ABSTRACT
Africana intellectuals and political leaders generally regard W. E. B Du Bois as "the Father of Pan-Africanism." Du Bois's philosophy of race and theory of reparations, in many senses foreshadows contemporary critical race theory and, therefore, contributes several paradigms and theoretic points of departure. However, as with so many other aspects of his thought, Du Bois's writings on race and racism have been relegated to the realm, at best, of sociology, which downplays and diminishes their interdisciplinarity and significance for Africana Studies and contemporary critical social theory and radical politics. African Americans' cries for reparations are part and parcel of an older and wider, world-historic discourse on the denial of continental and diasporan Africans' humanity and distinct human personality. The African American reparations struggle is intrinsically related to critical race theory in that it is not simply a struggle for reparations, but also a struggle against racism.
