Episode 8: The Land Is Stolen, Full Stop - William J Richardson on Nkrumah-Toureism and Decolonization

In this episode William Jamal Richardson joins the show to talk about Nkrumah-Toureism and the relationship between settler colonialism, slavery, and capitalism in American society.

William talks about how his parents involvement in the All African People's Revolution Party” shaped some of his politics growing up. He also gives a brief overview of who Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Toure were and how their different personal backgrounds, perspectives and philosophies complimented each other. He also discusses how the Pan-Africanist movement informed their politics and was enriched by their contributions.

William speaks about how Nkrumah-Toureism informs his own socialist thought and digs into some of Kwame Nkrumah’s contributions to socialist theory and how, where, and why they necessarily expand upon, and diverse from, preceding Marxist theory.   We ask William to discuss nationalism with regard to African nations or in relation to indigenous sovereignty, and how it can function  completely differently than the exploitative and exclusionary nationalisms that we see from Europe and the US.   We also talk about Palestine and how US Leftists are better at showing solidarity to movements against settler colonialism outside the imperial core, than we are those that occur within the US. As William digs into that discussion, he gets to the heart of why white leftists cannot just build socialism in the US without relinquishing control of stolen land and changing settler relations. He also states that the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign in South Africa had a limited role in South Africa's anti-Apartheid movement and cautions against the fetishization of Palestine's BDS movement if Palestinians are to achieve meaningful liberation.   Finally, William talks about his work with Decolonized Tech and Rebel Researchers and roles that academics and people within tech spaces can do to further revolutionary causes or reduce harm.   William put together a great collection of Nkrumah readings for our listeners to go along with this podcast, please take advantage of the free knowledge that he curated for you all: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BjB0oTqobBHF-wn2dFBrfuDWdlSyCldh