Archibald Wickeramaraja Singham, also known as Archie Singham or A. W. Singham (1932-1991) was a Sri Lankan political scientist and historian, professor of political science at
Brooklyn College of
City University of New York. He was an authority on the
Caribbean and a participant in the
Non-Aligned Movement.
Life
Archie Singham was born in
British Burma to Sri Lankan parents. He was educated in Sri Lanka before doing his bachelors at
Wesleyan University. He married Shirley Hune, who later became the associate provost of
Hunter College.[1]
Singham taught briefly at the University of Michigan before being recruited as one of the 'black scholars' (though he being an Asian of heritage) by
Andrew Billingsley to
Howard University at the end of the 1960s.[4] He also taught at the
University of Manchester in England before moving to Brooklyn College in 1978.[1] In testimony to the US Congress, Singham criticized the 1983
United States invasion of Grenada, and called for the US to withdraw its troops.[5]
Singham died on 13 March 1991.[6] Two books on peace were dedicated to Singham's memory.[7][8]
"Three Cases of Constitutionalism and Cuckoo Politics: Ceylon, British Guyana and Grenada". New World Quarterly. 2 (1): 23–33. 1965.
Readings in government and politics of the West Indies. Kingston, Jamaica: Printed by Instant Letter Service Co., 1967.
The hero and the crowd in a colonial polity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968.
"C. L. R. James on the Black Jacobin Revolution in San Domingo – Notes toward a Theory of Black Politics". Savacou. 1: 82–96. 1970.
(with N. L. Singham) Singham, A. W.; Singham, N. L. (June 1973). "Cultural Domination and Political Subordination: Notes Towards a Theory of the Caribbean Political System". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 15 (3): 258–88.
doi:
10.1017/S0010417500007118.
S2CID145658566.
(ed.) The Commonwealth Caribbean into the seventies : proceedings of a conference held on 28–30 September 1973 at Howard University, Washington, D.C. Montreal: Center for Developing-Area Studies, McGill University, 1975.
(ed. with
Tran Van Dinh) From Bandung to Colombo : conferences of the non-aligned countries, 1955-75. New York: Third Press Review Books, 1976.
(ed.) The Nonaligned movement in world politics: a symposium held at Howard University. Includes proceedings of the Sri Lanka Nonalignment conference. Westport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill, 1977.
(with Shirley Hune) The non-aligned movement and the Namibian question. Chandigarh, India: Centre for Research in Rural & Industrial Development, 1985.
(with Shirley Hune) Non-alignment in an age of alignments. Westport, Conn.: L. Hill; London: Zed Books, 1986.
References
^
abcJoan Cook (March 14, 1991). "Archibald Singham, 58, Professor And Authority on the Caribbean". New York Times.
^Aaron Kamugisha (2019). Beyond Coloniality: Citizenship and Freedom in the Caribbean Intellectual. Indiana University Press. pp. 12–14.
^A. W. Singham (1967). The colonial political system: a case study of political conflict in a British colony (Thesis). University of Michigan.
^"Statement of A. W. Singham, Department of Political Science, Brooklyn College". U.S. Military Actions in Grenada: Implications for U.S. Policy in the Eastern Caribbean : Hearings Before the Subcommittees on International Security and Scientific Affairs and on Western Hemisphere Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, First Session, November 2, 3, and 16, 1983. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1984. pp. 102–106.
^Henry Vance Davis, ed. (1990).
"In Memory of Dr. A. W. Singham". Sankofa: The University Since BAM: Twenty Years of Progress?. Office of Minority Affairs, University of Michigan. p. 78.
^"In memory of our colleague, Archie Singham (1932-1991), who said shortly before his death that this book would be a testament to the beginning of the end of the Cold War." Grace Lee Boggs; Michael Shuman; Julia Sweig, eds. (1991). Conditions of Peace: An Inquiry. EXPRO Press.