The Politics of History in Contemporary Africa [electronic resource] /
Eze, M.author.
This book mediates a dialectics between power and subjectivity versus history and politics. The invention of Africa is not merely a residue of Africa's encounter with Europe but a project in continuity in contemporary history of Africa, where history has become a location of struggle and meaning, a location of power and domination. Eze contends that postcolonial African studies that thrive by way of unanimity, analogy, or homogenenity are merely advancing a "defeatist" historicism. It attempts to gain essence by inverting the terms of colonial discourse and is decisively implicated in the very logic of coloniality. This method of historiography not only stifles the overall socio-political imagination of contemporary Africa but offers a dogmatic blueprint for politics of domination. Eze argues that a chance for an African Renaissance is dependent on review mechanisms of African historiography.
Description based upon print version of record.
""Cover""; ""Contents""; ""Preface""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""1 Introduction""; ""2 The ""Invention"" of Africa: Contested Terrains""; ""3 Post-colonial Displacements""; ""4 Africanism: A History of Histories""; ""5 Beyond a History by Analogy""; ""6 Cult of Personalities and Politics of Domination""; ""7 Toward an African Renaissance""; ""Notes""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index""
Includes bibliographical references and index.
This book mediates a dialectics between power and subjectivity versus history and politics. The invention of Africa is not merely a residue of Africa's encounter with Europe but a project in continuity in contemporary history of Africa, where history has become a location of struggle and meaning, a location of power and domination. Eze contends that postcolonial African studies that thrive by way of unanimity, analogy, or homogenenity are merely advancing a "defeatist" historicism. It attempts to gain essence by inverting the terms of colonial discourse and is decisively implicated in the very logic of coloniality. This method of historiography not only stifles the overall socio-political imagination of contemporary Africa but offers a dogmatic blueprint for politics of domination. Eze argues that a chance for an African Renaissance is dependent on review mechanisms of African historiography.
Africa—Politics and government.
Literature   .
Africa—History.
Ethnology—Africa.
African literature.
African languages.
African Politics.
Postcolonial/World Literature.
African History.
African Culture.
African Literature.
African Languages.