Decolonizing Biopolitical Histories with Amílcar Cabral

Descolonizando las historias biopolíticas con Amílcar Cabral

This paper argues that some contemporary biopolitical histories inherit problematic philosophies of history whose historical-geographical borders recapitulate colonial modes of thought. In the first part, I argue that the philosophies of history that operate in the background of Foucault and Agamben’s presentation of biopolitics cannot be maintained in its Western simplicity. In response to this, I suggest a radicalization of the genealogical method and the maintenance of an anti-realist position in regard to the ‘West.’ In the second section I extend Amílcar Cabral’s methods for decolonizing history and demonstrate the ways in which the revolutionary socialism that he implemented in Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde actually operates in a biopolitical register. A close analysis of Cabral and the PAIGC’s biopolitical socialism in Luso-Africa not only calls into question the historical-geographical borders established by Foucault and Agamben, but also challenges some of their central claims, especially those pertaining to racism.

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