The Third-Worldist Foundations of Mahdi ʿAmil's Thought

Abstract This article demonstrates how the questions that shaped Mahdi ʿAmil's philosophical project were informed by his involvement in the intellectual networks of Third-Worldism, particularly surrounding the journal Révolution africaine. The article introduces the scope of Révolution africaine and zooms in on ʿAmil's engagement with Frantz Fanon on its pages and then traces the resonances of this engagement in ʿAmil's later work. Throughout his life, ʿAmil's work often took the form of direct critiques of articles, books, and conferences; his work is proof of the complexity of his intellectual milieu and serves as a portal to the recurring challenges and debates of revolutionary movements in the Arab world especially after the defeat of 1967. Yet, of what has been written about ʿAmil's work, little is written about his pre-1967 intellectual trajectory. This article illuminates the Third-Worldist foundations of ʿAmil's thought and takes seriously his engagement with the writings of Fanon during the early 1960s, as well as his critical engagements with the authors and themes of Révolution africaine. Foregrounding these early engagements allows us to shed light on ʿAmil's Marxist philosophy of liberation and to enrich our understanding of the traveling theories of liberation that blossomed after Bandung.