Total Liberation Research Articles

Contemporary Issues in Africa: Postcolonial Challenges and Dangers of Neo-Imperialist Interest in Africa

The decolonisation process in Africa was propelled by the desire for total disengagement of the continent from imperialist hold. This article explores the interest of foreign nations in Africa in recent years despite the continent’s freedom from colonial rule as of 1957 when Ghana got her independence. Practically, Africa has not fully reclaimed or maximised their land and resources properly. This article examines the new interactions and interests of foreign states, especially China, in the welfare of the continent and discusses the pros and cons that surround this act. The article is qualitative and analytical in nature. The result shows and admits that the postcolonial era has had a series of challenges both internal and external and that due to political and economic challenges, some African nations are somewhat toying with their space and freedom. The article suggests a basic cut down of African nations’ overdependence on foreign nations such as China for their technological needs and economic benefits and insists on a total liberation of African nations from other unimportant foreign entanglements that stampede their rapid growth.

Carceral, Anti-Carceral, and Freedom: Which One Might be a Solution for Total Liberation?

Carceral, Anti-Carceral, and Freedom: Which One Might be a Solution for Total Liberation?

Metanoia and Ahimsa: Inputs in Inter-Religious Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and Jainism

The study aims to unlock metanoia and Ahimsa as fundamental doctrines of Christianity and Jainism, respectively, that can bring harmony and peace through their character of inclusivity and listening. These are also important traits to achieve the goals of UNSDG that facilitated total human development in various spheres of life. Metanoia is an all-embracing Christian concept about change of heart, while Ahimsa is a Jainist doctrine on non-violence and causing no harm to any life form. In interreligious dialogue, their inputs open doors for transforming potentials that can address issues in achieving sustainable development. Husserl’s phenomenological framework aids in finding meeting points that can bridge different religious strands. His phenomenological approach provides listening and suspension of judgments to bridge and deepen meaningful encounters. The research contends that both Catholicism and Jainism quest for spiritual liberation as a goal. Christianity adheres that metanoia is a way to achieve that where, through change of heart, it brings individuals to nothingness, shown in the unconditional love exemplified by Jesus on the cross. Jainism meets this view where ahimsa is the foundational principle in achieving spiritual liberation. Ahimsa goes with the other two pillars, namely, anekanta (multiplicity of viewpoints) and aparigraha (non-possession as lifestyle). Christianity and Jainism intersected in their aspirations for well-being and total liberation. Both agreed that human beings need to purify through righteous actions or positive karma. Aside from the e-library method, the research engaged in actual research collaboration with Jainist scholars that deepened the study. Through inclusivity and integration of common areas for social welfare achieved in inter-religious dialogue, the church’s agenda of synodality is facilitated.

Black Revolutionary Movements & Environmental Justice: Strategizing for Total Liberation

Black Revolutionary Movements & Environmental Justice: Strategizing for Total Liberation

Researching Decolonization: Exploring the Applicability of the Concept of Decolonization to Student Activism in Ghana

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the role university students played in the decolonization discourse in Ghana. It analyses whether or not the concept of decolonization can be used to investigate the resistance of student movements through their activism. The consciousness of student movements such as the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) of the continuous existence of forms of colonialism despite nominal independence can be seen in student struggles for socio-economic and political justice especially struggles against neocolonialism and neoliberalism from the 1960s to the early 1990s. It investigates the continuities and discontinuities of different historical conjunctures of student movements and how these fed into the wider debates on decolonization. Using a qualitative multidisciplinary approach and relying chiefly on primary sources, open-ended interviews, newspapers and archival data, this paper analyses the connection between student political activism and the concept of decolonization in Africa. The article situates student actions within decolonisation discourses in Africa by analysing student efforts to ensure the total liberation of all African states, oppose neocolonialism, and contribute to Africa’s development.

Synthesis and characterization of hydroxamic acid N,3-dihydroxy-2-naphthamide and its copper (II) complex per keto/enol forms and rare earth flotation

Flotation is the most common beneficiation process used for separating minerals, but for rare earth minerals (REMs), performance can suffer due to the dilute nature of the rare earth elements. Furthermore, the REMs tend to possess smaller grain sizes, making the use of traditional flotation cells difficult if total liberation is needed. Consequently, improved efficiencies are needed for extracting REMs from various sources. For these systems, hydroxamic acids are commonly used as flotation collectors. Two such hydroxamic collectors were studied in this work: salicylhydroxamic acid (SHA) and N,3-dihydroxy-2-naphthamide (H2O5). Because there is no documented synthesis route for H2O5, several synthesis approaches were examined. Furthermore, because there is no information on H2O5, important structural and characteristic data was gathered regarding its (1) preferred structural isomer as a Cu2+ complex and (2) electrostatic potential values of the possible dentate groups in different tautomeric forms, thereby allowing H2O5 to be compared to SHA, particularly regarding flotation behavior. Hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance (H-NMR), Laser Raman Spectroscopy (LRS), and predominantly Fourier-Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy showed that both SHA and H2O5 preferred to be keto tautomers when uncomplexed; however, once chelated to Cu2+ ions, the collectors adopted enol forms. Molecular modeling using Spartan software showed an increase in the electrostatic potential of the possible dentate groups in both molecules for the enol form. H2O5 also resulted in an increased recovery by flotation of REMs of about 23% compared to SHA at similar reagent dosages.

Kwame Nkrumah's Vision for African Unity: A Protection against any Colonial Policy in Africa

The present study investigates Kwame Nkrumah’s Pan-African visionfor African unity. Through a historical perspective, the study reveals that Nkrumah insisted that the advantage of having aunified military will be to assure our own security, defense and to achieve freedom for every part of Africa. It is also one of the ways to eliminate European military presence and standing armies in our countries, as well as to eradicate the imperialist forces which are engineering our division and seeking to make Africa a war-ground of contending interest. Nkrumah also believed that the “world peace is not possible without the liquidation of colonialism and the total liberation of Africa.” The paper recommends that the African people must think of Nkrumah’s vision today in order to seek the way for the total liberation of Africa, if not Africa will remain under the European, American and the Asian domination.

Sentence Versus Redemption and the ‘Spiritual World’ in Osiris Rising, Fragments, Why Are We So Blest? KMT: In the House of Life by Ayi Kwei Armah and Mama Day by Gloria Naylor

This paper attempts to evaluate the different characteristics in the spiritual world that act on human destiny in blacks ‘cosmology in Ayi Kwei Armah and Gloria Naylor’s fiction while justifying the awareness of black intellectuals in their different approaches to sentence and redemption for African cultural revival. It also exposes black people facing acculturation phenomena and the deconstruction of the ancestral home. However, it argues that the achievement of the struggle for African cultural revival will be possible if they take the initiative in finding out specific strategies that would culturally, socially and politically reconnect black with their indigenous cultural reality. Some of these stratagems include good cultural references, rootedness, unity, teaming work, and rationality. To examine blacks’ spirituality in its double vocation of sentence and redemption, this study uses theories of anti-colonialists and Afro-centrists that advocate total liberation and empowerment of black people while assessing the issues of the disgrace of both African and African-American people. Similarly, the insights and commitment of thinkers like Afro-centrists are well considered as additional elements in this work. Ultimately, the novels contend that in African spirituality there is a divine will owed to the ancestors that have the mission of watching over their people and judging them in several ways when they are satisfied through rituals or recognition. As the authors of the three books suggest, the appreciation of ancestral legacy and cultural advancement is an effective means of ensuring blacks ‘social welfare in their communities and elsewhere.

Individualism and Nonattainment of Social Change in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God

Purpose: In a society where many believe that only the mailed fist can maintain discipline, a refreshingly different point of view is reached by the comparison of two of Chinua Achebe’s novels: Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. The purpose of this paper is to explore the viewpoint presented in these novels by comparing their two heroes – Okonkwo and Ezeulu. They are compared first as revolutionary characters and second as revolutionary leaders, using as a guide Calvert’s (1996) claims that individual leaders are not necessarily revolutionary leaders. Okonkwo and Ezeulu are seen to be both leaders and revolutionaries; they fail however, as revolutionary leaders for the simple but unarguable reason that they have no supporters.
 Methodology: Methodological procedures are adopted which include description of the study’s sampling and method of data analysis. The study adopts a simple survey design.
 Findings: The paper in its findings discovers that individualism cannot thrive in a revolution of a society rather it is collective effort that appears to be more effective in a revolutionary struggle such as fou nd in Umuofia and Umuaro respectively. The paper concludes that followership marks an authentic revolutionary leader as the non-support of Okonkwo and Ezeulu in the novels leads to their tragic end.
 Unique contribution to theory, policy and practice: The paper recommends communalism as a way out of African socio-political barriers and posits that individuality cannot bring the social change and total liberation in African continent.

African Instituted Churches in Southern Africa: Paragons of Regional Integration?

Africa has been acknowledged, most writers have glossed over the importance of religion to regional integration. Most studies on the churches tend to be limited to specific countries and thus overlook the transnational connections. This study exploresthe activities of African Instituted Churches (AICs) in Southern Africa. It examines the emphasis of some Apostolic churches on black economic empowerment and outlines their dominance in the informal sector. It argues that AIC members are actively involved in cross-border trading and have formed transnational support systems. Fellow believers in Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique, for example, host AIC traders from Zimbabwe. This study maintains that whilst politicians and technocrats on the continent are still debating issues concerning indigenisation, the NEPAD initiative and other strategies for integration, AICs are already implementing these ideas. The study recognises the importance of religion to Southern Africa and analyses the role of spirituality in the quest for total liberation in the region.

Pluralizing energy justice? Towards cultivating an unruly, autonomous and insurrectionary research agenda

Pluralizing energy justice? Towards cultivating an unruly, autonomous and insurrectionary research agenda

Blacks’ Nationalism and the Quest for Self-Dignity in The New Tribe by Buchi Emecheta, Fragments by Ayi Kwei Armah and Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor

This article attempts to evaluate Black Nationalism expounded by Buchi Emecheta, Ayi Kwei Armah and Gloria Naylor, and the various strategies employed by both male and female writers to achieve the creation of a black nation. It establishes a new form of literature on issues relating to anti-colonial nationalism while justifying the perceptions of intellectuals who set out the important challenge of addressing black’s moral decay through the deconstruction of their identity and self-dignity. It also assesses the issue of the moral decadence of Africans and Afro-Americans to highlight its foundations in the novels. However, this article argues that the struggle can only succeed if blacks take the initiative to explore specific strategies that are culturally and socially consistent with their moral values. To examine the issues in the three novels, this study draws on anti-colonialist and Afro-centrist theories that advocate blacks’ total liberation and empowerment. Ultimately, this paper argues that nationalism can be frustrating when rejected, but also vulnerable due to the strong influences exerted by the dominant power structure. As the authors of the three books suggest, recognition of black identity, equity and empowerment is an effective method of ensuring self-dignity, and social stability for a successful pan-African nation.

Energy justice beyond identity: Planting anarchist seeds towards total liberation

Energy justice beyond identity: Planting anarchist seeds towards total liberation

The Greek Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia under the pressure of normalisation in 1969 – 1989

Aim. This article presents the status of the Greek Catholic Church during a defined period. It brings the functioning of this religion in the period of normalisation of society closer. Methods. Our study is the result of archival and document-based research, as well as expert studies and monographs dealing with the above-mentioned issue. Results. Although we can define the period studied in our research as a period of relative freedom when compared with the years 1950–1967, it cannot be perceived as a total liberation of the Church. Unfortunately, the political reality was also reflected in the life and functioning of the Church itself. The Greek Catholic Church and its leaders understood that without the necessary support from the state and regime, they would lose their freedom mainly attained in the first half of 1968. Conclusion. The Greek Catholic Church had to face several important and ground-breaking tasks that were to ensure its stability for functioning and administration after 18 years of its non-existence. This involved receiving state consent for Consecrator ThDr. Basil (Vasiľ) Hopko, leadership of the Greek Catholic Church in general, consolidation of relationships and conflict resolution between the Greek Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, or even the area of support and consent for building its own institute of theological formation.

Routledge Handbook of Pan-Africanism, ed. Reiland Rabaka

‘… the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up to the total liberation of Africa …’ President Kwame Nkrumah, 6 March 1957, Accra, Ghana President Nkrumah’s emotive statement was part of his inaugural speech as President of Ghana. Ghana had won its independence combating the debilitating effects of the Maafa (Disaster of Enslavement); ‘foreign rule and imperialism’; political disenfranchisement; and economic, cultural and social exploitation. And yet Nkrumah chose not to revel in unitary nationalism, but to offer a corrective—Ghana’s independence was ‘meaningless’. Nkrumah’s statement was political and originated from his commitment to Pan-Africanism. It was a commitment shared by his contemporaries, Patrice Lumumba of Zaire and Ahmed Sekou Toure of the Republic of Guinea. Nkrumah was part of a generation of African revolutionaries who viewed national independence and the nations it created as ‘trinkets.’ They struggled for another ‘prize’—a ‘United States of Africa’, where each nation state would be transformed into part of a supra-national federation, transcending ethnic, linguistic and national identities: in other words, Pan-Africanism. This ideology was central to African independence. And yet this historical significance does not mean that Pan-Africanism has been widely considered a subject worthy of scholarly discourse.

The Views and Movement of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) Movement towards Global Capitalism

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) movement was originally part of the Earth First! Movement and uses agitative and collaborative rhetoric in its actions. However, in 1992, the ELF broke away from Earth First! by changing its methods to those of direct action, attacking entities and symbols that represent global capitalism. The ELF’s departure becomes an exciting starting point to analyze the ELF’s view toward global capitalism through qualitative research methods. We used a framework encompassing deep ecology, social movements, and international structures. In the typology of social movements, the ELF movement belongs to the revolutionary deep ecology movement typology, which radically fights the causes of environmental damage. The ELF’s view of the international structure can be seen from three views. First, the ELF considers that the state system formed is a form of capitalism that has damaged the environment. Second, on the level of international society, the ELF has formed solidarity with its existing network in more than 20 countries. Third, on the level of world society, ELF seeks revolutionary social transformation that replaces the existing capitalist order with an order of total liberation. However, the actions and views of the ELF movement have not successfully changed the structure of the existing capitalist order.

Veganism as political solidarity: Beyond ‘ethical veganism’

Veganism as political solidarity: Beyond ‘ethical veganism’

Editors’ Introduction

Editors’ Introduction

«HE WAS NOT A CORRUPT PERSON» (sketches to a political portrait of Marian Melenevskyi)

The paper scrutinizes the beginning of Marian Melenevskyi's revolutionary activities, his participation in student movements, peasant strikes, founding the organization of rural workers, and the distribution of campaign pieces among the peasants with a call to defend their economic rights, for which he was exiled. His close cooperation with the Ukrainian Socialist Party, its material support, and recognition of the program are stressed, as well as his quite significant financing of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party and enthusiastic activity in its Foreign Committee. Differences between the political emigrants-erupists and the Central Committee of the RUP in Naddniprianshchyna region on the issue of the party's status are pointed out: regarding unification with the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP) or preserving the organization's full party independence. The negation by M. Melenevskyi's group of the national principle in the Ukrainian labor movement and slogans of the autonomy of Ukraine led to the split of the RUP into two organizations – the Ukrainian Social Democratic Union and the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party. Emphasis is placed on the merging of the Union with the RSDWP, its transition to the class struggle basis, neglecting a national factor by members of the Union, and non-recognition of Ukraine's independence postulate. Additionally, there are noted the Union's activities success during the elections to the II State Duma in 1907, and its defeat during the reaction to provocateurs' denunciation, the arrest of its members, Melenevskyi's unsuccessful attempt to revive the organization's activities abroad and in Ukraine. Dynamic activities of Melenevskyi in the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine (ULU), created with the outbreak of World War I, are revealed. The author stresses Melenevskyi's co-authorship of ULU's appeals to the European peoples, conducting extensive information and diplomatic work in the Black Sea-Balkan region, in particular in Turkey, in an attempt to use it as a springboard for Ukrainian insurgent actions on the Black Sea coast, his cooperation with Turkish government factors and the recognition of independent state aspirations of Ukrainians. A negative attitude of the Russian social democrats to Melenevskyi's state ideas is shown, and his focus only on his national forces in achieving the state independence of Ukraine is highlighted. While welcoming the February revolution in Russia, he hoped for the total liberation of the Ukrainian people from Moscow despotism and refused to participate in the work of the Hetman's government. His diplomatic activities and work in various Soviet trade and cooperative offices in London are highlighted. To sum up, the unreasonableness of the first and second arrests of M. Melenevskyi and the shooting execution sentence handed down by the relevant judicial authorities of the USSR are shown. Keywords Marian Melenevskyi, Union, Union for the Liberation of Ukraine (ULU), Bolsheviks, trade and cooperative representative offices.

African Perspectives of Gender and Sex in Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s Trilogy

The notions of what is male and what is female are cultural conceptions into which all human beings are placed. These conceptions form a sex-gender view in African culture. This study examines the concept of gender and sex in Akachi Ezeigbo’s trilogy using survey method. It was discovered among other things that Ezeigbo is using these literary texts as a medium to seek for the end of oppression of women in the world outside the texts. This work analyzed issues in Akachi Ezeigbo’s trilogy from a female point of view as Njoku (2004:277) asserts, “Feminist criticism engages issues from the female point of view which reflects the changing nature of society and highlights the protest of a marginalized group (women)”. Akachi Ezeigbo's trilogy is therefore seen as a message of hope to all oppressed women in Africa; that women are already in the ascent and that total liberation is possible and at the threshold. The “benign way” to survive being the pathway of sound education and economic empowerment of women. These will help to facilitate the “coming salvation.