-cultural perspective, a concept was needed to determine what it means to be human and belong in a particular form of sociopolitical organization and economic logic.
However, moving beyond rhetoric and paying critical attention to the origins of this worldview, democratic citizenship—as expounded by the Athenians, the lauded form of sociopolitical organization that was intellectualized by an Athenian elite class—was conceptualized to exclude others.
The inclusion of ‘Others’ was seen as a negation of order and the rule of law.
After all, was it not Aristotle who invoked the notion of ius sanguinis (meaning ‘right of blood,’ or ‘by blood’) to be an exclusionary tool serving the interest of the dominant class?
This operative mechanism in the application of ‘democracy’ or democratic citizenship as formulated in this cultural worldview was/is structured in the fabric of political discourse we hear today.
What is clear in our current historical epoch, as Modibo Kadalie aptly points out, younger people “are convinced that the nation-state is not offering them a future. Newer generations of researchers are now beginning to look for evidence of community and collectivity” (Intimate Direct Democracy: Fort Mose, The Great Dismal Swamp and The Human Quest for Freedom: 153). A collectivity that lies in the very fabric of Africana forms of knowing and ways of being, fully articulated in the various forms of resistance such as those found throughout the Americas, expressed as maroon communities.
Dr. Modibo Kadalie is a social ecologist, movement intellectual and lifelong radical activist within the Civil Rights, Black Power and Pan-Africanist movements and the Founding Convener of the Autonomous Research Institute for Direct Democracy and Social Ecology (ARIDDSE).
He is the author of Pan-African Social Ecology: Speeches, Conversations and Essays (2019); Internationalism, Pan-Africanism and the Struggle of Social Classes (2000); Intimate Direct Democracy: Fort Mose, the Great Dismal Swamp, and the Human Quest for Freedom (2022) and a number of other articles.
During the 1960s, early and middle 1970’s, Modibo Kadalie was an active member of a number of radical formations. In the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW), he served as a member of the Central Staff and Chair of the People’s Action Committee in Highland Park, Michigan. In the International African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC), Kadalie was a founding member of the National Steering Committee. He chaired the Detroit local committee in 1972 and 1973 and then continued as a member of the expanded International Steering Committee as a representative from Atlanta, 1973-1975. Within this Sixth Pan-African Congress, he chaired the Southern Regional Organizing Committee from 1974-1975 and was also a member of both the North American Delegation and the North American Left Revolutionary Pan-African Caucus.
Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native/indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana; Ayiti; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people.
listen intently. think critically. act accordingly.