The Struggle for Culture and National Liberation

Culture for Fanon, must be at the core of the struggle towards liberation. For him, national culture is of the highest form there is. It is through Fanon’s ideas on culture and the national struggle towards liberation, that I am aiming to converge the thoughts of Sukarno and Cabral regarding culture and national liberation.

In the opening address at the Badung Conference, Sukarno addresses the representatives of the former colonies and present members of the Third World – drawing similarities of the experience of being colonized. For Sukarno, the tolerance of different ideas and belief systems is the only way through which liberation can truly be achieved. Differences in religion and race, for example, need to be overlooked when faced with the looming past of being colonized, which he warns, very much still exist.

The process of colonization, for both Sukarno and Cabral are resonant in the alienation of the colonized subject from their own humanity. This dehumanization, for Cabral is what made the colonization enterprise successful. Colonization in Cabral’s eyes, is seen as an extension and domination of the capitalistic ambitions, by effectively dehumanizing the colonized subject through the alienation from their culture. This engagement with culture has to do with the rejection of the colonizers’ negation of the colonized’s culture – the premise on which their colonization was justified. Therefore, for him, it is through careful advancement and return to the culture, which can be defined as the mechanisms through which a group relates itself to fellow members, relates to its history and effectively rejecting the colonizer’s notion that denied the existence of their culture. For Cabral the liberation struggle and culture go hand in hand.

Cabral’s ideas of culture and its positive effects in rebuilding culture and through it a nation are also echoed in Sukarno’s speech. Sukarno believes that it is the shared experience of colonization and having denied their culture that brings the Third World together. Both Cabral and Sukarno find convergence in the idea of finding unity in their nations’ past experiences. The preservation of culture and reproduction of shared ideas of fraternity, the seeking and maintenance of peace, social and economic rebuilding is what brings the former colonized together and it is in togetherness, through the glossing over of the cultures, and finding resonance in shared ideas that brings “unity in diversity”. Cabral’s ideas similarly sound the importance of seeking similarities instead of conflict of cultures, by stressing that the domination of one single culture over the other resembles the colonial enterprise while the African culture is one of multitudes, therefore, subscribing one over the rest is counterproductive. The solution especially for Sukarno is to, seek convergence in the multitudes of culture is the tolerance of ideas, cultures and the flag bearing of common, positive ideas that contribute towards the struggle towards liberation and result in harmony through unity. 

Cabral however, would be a little cautious in romanticizing the unity between all the nations. In his writing, his cautiousness is apparent as he places greater stress on the achievement of cultural unity among a nation as an imperative while Sukarno attempts to unite the entire Third World under the sweep of the diversity of culture. And while, Sukarno, does warn against the still existing effects of colonization, he does not take into account these effects into the relationship of unity that may come into play. Cabral, on the other hand, is more mindful as he stresses the exacerbating effects of the colonial experience and the legacy of the ruling elite that it leaves behind. Therefore, Cabral, it can be believed, would be less enthusiastic and more scrutinizing of the sweeping of all under the one umbrella of the Third World.