Episode summary:

In this episode, I’m joined by Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and author of forty books including The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, to talk about the history and contemporary legacies of Third Worldism. We discuss the origins and trajectory of Third Worldism and the ‘Bandung Spirit,’ what became of this radical worldmaking project, and what lessons this rich history holds for anti-imperialist organizing and internationalist solidarity in the present day. We also discuss the challenges and contradictions of internationalism, and what it really means to stand in solidarity with anti-imperialist struggles in the Global South from within the imperial core.

Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Washington, D.C. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock.

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Sources and helpful links:

• Vijay Prashad — The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World (The New Press, 2007)

• Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research website

• Hyper-Imperialism: A Dangerous Decadent New Stage (Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, January 2024)

• The Churning of the Global Order (Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, January 2024)

• Vijay Prashad, No Cold War, and West Africa Peoples’ Organization — In Africa They Say, ‘France, Get Out!’ (Tricontinental newsletter, May 2024)

• Vijay Prashad — Ten Theses on the Far Right of a Special Type (Tricontinental newsletter, August 2024)

• Fidel Castro — Speech at the 4th Conference of Nonaligned Nations (September 1973)

Social links:

Return to Bandung:

• Twitter: twitter.com/returntobandung

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/

Pranay Somayajula:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/p_somayajula

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/

• Website: https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/

• Substack: https://www.culture-shock.xyz/

Vijay Prashad:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/vijayprashad

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/possiblehistory

Tricontinental Institute for Social Research:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tri_continental

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetricontinental/