Adom Getachew Books

Decolonization transformed the international order in the twentieth century. Standard narratives depict the end of colonialism as a straightforward shift from empires to nations, equating self-determination with nation-building, which downplays the radical nature of this change. This account draws on the political thought of anticolonial figures like Nnamdi Azikiwe, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Kwame Nkrumah, revealing their ambitious vision to reshape not just nations but the world. It demonstrates that African, African American, and Caribbean anticolonial nationalists were not merely focused on nation-building. In response to racialized sovereign inequality, exemplified by interwar Ethiopia and Liberia, Black Atlantic thinkers challenged international racial hierarchies and proposed alternative worldviews. They aimed to establish an egalitarian postimperial world by advocating for self-determination within the United Nations, forming regional federations in Africa and the Caribbean, and creating the New International Economic Order. Utilizing archival sources from Barbados, Trinidad, Ghana, Switzerland, and the UK, this work reinterprets the history of decolonization, reevaluates the challenges faced by anticolonial nationalism, and offers fresh insights into contemporary debates about the international order.

A collection of post-colonial visions for a more just world. What does a just world look like? This volume begins with a planet beset by accumulating crises—environmental, social, and political—and imagines how we can move beyond them. Drawing on the legacy of post-colonial struggles for liberation, Imagining Global Futures explores a range of radical visions for a world after neoliberalism and empire. Centered on movements in the Global South, the collection challenges dominant patterns of social and political life and sketches more just and sustainable futures we might build in their place. What can we learn from alternative conceptions of the good life? How can we build a world where people are both freer and more equal? An urgent resource for collective imagination, Imagining Global Futures counterposes thick visions of a better world to our dystopian present.

Der Wandel durch die Dekolonisierung im 20. Jahrhundert war tiefgreifender als oft angenommen. Adom Getachew analysiert das politische Denken von antikolonialen Intellektuellen und Staatsmännern wie Nnamdi Azikiwe und W. E. B. Du Bois, um die explosive Kraft der dekolonialen Bewegung zu beleuchten. Durch die Nutzung zahlreicher Archivquellen wird nicht nur die Geschichte dieser Bewegung dokumentiert, sondern auch ihr Scheitern thematisiert. Das Buch bietet somit eine neue Perspektive auf die aktuellen Debatten zur Weltordnung und hinterfragt etablierte Narrative über den Übergang zu Nationalstaaten.