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Some Recurrent Themes on the Challenges of an African Cultural Modernity

I start with the contention that if we are to derive much-needed illumination from the literature and critical thought of Africa of the last half a century with regard to the profound crises engendered by arrested decolonization in the postindependence period, three recurrent, closely related themes on the problem of modernization and modernity in the continent ought to engage our serious attention. I wish to frame my reflections here around a synoptic review of these three themes.

In our times, one can no longer be a barbarian; as a barbarian, one gets cheated, trodden on, despised, abused. -– Johann Gottfried Herder, “Patriotism”

Crisis is a medical term, connoting a progressive deterioration of the human body, threatening death unless a competent physician intervenes. Similarly in the life of the AfricanPolis, crisis is a metaphor for the dysfunctionality of institutions, most specifically, the State – that institution which is meant to be the blood of the citizens, their center of being.

For Ato Sekyi-Otu

Talk to us … not about us. -- Abahlali T Shirt

If as a theoretician, one’s ears are attuned to new impulses from the workers, new “categories” will be created, a new way of thinking, a step forward in philosophic cognition. -- Raya Dunayevskaya, Marxism and Freedom

“We are on our own”: The Birth of a New Movement

The struggle that started in Kennedy Road was the beginning of a new era. -- S’bu Zikode

It is fitting that Socialism and Democracy initiates its engagement with Africa through, in part, a philosophical prism. Our thanks for this go to Teodros Kiros, but our appreciation runs deeper. In the anguish of reflection on the African crisis, we find etched in extreme form preoccupations that are universal.

The invasion of Iraq by the United States has been correctly seen by the left as an expression of US imperialism.1 In the period after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States was freed of the political and military constraints on its exercise of global power, such as they were, that the Soviet Union once offered.2 The United States has sought to make full use of this opportunity to demonstrate to allies, potential competitors (e.g., China), and ‘rogue states’ alike that it will not allow any state to challenge its position as the sole global superpower.

Venezuela’s construction of “21st-century socialism” is a unique experiment in the annals of history. It contrasts sharply with previous socialist experiences where the state seized control of the means of production and the revolutionary party dominated the political system, running the society from the top down. The core of the Venezuelan originality lies in its commitment to participatory democracy, the exercise of power from the community level.