Abstract

This essay interrogates Amílcar Cabral’s distinction between “the population” and “the people” in the context of anticolonial liberation struggles. The former encompasses the totality of the existing individuals in a given geographical jurisdiction, while the latter includes only those committed to realizing the objective of ending colonial domination. This distinction represents a content-based understanding of the category of “the people,” a decisive departure from the formalist conceptions of this category that dominate deliberative, liberal, and radical traditions in democratic theory. I defend Cabral’s approach against the prevailing theoretical current, arguing that his content-based distinction has attained a renewed and momentous relevance in light of the impending climate catastrophe.