PAUL T. SHIPALE (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar)
Abstract
This article critically examines the contemporary relevance and challenges facing Southern Africa’s former liberation movements, specifically in the context of the LIBERATION MOVEMENTS SUMMIT 2025: The three-day indaba, which began last Friday and concluded on Sunday with the Summit of Heads of State and Leaders of Liberation Movements, ran under the theme “Defending the Liberation Gains, Advancing Integrated Socio-Economic Development, Strengthening Solidarity for a Better Africa.” The summit brought together six former liberation movements—the ANC of South Africa (host and outgoing chair), Zanu-PF (Zimbabwe), MPLA (Angola), SWAPO (Namibia), Frelimo (Mozambique), and CCM (Tanzania)—for strategic deliberations aimed at confronting growing threats to the parties’ continued relevance and survival amid shifting regional and global dynamics.
Introduction
The central theme underscores a dual imperative to safeguard the historical achievements of liberation while collectively addressing the complex future. As President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah emphasised, while political independence has been achieved, the liberation struggle continues in the form of advancing socioeconomic justice, unity, and regional integration.
The article argues that these organisations, having transitioned from revolutionary movements to governing parties, now confront internal erosion of popular legitimacy, economic fragilities, and subtle neocolonial pressures. It posits that their continued relevance hinges on a radical self-criticism and a re-engagement with the core principles of justice, self-determination, and popular empowerment, as espoused by figures like Amílcar Cabral, whose seminal work, The Weapon of Theory, provides an indispensable framework for understanding the true nature of national liberation and the ongoing struggle against all forms of oppression. This includes a renewed commitment to Pan-Africanism, anti-imperialism, and South-South cooperation, rejecting unipolar world ambitions and supporting a multipolar global order rooted in solidarity and justice, as articulated by President Nandi-Ndaitwah.
Personal Reflections and Contributions Born from Commitment to Internal Renewal
These reflections emerge not from opposition to our liberation movements, but from an unwavering, indeed, desperate commitment to their historic mission and transformative potential. We critique because we believe in the party’s historic mission and because we understand that true loyalty demands unflinching, honest introspection rather than silent acquiescence. This is offered as a contribution to internal renewal and continental dialogue, not as a manifesto of rebellion, but as an urgent plea for party reform that honours our revolutionary heritage while confronting contemporary challenges.
“We are fighting so that insults may no longer rule our countries, martyred and scorned for centuries, so that our peoples may never more be exploited by imperialists, not only by people with white skin, because we do not confuse exploitation or exploiters with the colour of men’s skins; we do not want any exploitation in our countries, not even by Black people.” prophetic clarity once warned by Amílcar Cabral: His words remain a mirror and a mandate, a reminder that the struggle was never merely about race or independence, but about dignity, justice, and the elimination of all forms of exploitation, foreign or domestic.
We anticipate that some may interpret these reflections as a rejection of our liberation movement parties. On the contrary, this analysis springs from profound faith in their capacity for renewal and their indispensable role in Africa’s continued liberation. Our critique is not destructive but constructive, aimed at fortifying these movements for the existential battles ahead. As committed Pan-Africanists, we offer these thoughts as materials for internal dialogue and continental conversation about the perilous path forward. This commitment to internal renewal aligns with President Nandi-Ndaitwah’s call for sister parties to hold each other accountable and respond to internal challenges, including youth disengagement, inequality, unemployment, and the marginalisation of women and minorities.
Confronting the Future Together
Gathered in July 2025 in South Africa, the parties that forged freedom in the trenches of colonialism in Southern Africa—ANC, MPLA, SWAPO, FRELIMO, ZANU-PF, and Chama Cha Mapinduzi—rekindled a historical pact. However, this convergence cannot be merely a nostalgic ritual, a faded echo of past glories. It emerges, imperatively, as a strategic response to a doubly challenging scenario: the internal erosion of popular legitimacy and a global geopolitics that, under the guise of cooperation, recycles mechanisms of neocolonial predation. The core of this summit transcends the mere preservation of memory; it is about the uncompromising defence of an unfinished project, African sovereignty as a continuous and radical process of liberation, a praxis that demands the constant battle against our own weaknesses, as warned by the visionary Amílcar Cabral.
President Nandi-Ndaitwah highlighted ongoing threats to liberation gains, including external interference, political and economic subversion, and attempts to manipulate the youth against ruling liberation parties. She warned that the historic parties of Southern Africa, SWAPO, ANC, MPLA, ZANU-PF, FRELIMO, and CCM, must remain vigilant and united, as they are being deliberately targeted for regime change by foreign actors. This emphasises the critical need for the summit to address these external pressures and internal vulnerabilities. The summit will only have meaning, it will only transcend sterile symbolism, if it is the stage for radical self-criticism, undeniable ethical renewal, and audacious programmatic reinvention. The past, yes, grants moral authority, but the present demands relentless accountability, and the future, transformative effectiveness.
From Historical Heroism to Unavoidable Responsibility: The Battle Against Our Weaknesses
If independence was won with the sacrifice of generations in the trenches, real emancipation demands permanent battles, fought not only against the external enemy but, crucially, against the internal contradictions that corrode the social and political fabric. These parties are still in power, but confronted with growing political erosion, palpable social discontent, and economic fragilities that expose the continent’s vulnerability, they cannot content themselves with the rhetoric of past resistance. The summit will only have meaning, it will only transcend sterile symbolism, if it is the stage for radical self-criticism, undeniable ethical renewal, and audacious programmatic reinvention. The past, yes, grants moral authority, but the present demands relentless accountability, and the future, transformative effectiveness.
As Cabral bequeathed to us, the greatest weakness in the struggle against imperialism lies in the ideological deficiency, not to say the total lack of ideology, within the national liberation movements, which is basically due to ignorance of the historical reality that these movements intend to transform. This ignorance often manifests in a failure to adequately address the class struggle within newly independent nations, where the petty bourgeoisie, having assumed power, risks becoming a new exploiting class, thereby betraying the very essence of national liberation. It is this ignorance, this disconnection from the living reality of the people, that must be fought with the same ferocity with which colonialism was fought. President Nandi-Ndaitwah’s call for sister parties to hold each other accountable and respond to internal challenges, including youth disengagement, inequality, unemployment, and the marginalisation of women and minorities, directly addresses these crucial internal battles that must be won for true emancipation to flourish.
Subtle Neocolonialism: The New Frontier of Struggle and the Urgency of Revolutionary Theory
Under the seductive lexicon of cooperation and modernisation, foreign powers recycle, with perverse sophistication, the mechanisms of domination: strategic indebtedness that suffocates sovereignty, conditionalities that impose alien agendas, and interference disguised under democratic labels that destabilise nations. In this geopolitical chessboard, the summit must operate as a collective diplomatic barricade, not as a club of veterans who delight in memories, but as an uncompromising defensive alliance against economic fragmentation and political subordination. The absence of a solid revolutionary theory, of a deep understanding of the new face of imperialism, condemns us to repeat the mistakes of the past. No one has yet made a successful revolution without a revolutionary theory, Cabral warned. The summit, therefore, must be a laboratory of thought, a space for the elaboration of a Pan-African theory that unmasks the new guises of the oppressor and charts paths to true self-determination.
President Nandi-Ndaitwah’s denouncement of neo-colonial economic exploitation, especially the scramble for Africa’s minerals under the guise of green energy and digital development, directly reinforces this point. Her urging for strategic unity against foreign-funded NGOs and calls for regime change, and her stress on the importance of coordinated responses to migration, sanctions, and socioeconomic development, further underscore the need for a robust Pan-African theory and a collective diplomatic barricade against these subtle forms of neocolonialism. She also stressed SWAPO’s rejection of unipolar world ambitions and support for a multipolar global order rooted in solidarity and justice, aligning perfectly with the call for a new Pan-African theory to counter imperialistic designs.
Liberation as a Collective Right, Not a Party Privilege: The Primacy of the People
The greatest risk for these movements, which once embodied the hope of millions, is the transformation of the revolutionary legacy into a political monopoly, into the property of an elite that distances itself from the masses. The summit will only be legitimate if it recognises, with humility and courage, that emancipation is the inalienable heritage of the peoples, not the property of party elites. It demands the conversion of symbolism into concrete and palpable actions, the equitable redistribution of wealth, generational inclusion that embraces youth and women as protagonists, and a structural and continuous dialogue with the streets, with communities, and with those who live the raw reality. The masses do not long for statues of heroes but for policies that materialise human dignity and that transform their lives.
The primacy of the people over the party is not an empty phrase; it is the compass that must guide every decision, every program, and every action. The re-Africanization of political culture, as proposed by Cabral, implies a return to the roots of solidarity, participation, and social justice, values that were the driving force of the liberation struggles. President Nandi-Ndaitwah’s emphasis on advancing socioeconomic justice, unity, and regional integration, and her call to address the marginalisation of women and minorities, directly resonates with this principle of prioritising the people and ensuring that the gains of liberation benefit all citizens.
Five Pillars for Strategic Refoundation: Towards a New Civilisational Paradigm
For this summit not to be just another protocol meeting but a milestone in the trajectory of African liberation, it is imperative that strategic refoundation pillars are established and implemented, transcending rhetoric and materialising into concrete actions:
1. Radical Internal Democratisation: The rotation of leaderships, the revitalisation of deliberative congresses with genuine participation from the grassroots, and the undeniable protagonism of youth and women in all spheres of decision-making. The battle against ourselves begins within party structures, dismantling the authoritarianism and bureaucracy that stifle revolutionary vitality. This aligns with President Nandi-Ndaitwah’s call for sister parties to hold each other accountable and respond to internal challenges, including youth disengagement and the marginalisation of women and minorities.
2. Transnational Popular Integration: The construction of organic and indissoluble alliances with social movements, decolonial intellectuals, and community networks across the continent. Liberation is not an isolated act but a collective process that demands the unity of popular forces beyond national borders. This echoes President Nandi-Ndaitwah’s emphasis on unity and regional integration as a continuation of the liberation struggle.
3. Endogenous Technological-Economic Sovereignty: The development of regional production chains that strengthen economic autonomy, the reorientation of universities towards an emancipatory science that serves the interests of the African people, and the creation of autonomous monetary systems that break with dependence on global financial institutions. True liberation involves the ability to control one’s own resources and one’s own economic destiny. This directly addresses President Nandi-Ndaitwah’s denouncement of neocolonial economic exploitation and the scramble for Africa’s minerals.
4. Institutional Culture of Permanent Self-Criticism: The institutionalisation of permanent mechanisms of accountability and collective evaluation, allowing parties and governments to confront their failures, learn from mistakes, and adjust to the needs of the people. Self-criticism is not a sign of weakness but of strength and commitment to transformation.
5. Global South Diplomacy with an African Focus: The construction of anti-colonial partnerships that prioritise African interests and not peripheral alignments dictated by external powers. A diplomacy based on solidarity among oppressed peoples and seeking the construction of a multipolar, just, and equitable world. This resonates strongly with President Nandi-Ndaitwah’s rejection of unipolar world ambitions and her support for a multipolar global order rooted in solidarity and justice, as well as SWAPO’s solidarity with the peoples of Western Sahara and Palestine.
Governing with the People: The Only Possible Legacy and the Great Strategic Objective
Reconnecting with the grassroots demands more than invocations to Cabral, Lumumba, Agostino Neto and Dos Santos of Angola, Eduardo Mondlane and Samora Machel of Mozambique, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo of Zimbabwe, Sam Nujoma and Ya Toivo of Namibia, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo of South Africa, including Dr. Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Modibo Keita of Mali, Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea, Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, and other Pan-Africanists such as George Padmore, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney, and many others.
It demands governing by actively listening, transforming social care into daily political practice, into a praxis that unites reflection and action. Moral authority will arise not from speeches about the past, but from the ability to embody, in the present, the principles that founded these movements. If contemporary imperialism is a cancer infiltrating our states with promises of aid, reforms, or development partnerships, then the only possible response must go beyond denunciation and resistance. A systemic, audacious, and Pan-African alternative must be built.
The great objective of the Summit of Former Liberation Movements cannot be merely defensive. It must be affirmative, constructive, and profoundly transformative. This is the historical challenge to transform the Summit into a political laboratory for a new African civilisational project based on justice, equity, real sovereignty, and human dignity. A project that rejects both authoritarian neoliberalism and neocolonial welfarism and that places the African people at the centre of their own destiny. President Nandi-Ndaitwah’s call for revolutionary renewal and stronger cooperation among liberation movements to build a just, equitable, and prosperous future for Africa, and her emphasis on solidarity, dignity, and purposeful leadership, directly support these pillars and the overarching goal of placing the African people at the centre of their own destiny.
Conclusion: Geopolitics as a Contemporary Battlefield and the Cabralist Imperative
The success of this summit will not be measured in joint declarations but in its ability to reconfigure the anti-colonial struggle for the 21st century. Continental emancipation remains an open work demanding the decolonisation of internal power structures as much as confronting external oppressions. As Amílcar Cabral taught, “Count on the people, fight with the people, build with the people.” This imperative is the only compass that can guide liberation parties beyond political survival towards historical relevance. Africa’s future demands not heirs of the past, but architects of a new paradigm of integral sovereignty, forged in revolutionary praxis and unwavering faith in the transformative power of the African people.
The Liberation Movements, once at the forefront of armed struggles and political resistance, have successfully transitioned from liberation movements into ruling political parties. This transformation, while a testament to their historical victories, has also presented a unique set of challenges. Cabral, a theorist of armed struggle, emphasised that while the armed struggle was a necessary tool for national liberation, it was ultimately a means to an end: the liberation of the people and the construction of a truly independent society. Unlike traditional political parties formed within established democratic frameworks, these movements inherited the state apparatus and often maintained a centralised, hierarchical structure akin to their military origins. This has, in some instances, led to a blurring of lines between party and state and a struggle to adapt to the demands of multi-party democracy, accountability, and good governance.
The initial focus on national liberation has shifted to the complexities of nation building, economic development, and social justice, often under the scrutiny of a populace with rising expectations and a global community with evolving standards of democracy and human rights. The challenge lies in reconciling their revolutionary past with the pragmatic demands of governing, ensuring that the gains of liberation are not only defended but also expanded to benefit all citizens, and that the parties remain relevant and responsive to contemporary issues rather than resting on past laurels.
The relevance of these movements, despite their current challenges, remains undeniable. They are the custodians of Africa’s liberation narrative, embodying the sacrifices and aspirations of generations who fought for freedom. Their continued relevance hinges on their ability to evolve, to become true vanguards of a new African renaissance, one characterised by genuine sovereignty, equitable development, and a profound commitment to human dignity. President Nandi-Ndaitwah’s closing remarks, calling for revolutionary renewal and stronger cooperation among liberation movements to build a just, equitable, and prosperous future for Africa, and her assertion that the time for action is now through solidarity, dignity, and purposeful leadership.
By embracing radical self-criticism, fostering genuine popular participation, and charting a course towards true economic and political independence, these movements can reclaim their moral authority and lead Africa into a future where the gains of liberation are not only defended but expanded, ensuring that the continent’s destiny is firmly in the hands of its people, free from all forms of exploitation, internal or external. This is the enduring legacy of Amílcar Cabral and the imperative for the Liberation Movements Summit 2025 and beyond. We must arm ourselves with the weapons of theory, confront our own weaknesses, and eliminate internal contradictions to propel ourselves forward and reshape our future. This is not about pointing fingers but about acknowledging the need to focus on the grassroots. We need to return to the values of Cabral, Sankara, and many others, and they should guide our youthful leaders! Sad, we dropped the torch of political education! Look at South African politics, which has now been gangsterized with former convicts making laws.All in all, we truly enjoyed the statements of Chapo from Mozambique and Frelimo as well as from President Cyril Ramaphosa of the ANC from South Africa. They both presented a diagnosis of the problem and solutions in the true spirit of Amilcar Cabral’s address to the first Tri-Continental Conference of the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America in Havana in January 1966, which outlines Cabral’s thoughts on national liberation and the role of the theory in guiding revolutionary movements. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of our employers and this newspaper but solely our personal views as citizens and Pan-Africanists.
