Anticolonialism and Transatlantic Black Political Thought

Learn more about the Negrismo and Négritude movements and transnational Black anticolonial solidarity in the twentieth century. Topics may include:

4.1 The Négritude and Negrismo Movements
4.2 Anticolonialism and Black Political Thought

Image: A detail from Loïs Mailou Jones, Les Fétiches, 1938. Oil on linen, 25 1/2 x 21 1/4 in. (64.7 x 54.0 cm) (Smithsonian American Art Museum. Museum purchase made possible by Mrs. Norvin H. Green, Dr. R. Harlan, and Francis Musgrave.)

Learning Objectives

Essentials

Learning Objectives

LO 4.1.A

Describe the context of and connections between the Négritude and Negrismo movements in the first half of the twentieth century.

LO 4.1.B

Explain why proponents of Négritude and Negrismo critiqued colonialism.

Essentials

Terms

Négritude
Negrismo

Required Sources

You will need to understand and be able to use these materials for the AP exam.

A dark abstract painting of a mask with horns

“Les Fétiches”

1938

View Loïs Mailou Jones’s painting, which brought Négritude from literature to art.

Work of Art

An abstract painting of people in masks with oversized hands and feet.

“The Jungle (La Jungla)”

1942–1943

View this painting by Afro-Cuban painter Wifredo Lam.

Work of Art

Phillippe Mouillon, a gray-haired White man (wearing a collared white shirt), sitting next to Aimé Césaire, a Black man, wearing a gray jacket, gray shirt, and patterned blue and white tie. Both are sitting in chairs (Mouillon in a wooden chair, and Césaire in a padded office chair upholstered in black fabric), and Césaire is holding a book in each hand.

“Discourse on Colonialism”

1972

Read the preamble to Aimé Césaire’s treatise, a foundational document of the Négritude movement.

Primary Source

Learning Objectives

Essentials

Learning Objectives

LO 4.2.A

Describe the Black Freedom movement in the twentieth century.

LO 4.2.B

Describe examples of diasporic solidarity that emerged across the African diaspora in the twentieth century.

LO 4.2.C

Explain how diasporic solidarity between African Americans and Africans impacted Black politics in the U.S. and abroad in the twentieth century and beyond.

Essentials

Terms

Black Freedom movement
Panafricanism
Decolonization
Diasporic solidarity
Year of Africa (1960)

Required Sources

You will need to understand and be able to use these materials for the AP exam.

Etta Moten Barnett, a Black woman wearing a multicolored dress and white necklace, standing next to the metal gates in front of her house.

Etta Moten Barnett and Martin Luther King, Jr. in Ghana

1957

Hear from King during his visit to Ghana, in conversation with actress, musician, and journalist Etta Moten Barnett.

Primary Source

Joe Louis, a Black man wearing a light colored cardigan sweater and white polo shirt, next to Fidel Castro, a bearded Latino man wearing a dark coat and smoking a cigar held in his left hand.

Joe Louis and Fidel Castro

1960

View a photograph from the boxer’s trip to Havana with a delegation of African Americans in business.

Primary Source

Three Black men in suits and two Black women in dresses protesting, as other people protest in the background. The woman on the right, Maya Angelou, is holding a sign, the bottom of which reads "W.E.B. Du Bois."

Maya Angelou, Julian Mayfield, and Others in Ghana

1963

View an example of African American activism in Ghana.

Primary Source

Additional Resources

You can further develop your knowledge of this topic with primary and secondary sources.

A red brick church building with white steps. "Login Required" message is an overlay.

“The Birth of a New Nation”

1957

Read the sermon Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered after his visit to an independent Ghana.

Primary Source

Seated, from left to right, a Black man wearing a white shirt, kente cloth robe, and glasses; a Black woman wearing a white shirt; Pat Nixon, a White woman, wearing a light-colored dress with a white collar and a white hat; Richard Nixon, a White man, wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and dark tie; and K.A. Gbedeman, a Black man, wearing a light-colored shirt and kente cloth robe.

“M. L. King Meets Nixon in Ghana”

1957

Read this piece from the Pittsburgh Courier that connects the Black Freedom struggles in Ghana and the US.

Primary Source

Black Internationalism and the Expansive Meanings of Freedom

by Merve Fejzula

Learn more about how those in the Black Freedom struggle came together across the African continent and diaspora in the 1930s through the 1970s.

Essay

Resources from Our Partners

We have teamed up with New American History on interactive resources exploring America’s past and harnessing the power of digital media, curiosity, and inquiry.

The African Diplomats Who Protested Segregation in the U.S.

Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy publicly apologized after restaurants refused to serve Black representatives of newly independent nations.

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