Black Leadership Strategies Of The Louisiana Deacons For Defense And The African Party For The Liberation Of Guinea Bissau And Cape Verde

Abstract

This thesis is a comparative analysis of the leadership of The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) led by Amilcar Cabral (1956- 1973) and the Louisiana Deacons for Defense and Justice (DDJ) led by Ernest Thomas and Charles Simms (1964- 1966). These leaders and their organizations confronted colonialism and white supremacy through comparative cultural, ideological and leadership strategies. These organizations exhibit ideological foundations in revolutionary Pan African nationalism and black American nationalism which are both rooted in the African and diasporan cultural experience of oppression. The transformational leadership theory is a theory that connects a follower's self-identity to the goals of an organization through charismatic leadership and personality. When combined with black and African nationalism, this theory reinforces the ideological orientation of the life experiences of these men that shepherded the organizations in focus to form and lead an African liberation movement and an American civil rights self-defense organization.