Black Science: Amílcar Cabral’s Agricultural Survey and the Seeds of African Decolonization

Abstract

This essay studies the scientific practices of the African revolutionary Amilcar Cabral as Black Radical Tradition challenges to historical agency. His graphs on land use and soil erosion, produced for the Portuguese colonial administration of Guinea-Bissau in WestAfrica, prophesied the independence of peoples otherwise put outside of history. Cabral’s graphs point to the underappreciated contribution of specific forms ofknowl-edge to the history of decolonization and challenge the historian of science to write his-toryofBlackscience. This is distinctfrom consoling narratives ofBlackpeople in science or traditional critical accounts of science and racism. Instead, fully engaging the Black Radical Tradition, the history ofBlack science foregrounds scientific practices that his­torically enacted Black agencies.