Relevance of Marxism in Postcolonial Scholarship - Term Paper Example

Contrary to the above conflicting and discriminating standpoints, this essay supports a sound and observable Marxist postcolonial scholarship by discussing the relevance of Marxian thought to the anticolonial struggles of postcolonial societies as discussed by three major authors, Kwame Nkrumah, Walter Rodney, and Cedric Robinson. A discussion of the benefits and limitations of a Marxian approach to social change in a postcolonial context is also included. A Marxist Postcolonial Scholarship Where Marxian approach works together with postcolonial scholarship a broad array of theories are generated, demonstrated here by the arguments of Kwame Nkrumah, Walter Rodney, and Cedric Robinson; to the extent that they expertly apply Marxism to promote their deconstructive efforts their commitment to the discourse appears to generate the most beneficial and challenging reevaluation of Western knowledge.

The most methodical and comprehensive account of Nkrumah’s thoughts on the relevance of Marxism on the capitalism struggles of postcolonial societies is consolidated in his book, Consciencism. As stated by Nkrumah, consciencism would “give the theoretical basis for an ideology whose aim shall be to contain the African experience of Islamic and Euro-Christian presence as well as the experience of the traditional African society, and, by gestation, employ them for the harmonious development of that society” (Nkrumah 1970, 70).

Simply put, according to Nkrumah (1970), a general creed that could bring together African communities and become the driving mechanism behind social change would supplant the many established and external, usually inconsistent thoughts of the past. Nkrumah realized that as a capitalist system was unable to assure genuine freedom and equality. One of the most important issues Nkrumah tries to resolve was the factor driving colonial strategies of imperialism. As expected, no bourgeois theory took this issue into consideration systematically.

The answer, as emphasized by Nkrumah himself, was to be located in the theories of Marx. Nkrumah was one of the many young African separatist to be inspired by Marxism. Numerous others were attracted to it by its radical denunciation of national and racial oppression, colonialism, and imperialism (Okadigbo 1985). Their political vocabulary was made up of Marxist expressions such as ‘exploitation,’ ‘oppression,’ ‘class struggle,’ and ‘alienation,’ terms that were appealing in their accuracy and which it appeared, discussed much about the factors influencing the institution of exploitation of African communities.

However, most Black scholars confined themselves to an emotional acceptance of the generality of several principles of scientific socialism (Smertin 1987). But Nkrumah dared to escape this limitation and go further. In this principle he found an effective tool which may be employed by the anti-colonial movement. He proclaimed, “