Peter Geschiere is emeritus professor for the Anthropology of Africa at both the University of Amsterdam and Leiden University. Since 1971 he has undertaken historical-anthropological field-work in various parts of Cameroon and elsewhere in West and Central Africa.
This is one of the most direct books by the well-known historian-philosopher Achille Mbembe (born in Cameroon and now living in South Africa). It provides an overview, both sophisticated and accessible, of the long struggle of African intellectuals to escape from the epistemic frameworks imposed by the West. Mbembe shows brilliantly how thinking from Africa can help to develop original views on the paradox of decolonizing, both in the West and the South, and many more urgent issues. Of particular interest is his analysis of the increasing racialisation of the n… word under capitalism (a point that risks getting lost by the consequent translation of the n… word in the French title by “black”). In his chapter on the Nigerian author Amos Tutuola and the latter’s classic The Palm Wine Drinkard, Mbembe shows most eloquently how such an African perspective on personhood as transformative can help to overcome the setbacks of the Anthropocene.
In his long introduction (99 pages) to the collection he edited as well, Cameroonian anthropologist cum novelist (also now based in South Africa) shows how to overcome simplistic contrasts between Africa and the West that risk becoming a straitjacket for free thinking. He focuses on a particularly charged term, “cannibalism” which has played a heavy role in the “othering” that historically marked the relation between Africans and Westerners. Nyamnjoh instead uses the cannibal notion to explore basic parameters of conceptually closing or opening the person. His emphasis on African notions of personhood as “incomplete, composite and fluid” can serve as an antidote to against recent emphasis on identity (politics) feeding into “sterile ambitions of closeness.”
When I visited the author in Kampala in 2018 she was very proud of her privilege in the culture of the Baganda (the largest ethnic group in Uganda) because, as a mother of twins, she had complete freedom of speech. Spending time with her was hilarious because Stella made it a point of honour to fully exploit this privilege. However, the Ugandan state seemed to be impervious to such privileges. It was precisely because of her brashness in attacking the president and his wife that a few weeks after my visit she was jailed for several years. This book is a testimony to her courage and unbroken spirit during these heavy years. It testifies also to her talent as a poet, breathing new life into local forms of expression.
This novel – from the 1960s – has a tragic history which blocked the impact it could have had on the further development of African studies. Written by a very young author from Mali, it met with great acclaim, winning the prestigious Prix Renaudot in France. However, it soon became the object of accusations of plagiarism, notably by Graham Greene. Instead of defending the author the French publisher (Seuil) decided to withdraw the book. Ouologuem, embittered, retired to Sevaré (Central Mali). He died there in 2017, having published hardly anything else. Central theme of the novel is the crucial role of violence in the history of a mythical empire, Nakem, before, during and after colonial times. Next to violence Ouologuem included other controversial aspects in his novel, like slavery and homosexuality, with a bitter sarcasm that highlighted his talent for demystification.
Joseph Tonda, born on the frontier between Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville teaches at the University Omar Bongo in Libreville. His dramatic flight from the horrors of the civil war in Brazzaville in the 1990s, is one of the sources of inspiration in his work. In the Modern Sovereign he discusses the capricious power that emerged from the interface between the West and Africa since the colonial period. With a cascade of stunning examples from everyday life in urban Gabon and Congo, he shows the urgent necessity of surpassing the idea of a great divide between western impositions and local “traditions.” Postcolonial Africa is governed by brutal forms of violence exerted on people’s bodies and imaginations in creative processes of often alarming hybridisation. Especially valuable is Tonda’s quite playful way of showing that classical concepts of (Western) social science - Marx, Freud, Bourdieu – take on a new life when confronted with the realities of (post)colonial Africa.