The African Marxism translation series was launched in Beijing on Nov 7, co-hosted by China Social Sciences Press, the School of Marxism at Zhejiang Normal University, and the Center for African Marxism Studies at Zhejiang Normal University.
The series introduces Chinese editions of three works: Decolonial Marxism by Guyanese scholar Walter Rodney, Revolutionary Path by Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah, and Pan-Africanism or Communism by Trinidadian scholar George Padmore. All three are interim results of a major national social science fund project titled "Research on African Marxism and the Translation and Introduction of Representative Figures' Works". These three translations make up the first batch, with dozens more planned for publication — a body of work that will map the intellectual lineages of African countries as they explored their own paths to modernization.
Professor Zheng Xiangfu of the School of Marxism at Zhejiang Normal University gave an overview of the translation and publication process. After more than two years of work, the project team has brought out three titles, and aims to complete the translation and publication of the major works of key representative figures of African Marxism and related authors within five to 10 years.
In his remarks, Feng Haoqing, director of the social sciences office at Zhejiang Normal University, noted that the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, and the collective rise of the Global South has become an irreversible trend. Rethinking the Western-centrist knowledge framework and building autonomous development discourses and knowledge systems for the non-Western world, he said, has become a shared aspiration among scholars in developing countries.
He pointed out that African Marxism grew out of African peoples' struggles against colonialism and racism. It is a theoretical achievement born from combining the basic tenets of Marxism with Africa's indigenous history, culture and social realities, and it forms an indispensable branch of the global Marxist theoretical system. For a long time, domestic scholarship on African Marxism relied largely on secondary literature, with relatively little citation of systematic primary sources. Therefore, the publication of this series goes some way toward filling that gap.
In the expert remarks session, nine scholars spoke in turn, discussing the theoretical positioning, disciplinary boundaries, and historical development of African Marxism.
Li Wengang, a researcher at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that African Marxism is a topic of historical depth whose value has been underestimated. From the perspective of African historical research, he said that this translated series, seen through the eyes of African thinkers and politicians, offers a more authentic understanding of modern and contemporary African history.
