“I am bringing to you – our African brothers and sisters of the United States – the fraternal salutations of our people in assuring you we are very conscious that all in this life concerning you also concerns us.” – Amílcar Cabral in 1972 (Africa Information Service, 1973)

In 1959, Martin Luther King Jr introduced Kenyan independence leader Tom Mboya at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He declared that there was a “great revolution going on all over the world” and that the civil rights movement in the United States was a “part of a worldwide struggle for freedom and human dignity”. 

It is a crucial time to (re)visit the writings of Dr Angela Davis, Dr Kehinde Andrews, Amílcar Cabral and other critical and radical thinkers, in order to (re)familiarise ourselves with the black radical tradition. There is intention behind the choice of thinkers. Following George Floyd’s death and the ‘Fed-Up’ uprising across the world, there has been a tendency across Europe to dismiss racism as an American problem. Furthermore, the manner in which the issue has been reduced from the systemic to the racism of individual actors has erased the African continent from the conversation despite the legacies of colonisation. In naming Dr Davis (USA), Dr Andrews (UK), and Amílcar Cabral (Guiné-Bissau/Cabo Verde), I am calling for the (re)internationalisation of the movement because it is our collective problem. I am challenging us to expand our goals for black liberation to include all black persons on the African continent and in the diaspora by renewing relationships forged in past movements because, to echo Noname in a now deleted tweet, “black liberation is a global struggle”.