Talk:All-African People's Revolutionary Party

Founder

The article claims that the party was founded by Kwame Nkrumah. While the primary sources cite explain the ideologic influence of Nkrumah, I didn't find any proof for the claim that he founded the party. In fact, US newspapers mention that the party was founded by Stokeley Carmichael, who changed his name to Kwame Ture. --MarioGom (talk) 17:36, 20 July 2019 (UTC)

@MarioGom: Can you provide links to these American newspapers your are citing because they are not even in the article. Are you sure you have quoted the newspapers rights or understand what they are saying? If yes, then your American newspapers are wrong, because this is what the academic scholars / reliable sources cited are saying (see below). These include the works of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (who will touch on Stokeley Carmichael, below); Professor Molefi Kete Asante et. al.; ref author Dave Blevins and Professor Carole Boyce Davies (who went into depth about the female wing). I am limited in what I can copy and paste here for copyvio reasons, so here are what these RS sources are saying:

1. The All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) is the brainchild of Ghana's first President, Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972). The first published call for an A-APRP was in Nkrumah's Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare (1968).... p. 77
2. The All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) was founded by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who introduced the party's concepts and philosophies in his book, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, which was released in 1968. p. 8
3. Carmichael remained with the Black Panthers for little more than a year, resigning because of the organization's refusal to disavow the participation of white radicals, and in 1969 left America for Africa, where he made his home in Conakry, capital of the People's Revolutionary Republic of Guinea. By then completely devoted to the cause of socialist world revolution emanating from a unified Africa, he became affiliated with the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, a Marxist political party founded by Kwame Nkrumah, the exiled leader of Ghana then living in Guinea as a guest of its president Sekou Touré. Carmichael changed his name, in honour of his two heroes, to Kwame Ture, and scoured U.S. colleges for several weeks each year speaking on behalf of the party... p. 142

I hope this clarifies the issue. The Carmichael you are referring to changed his name in honour of his two heroes: Kwame (from kwame Nkrumah) and Ture (from Sekou Touré) giving Kwame Ture (i.e. Carmichael).Tamsier (talk) 02:33, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

Kwame Ture obituary at The Guardian states:

Disilusioned by the turn of events in America, Carmichael moved to Guinea in 1969 and changed his name to Kwame Ture --a gesture in honour of Jwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Sekou Toure, of Guinea. He founded the All-African People's Revolutionary Party and continued to campaign against capitalism, zionism, and the United States, making regular recruiting appearences in American and other universities.

Los Angeles Times states:

He left the United States in 1969 with his South African-born wide, singer and political activist Miriam Makeva, to live in Guinea, which he had visited in 1967. He changed his name to Kwame Toure, taken from Kwame Nkrumah, who is regarded by many as the father of pam-Africanism, and Ahmed Sekou Toure, the leader of Guinea. He founded the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, and by 1971 he was advocating a homeland in Africa for oppressed blacks.

Self-published sources by the A-APRP are very unclear about this. While Kwame Nkrumah is claimed as ideological father or promoter, I can't see a clear statement of him founding the organization. Not in independent reliable sources. --MarioGom (talk) 09:59, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

Okay! I have done a search and seen the Guardian article clipping that you are referring to. Here is the link [1]. I can't see the Lost Angeles Times article but that's beside the point. I will accept that they wrote exactly as you've quoted above. However, as all the academic sources stated, not an obscure newspaper obituary, but highly respected scholars in their field whose works have been published by independent academic publishers, at this point I don't even think that there should be any disagreement about what source to accept (academic works v newspaper obituary). As stated above, the sources cited above comes from well respected scholars in the field and are not even self published as evident in the links. Therefore, which sources are you referring to as "self published"? Are you talking about its website? Sorry, I'm confused. I didn't add the website, and besides, the web is only there as external link but not the main source as per our policy. So I need more clarification from you. The scholarly sources above and in the article are all published by independent academic publishers that even have their own pages on Wiki (e.g. SAGE , McFarland , NYU Press, ABC-CLIO & Oxford University Press, USA), so what exactly are you talking about when you say "self published"? For such an academic field like this we would use what real scholars say about the subject not what some obscure newspaper obituary says. I don't even have to say this. Newspaper obituary over scholarly works by notable scholars, published by independent academic publishers! I don't think there is any competition there. To be honest with you, I think your newspapers were talking about Carmichael establishing the US chapter, not the organisation itself. Going by what Prof. Gates say, that would make sense. He established the US chapter and tried to recruit others but was not the founder of the organisation/party as Prof Gates and other scholars have already told us. I think that's what your newspapers meant but failed to clarify that part.Tamsier (talk) 11:28, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

Tamsier: Indeed, there seems to be some sources indicating that Kwame Nkrumah was the founder and suggesting that Kwame Ture could be the founder of the US branch. Some of them are quite unclear, a lot of sources say that Kwame Nkrumah called for the party creation or that it was its ideologue, but are unclear about establishment of the organization. This is the case of the first source you posted: The All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) is the brainchild of Ghana's first President, Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972). The first published call for an A-APRP was in Nkrumah's Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare (1968) Although the others state that Kwame Nkrumah is indeed the founder. I'm removing the tag from the article and cross-posting this to Kwame Nkrumah to get other interested editors involved. Best, --MarioGom (talk) 13:31, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

Okay. No problem.Tamsier (talk) 13:36, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

References