By: Aramis Sundiata
We must begin with a fundamental truth: Western labels and frameworks—whether they parade as “democracy,” “socialism,” “liberalism,” or “progress”—are not neutral tools. They are traps, designed to keep us intellectually and politically dependent, forever measuring ourselves against standards that were never meant to serve us. As Frantz Fanon teaches us, “Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land but from our minds as well.” The first battlefield is the mind.
Western discourse is saturated with labels and categories that promise clarity but deliver confusion. These labels are not just descriptive—they are prescriptive, shaping what is thinkable, what is legitimate, and what is possible. They keep us emotionally invested in abstract principles while our real needs such as land, dignity, sovereignty—go unmet. As Walter Rodney wrote in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, “The greatest contribution that Africa can make to the world is to develop an alternative to the capitalist system. ” But we cannot do this if we are still trapped in the language and logic of the West.
And yes, we have been fooled before by the seductive power of Western ideologies, only to find ourselves betrayed by their emptiness. What matters is not the label, but the outcome. Does the system deliver food to the hungry, land to the dispossessed, and dignity to the oppressed? If not, it is useless to us, no matter how “progressive” it sounds. As Fanon said, “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” Our mission is not to mimic Western forms, but to build systems rooted in our own realities and aspirations.
This precisely why today our organization stresses the importance of analyzing through our own way understanding—an epistemology that centers our history, our values, and our vision for the future. Using Aimé Césaire Discourse on Colonialism as the starting point where we teaches us “No one colonizes innocently, that no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which colonizes, that a civilization which justifies colonization—and therefore force—is already a sick civilization, a civilization that is morally diseased.” We cannot heal ourselves with the medicine of the sick.
What Must Be Done
1. Reject Western Labels and Frameworks: Stop measuring ourselves by standards that were never meant for us. Refuse the trap of ideological allegiance—focus on outcomes, not labels.
2. Build Our Own Epistemology: Develop frameworks rooted in our own histories, cultures, and material realities. Study Assata, Fanon, Rodney, Césaire, and others who have mapped the terrain of decolonization.
3. Organize for Real-World Results: Demand systems that deliver tangible benefits to our people—land, food, security, dignity. Hold ourselves and our leaders accountable to these outcomes.
4. Practice Revolutionary Honesty: Expose the systemic dishonesty of Western discourse. Name the violence, the hypocrisy, and the ongoing coloniality that shapes our world.
5. Center Decolonial Thought in Our Struggle: Use our own thinker and our own experiences as the foundation for organizing and self determination.
We are not here to be better Westerners. We are here to be free. And as Fanon insisted, “What matters is not to know the world but to change it.” Let us build our own epistemology, grounded in truth, clarity, and the lived realities of our people. Let us judge every system by its outcomes, not its labels. And let us organize—not for the approval of the West, but for the liberation of ourselves and for those who will come after us.
