Coloniality of Power in Postcolonial Africa: Myths of Decolonization

Preface

Preface This book has been written at a crucial time in global history in general and African history in particular. On the one hand, the history is dominated by a climate of interventionist global neoliberal imperialism which increasingly manifests its violent character through the military invasion of Iraq, bombardment of Libya, imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe and military invasion of Afghanistan. Violent invasions of weaker countries by the United States of America (USA) and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) partners, are often justified as humanitarian interventions to introduce democracy and human rights, dethrone dictators, eradicate terrorism and restore order within those states characterized by United States as outposts of tyranny and part of ‘the axis of evil’. But the military interventions, rhetorically premised on the noble ‘right to protect’, seem to be selective and guided by the West’s permanent strategic interests rather than genuine global humanitarian concerns. On the other hand, there was the unexpected outbreak of popular uprisings in North Africa that have resulted in the collapse of dictatorial regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, and the aerial bombardment of Libya by NATO-led forces in support of an onslaught by disparate opposition groups that culminated in the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year iron rule and his death. These new developments in global history have provoked animated debates with some scholars like David Harvey (2003, 2007) and Ellen Meiksin Wood (2003) raising issues of the spectre of ‘new imperialism’ that is involving new players from East and South-East Asia. Some left-leaning scholars have concluded that we are living in a new world of ‘universal capitalism in which capitalist imperatives are universal instruments of capitalist domination’.They see this development as a very recent phenomenon (Wood 2003: 127). viii Coloniality of Power in Postcolonial Africa: Myths of Decolonization At another level, the popular uprisings that have rocked the North African region, spreading to the Middle-East and provoking panic responses among dictators in Sub-Saharan Africa, are interpreted as part of an indictment on Francis Fukuyama’s (1993) end of history thesis and an indicator of ordinary people’s agency to continue the project of making history as well as revolutions . But the military intervention by NATO in Libya is raising the danger of the mantra of humanitarian intervention being used as a fig-leaf covering the nakedness of violent global neoliberal imperialism that is quick to fish in troubled waters of those countries that are endowed with strategic resources such as oil, gas and diamonds. At the same time, the popular uprisings which are also referred to as ‘facebook revolution’ are being celebrated as the dawn of ‘second independence’ involving the people directly fighting to translate the myths of decolonization and illusions of freedom that resulted from the attainment of juridical freedom into popular freedom, including restructuring of colonially crafted postcolonial states into what Nzongola-Ntalaja (1987:75) termed ‘a people’s state’ dedicated to serve popular interests and demands. This people’s state is a result of a ‘people’s revolution’ (Nzongola-Ntalaja 1987: 75). Another global development worth noting is the financial crisis that has rocked the Northern industrialized countries since 2008 with ripple effects spillingovertootherpartsoftheworld,particularlythoseperipheraleconomies that are closely linked to the West. This recent capitalist crisis has provoked renewed debates on the viability of the modern capitalist system with scholars like Slavoj Zizek (2009b) vigorously arguing for a return to socialism as part of human salvation. Latin Americanists like Walter D. Mignolo (2007), Arturo Escobar (2007), Ramon Grosfoguel (2007), Anibal Quijano (2007) and others have for some time intensified their push for alternative knowledge as part of their revolt against the oppressive character of the racially-organized, hegemonic, patriarchal and capitalist world order alongside Euro-American epistemological fundamentalism that denies the existence of knowledge from the non-Western parts of the world. Yet, at another level, African scholars and Africanists such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1986), Chinweizu (1987), Basil Davidson (1992), Crawford Young (1994), Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo (1994), Claude Ake (2000), Pita Ogaba Agbese and George Klay Kieh Jr. (2007), Mueni wa Muiu and Guy Martin (2009) and others, have also been frustrated by the continued use of imported Euro-American ideas and institutions in Africa. They have unanimously called for the reconstitution and reconstruction of African postcolonial states on the basis of African history, African knowledge and ix African positive values if these states are...