In the Depths

Muhammad Ashar Imran

22020172

Does Cabral's view on culture and national liberation align with Sukarno's ideas on Third World culture/liberation?

            Within this essay I will discuss how both Sukarno and Cabral look at Third World culture in relation with the resistance to colonizers.

            What is interesting is the similarity on how they both view culture to be a strong resistance to the colonizers. Notice how Cabral makes this out to be one of the primary reasons for a continued suppression and repression by the colonizers on the colonized. He paints culture out to be this massive threat to the colonizers basing his justification of that around an argument of identity. Cabral in fact asks the colonized to back to their roots to be truly free from the colonizers.  Cabral goes on to even say national liberation is necessarily an act of culture. This value and power of culture is shared by Sukarno as well. He seems to be wanting some homogenization of different cultures because he believes only a united resistance will truly give the birth of a new Africa and Asia as he calls it. Notice here he still wants individual identity to remain. While there may be seemingly some tension in this argument it could be explained by a form of hierarchy. Sukarno definitely wants the colonized to get rid of the identity of the colonizers even if it involves some level of homogenization however he believes the way this is achieved is also by going back to your roots because all these cultures are united by a common desire. In effect then Sukarno is saying that all those colonized are united by an anti-colonizer culture. Notice however the similarity in the way that both believe that going anti colonizers and embracing your own culture is the true route to freedom.

            The difference however is the context in which they argue this in. While Sukarno argues that this is the way that these new African and Asian nations can truly form their new identity and remain neutrality in the cold war is my accepting and imposing the idea that they are not bound to fall behind the politics and thus the culture of the white man. Thus Sukarno is arguing to go back to their roots in order to pave a new identity separate to those of the white man. Cabral in contrast is arguing to go back to their roots in order to preserve an older identity. So they are joined by their goal to resist the white man however the outcomes of the two as an end result of where they want the colored person to end up differs because of the context the two speak in.