For many African public intellectuals such as Steve Biko, Leopold Senghor, Kenneth Kaunda, Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah, political independence represented more than the transfer of formal authority from colonial administrations to newly sovereign states

The lesson is clear: democracy in Washington’s playbook is not a universal value but a lever, invoked when nations resist economic control, claim authority over their own resources or chart independent destinies

Decades on, Kwame Nkrumah’s speeches read like a roadmap for Africa’s present challenges, from trade and unity to economic independence

When coercion is directed outward from the West toward the Global South it is normalised, bureaucratised and framed as responsible governance

The Kenyan American political scientist argued that the Global South acquiring nuclear weapons would lead to universal nuclear disarmament