S2E1: The Afterlives of Revolution

Decolonization in Action Podcast

As we find ourselves working through the current mass media frenzy, we turn to the not so recent past. Season 2 of this podcast begins with a conversation between edna bonhomme and Sara Salem, where they discuss the emergence of British imperialism in Egypt and how it led to the Egyptian revolution in 1952. They ask: What do Arab and Black Marxists have to say about colonialism and what influence did the African independence struggles of the 1950s and 1960s have on the Black Radical tradition? edna and Sara try to answer these questions by meditating on the afterlives of anti-colonialism. They start with the nineteenth century and slowly move to the Arab uprisings of 2010-2011. What they find is that these histories are not neat. There are periods of betrayal, exploitation, and loss. In light of former Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak’s resignation in 2011 and his death in 2020, they try to think about the ways that we create our own histories everyday. More about Sara Anticolonial Afterlives in Egypt: The Politics of Hegemony Twitter: @saramsalem Instagram: radical_reading Blog: https://saramsalem.wordpress.com/ Bibliography Baldwin, James. Notes of a Native Son. London: Penguin, (1955) 2018. Baldwin, James. 1965. Excerpt from the debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, Jr. Davis, Angela. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. Chicago: Haymarket Press, 2016. Rao, Rahul. “Recovering Reparative Readings of Postcolonialism and Marxism.” Critical Sociology 43, no. 4–5 (July 2017): 587–598. doi:10.1177/0896920516630798.