Against Decolonisation (Paperback)

Olufemi Taiwo

ISBN 10: 1787386929 / ISBN 13: 9781787386921

Published by C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, London, 2022

About this Item

Paperback. Decolonisation has lost its way. Originally a struggle to escape the West's direct political and economic control, it has become a catch-all idea, often for performing 'morality' or 'authenticity'; it suffocates African thought and denies African agency.Olfmi Tw fiercely rejects the indiscriminate application of 'decolonisation' to everything from literature, language and philosophy to sociology, psychology and medicine. He argues that the decolonisation industry, obsessed with cataloguing wrongs, is seriously harming scholarship on and in Africa. He finds 'decolonisation' of culture intellectually unsound and wholly unrealistic, conflating modernity with coloniality, and groundlessly advocating an open-ended undoing of global society's foundations. Worst of all, today's movement attacks its own cause: 'decolonisers' themselves are disregarding, infantilising and imposing values on contemporary African thinkers.This powerful, much-needed intervention questions whether today's 'decolonisation' truly serves African empowerment. Tw's is a bold challenge to respect African intellectuals as innovative adaptors, appropriators and synthesisers of ideas they have always seen as universally relevant. A leading African political philosopher offers his searing intellectual and moral critique of the 'expanded' decolonisation movement. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781787386921

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Against Decolonisation (Paperback)
• Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, London
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1787386929
• ISBN 13: 9781787386921
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Selected as one of '100 Notable African Books of 2022' in Brittle Paper 

A leading African political philosopher’s searing intellectual and moral critique of today’s decolonisation movement.

Decolonisation has lost its way. Originally a struggle to escape the West’s direct political and economic control, it has become a catch-all idea, often for performing ‘morality’ or ‘authenticity’; it suffocates African thought and denies African agency.

Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò fiercely rejects the indiscriminate application of ‘decolonisation’ to everything from literature, language and philosophy to sociology, psychology and medicine. He argues that the decolonisation industry, obsessed with cataloguing wrongs, is seriously harming scholarship on and in Africa. He finds ‘decolonisation’ of culture intellectually unsound and wholly unrealistic, conflating modernity with coloniality, and groundlessly advocating an open-ended undoing of global society’s foundations. Worst of all, today’s movement attacks its own cause: ‘decolonisers’ themselves are disregarding, infantilising and imposing values on contemporary African thinkers.

This powerful, much-needed intervention questions whether today’s ‘decolonisation’ truly serves African empowerment. Táíwò’s is a bold challenge to respect African intellectuals as innovative adaptors, appropriators and synthesisers of ideas they have always seen as universally relevant.

About the Author

Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò is Professor of African Political Thought and current Chair at the Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University. His writings have been translated into French, Italian, German and Portuguese. His book How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa won the Frantz Fanon Award in 2015.