How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa

Conclusion

Conclusion This book has raised and, I hope, answered many questions regarding the nature of the relation between Africa and modernity. I have argued that at least in its Western part Africans had begun a transition to modernity in the first three quarters of the nineteenth century and that that transition was aborted when formal empire foisted a peculiar variety of colonialism on much of the continent. Ever since, the history of the continent has been one of what colonialism did to the continent and African scholars have demonstrated a remarkable amnesia regarding what their forebears did when they first engaged the phenomenon of modernity. Given that at the present time African countries without exception are challenged once again to prosecute what is now a late transition to modernity, it is incumbent on us scholars to ensure that the continent is not led down blind alleys and into ineffective strategies. A primary aim of this book is to contribute to that effort. Although there has been a renewed interest in the subject of modernity and Africa , discussions of its philosophical discourse have been few and far between. Even philosophers such as Kwame Gyekye, Tsenay Serequeberhan, Kwame Anthony Appiah , Kwasi Wiredu, and Valentin Mudimbe have not been too interested in isolating and exploring the tenets of modernity such as I have in this book. I do not point this out to take any special credit. As anyone familiar with the works of the authors just iterated will readily attest, they all have addressed the theme of modernity, especially Serequeberhan, Gyekye, and Appiah. If by isolating the core tenets of the politico-philosophical discourse of modernity, I point our scholars to the possibilities inherent in claiming this inventory of concepts for our endeavors to make sense of African events and processes, one aspect of my objective for this book will have been met. Moreover, I can only hope that in introducing to my readers the modest but trailblazing ambitions of African genius in one area of the continent at the beginning of the nineteenth century, others might be challenged to use the lens thus provided to look at goings on in other parts of the continent for similar products. Who knows, similar archeological digs might unearth better, more informative and, I dare say, more original contributions of African intellectuals to the evolution of the discourse and institutionalization of modernity in the continent. If nothing else, weaning African scholars away from their required elemental hostility to modernity will free up 274 How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa space for real debates among us on the desirability or otherwise of modernity and its institutional appurtenances. We shall move away from the current inchoate engagement to a deliberate and robust debate about the place of and what ought to be our reaction to individualism, the centrality of reason, the open future, the idea of progress, the rule of law, and liberal democracy. I have also elected in this book to make African agency front, back, and center in the discussion. This explains the cast of characters and themes that dominate it. Subjectivity is central to the constitution of modernity. This takes off the table the misunderstanding abroad in African scholarship that to be modern is to be misshapen in a Western mode. Part of what modernity requires or at least presupposes is that the self that is at its heart will be made by the individual. So even if an African wishes to be “Western” she must do so in her own way or, failing that, suffer the stigma of inauthenticity. We have seen that one of the most profound subversions of modernity orchestrated by colonialism in the continent was to deny the African the prerogative of choosing how to be human. When we directly engage the discourse of modernity and make our peace with it, we shall find that a whole lot of the specialness—difference—that African and Africanist scholars love to claim for all things African is bogus and is a lean-to that Africans, especially African scholars, can and should do without. I have highlighted the writings of the apostles discussed in this book, the constitutional experiments that I considered, and the battles that Africans who have always chosen to be modern fought with their detractors who wanted to wall them in with difference to show the current generation that we are not sentenced permanently to the false binary of being either a resister or a victim of modernity. I identify...