| Description |
xi, 292 pages ; 23 cm |
| Series |
Postcolonial encounters |
|
Postcolonial encounters.
|
| Contents |
Introduction: Multiple identities, plural arenas / Richard Werbner -- Pt. 1. Crisis, state decay and transitional identities. 1. The African crisis: context and interpretation / Patrick Chabal. 2. A lost generation? Youth identity and state decay in West Africa / Donal B. Cruise O'Brien. 3. Postcolonialism, power and identity: local and global perspectives from Zaire / Filip De Boeck. 4. Between God and Kamuzu: the transition to multi-party politics in central Malawi / Harri Englund. 5. The potentials of boundaries in South Africa: steps towards a theory of the social edge / Robert Thornton -- Pt. 2. Identity degradation, moral knowledge and deconstruction. 6. 'Producing' respect: the 'proper woman' in postcolonial Kampala / Jessica A. Ogden. 7. Witchcraft, violence and identity: different trajectories in postcolonial Cameroon / Cyprian Fisiy and Peter Geschiere |
|
8. Identity, alterity and ambiguity in a Nigerian community: competing definitions of 'true' Islam / Adeline Masquelier. 9. Contested authorities and the politics of perception:econstructing the study of religion in Africa / Rijk van Dijk and Peter Pels -- Postscript: Colonial and postcolonial identities / Terence Ranger |
| Summary |
The book theorises the salience of the postmodern for the postcolonial and the postapartheid; and with actual case studies, explores why postcolonial studies has to enunciate and interpret the distinctive languages of identity politics in all the cultural richness of their specific metaphors. It asks whether the very idea of the postcolonial conceals the continued dependence of African countries. Is the postcolonial thus merely a neo-colonial mystification, a Eurocentric product of Western scholarship in collusion with Western imperialism? |
|
In this book, distinguished anthropologists, political scientists and social historians from Africa, Europe and America make a radical break with much conventional wisdom in postcolonial discourse to explore contemporary African identities in transition. Addressing fundamental issues of political violence, the negation of authority in public life, and peaceful change to multi-party politics, their analyses distinguish the varied impact of generational struggles, ethnicity and nationalism. Throughout, they shed new light on images, emblems of identity, social landscapes and boundaries of belonging |
| Notes |
Includes index |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Political stability -- Africa, Sub-Saharan.
|
|
Political stability -- Africa, Svb-Saharan
|
| SUBJECT |
Africa South of the Sahara http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85001667 -- Colonial influence.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh99005253
|
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Africa South of the Sahara -- Economic conditions -- 1960-
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85001675
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Africa South of the Sahara -- Politics and government -- 1960- http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85001684
|
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Africa South of the Sahara -- Social conditions -- 1960- http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85001686
|
| Author |
Ranger, T. O.
|
|
Werbner, Richard P.
|
| LC no. |
96008379 |
| ISBN |
1856494152 |
|
1856494160 |
|
