Horace Campbell


Horace G. Campbell is a Jamaican professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, specializing in peace and justice studies.
WWW horacecampbell.net

Early life and education

Campbell was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica. He pursued his education in the Caribbean, Canada, Uganda, and the United Kingdom, where he completed his doctoral studies at Sussex University. His thesis was titled "The Commandist State in Uganda". Since 1979, he has focused on militarism and transformation in Africa.

Academic career

Before joining Syracuse University, Campbell taught in the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and spent six years at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He later served as a visiting professor in China, South Africa, Ireland, and Uganda. In the fall semesters of 2011 and 2013, he taught as a visiting professor in the Department of International Relations at Tsinghua University, Beijing.
In addition to his academic work, Campbell served as the Distinguished Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies at the University of Ghana during the 2016–2017 academic year, where he delivered an inaugural lecture on African unity and Pan-Africanism.
Campbell teaches courses on Politics in Africa, African International Relations, Militarism and Transformation in Southern Africa, Introduction to Pan-Africanism, The Caribbean Society Since Independence, Caribbean Intellectual Thought, and Introduction to African American Studies. At Syracuse University, Campbell is a member of the International Relations Faculty in the Maxwell School and serves as one of the conveners for the graduate seminar on Pan-Africanism.
In 2021, he served as the director of the Africa Initiative at Syracuse University. The initiative positions Africa as a source of knowledge, emphasizing the work of Syracuse University scholars across various disciplines, including the arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics, and engineering. AI focuses on the following areas of research and advocacy: Peace and Reconstruction, Africa and the Information Revolution, Gender and the Environment in the Pan-African World, African Orature, African Languages and Literature, and Reparations in the Twenty-First Century.

Scholarship

Campbell’s research addresses themes of Pan-Africanism, liberation movements, militarism, and global justice. He has authored the book Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya: Lessons for Africa in the Forging of African Unity, which discusses the counter-revolution in Libya and its role in the destabilization of North Africa. Rasta and Resistance: From Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney, is now in its seventh edition. In 2014, the French edition of this book was published by Camion Blanc. Campbell's book Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation discusses the anti-imperialist discourse of the political leadership in Zimbabwe. His Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation critiques liberation movements that fail to transform themselves and their societies. Pan Africanism, Pan Africanists, and African Liberation in the 21st Century, co-edited with Rodney Worrell, presents some conceptual challenges for the unification of Africa and the emancipation of African peoples globally.
His book Barack Obama and Twenty-First Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA analyzes the social forces that organized to intervene in the political process of the United States during the 2008 financial crisis and the movement behind President Barack Obama. The book examines the networks that facilitated the electoral victory in 2008 and discusses the importance of self-organization and self-emancipation in politics. Situated in the context of the agency of new social forces galvanized in the 2008 electoral season, the book develops a theory of politics starting with the humanist principles of Ubuntu, healing, and reparations for the 21st century. It argues that ideas such as quantum politics and a "network of networks" move away from old forms of vanguardism during a period characterized as a revolutionary moment. Campbell's work was included in the book African Awakening: The Emerging Revolutions, edited by Sokari Ekine and Firoze Manji.
Campbell has contributed more than 40 chapters to edited books and has published numerous articles and reviews in scholarly journals. He writes regularly for newspapers in the US, Southern Africa, East Africa, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom. He has been a commentator on international politics on MSNBC, Democracy Now!, CCTV, Pacifica Radio, and other radio stations in the US, the Caribbean, East Africa, and South Africa. His commentaries on international issues are circulated via Pambazuka News and CounterPunch. Campbell's interview for Blackelectorate.com, discussing the implications of September 11, 2001, for humanity, was reproduced on websites in Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America. He is involved in opposing US Africa Command.

Affiliations and activism

Campbell is a member of the advisory board of the Syracuse Peace Council. He was a sponsor of the Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa throughout the 1990s. He is a board member of The Association of Concerned Africa Scholars, the African Studies Association, and the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. He was a member of the African Association of Political Science. He was the guest editor of the first issue of the African Journal of Political Science, where he coordinated a publication on the topic of Pan-Africanism in the 21st century.
In 2005, he chaired the Walter Rodney Commemoration Committee, whose members sought to extend the work and ideas of Walter Rodney about emancipatory politics.
Campbell was the first director of the Syracuse University Abroad Program in Harare, Zimbabwe. During this period, he led educational programs for youth in post-independence Zimbabwe. His interaction with the youth, particularly radical African feminists, influenced his book Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation. He has also participated in debates on African unity in Southern Africa and continues to research peace and reconstruction in Africa. In 2007, he was the keynote speaker at the Africa Beyond Borders Conference in Durban, South Africa.
He has continued to engage in African politics. In 2011, he delivered the Strini Moodley Memorial Lecture in Durban. That same year, at the Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Celebration in Accra, Ghana, he presented the lecture "Towards an Africa without Borders in the 21st Century: The Inspiration of Kwame Nkrumah".
In 2001, Campbell conducted research on peace in Central Africa while based at the Global Pan-African Movement in Kampala, Uganda. He gave presentations on Peace and Reconstruction before the Uganda Society in Uganda, the Nairobi Peace Initiative, and the Desmond Tutu Peace Center. Campbell was a presenter on Globalization at the NGO Forum of the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and served for five years as the chairperson of the International Caucus of the Black Radical Congress.
In August 2023, Campbell denounced a possible intervention by the United States and France in Niger to restore Mohamed Bazoum to his post, saying that "The French are inordinately dependent on the exploitation and plundering of Africa".

Personal life

Campbell is married to Makini Zaline Roy, a Professor of Education at Syracuse University.

Publications

Books

  • 1985:, Hansib Publications.
  • 2003:, New Jersey: Africa World Press; South Africa: David Phillip.
  • 2006:, New Academia Publishers.
  • 2007:, in Manji, F., and S. Marks, African Perspectives on China in Africa, Oxford: Pambazuka Press.
  • 2010:, Pluto Press..
  • 2013:, Monthly Review Press.
  • 2018: "Nelson Mandela: Ubuntu and the Universalist Spirit", in Shubin, V., and Zelenova, D., .
  • 2018: "The Pan African Experience: From The OAU to the African Union", in Falola, T., and Shanguhyia, M.S., : , New York: Palgrave, Macmillan.

Articles

  • 2009:, Pambazuka News, Issue 415.
  • 2009:, Pambazuka News, Issue 440
  • 2009:, Pambazuka News, Issue 442.
  • 2009:, Association of Concerned Africa Scholars.
  • 2013:, Monthly Review, Vol. 64, No. 11.
  • 2024: "Fighting Racism in the U.S. Military: Dismantling the United States Africa Command". The African Review, 2024.