Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously

Olufemi Táíwò's book "Decolonisation: An Intellectual and Moral Critique" is a searing intellectual and moral critique of the decolonisation movement, arguing that it has lost its way and become a catch-all idea that suffocates African thought and denies African agency. He rejects the indiscriminate application of 'decolonisation' to everything from literature to sociology and advocates for a more nuanced and respectful approach that recognizes African intellectuals as innovative adaptors, appropriators, and synthesisers of ideas.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 30 June 2022
Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd

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. Táíwòs is a bold challenge to respect African intellectuals as innovative adaptors, appropriators, and synthesizers of ideas they have always seen as universally relevant.

Dimension: 190 x 126 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781787386921