Socio Political Thought In African Literature

There can be no better time to revive the major strands of social and political thought about Africa in the nineteeth and twentieth centuries than now; given the consensus of opinion that over the last two decades African societies, and policies relating to the continent have largely failed. This book, illustrates that failures in Africa are not for a lack of ideas and arguments, or intellectual life. At the very least, it is a document of the rich history of ideas about the continent, by some of its most influential thinkers. The collection includes pieces on major African leaders/thinkers - Sekou Toure, Blydeen Awolowo and Nkrumah; and contributions by leaders themselves e.g. Nyerere on the process of liberation, and relative concepts of freedom. The other essays are by major intellectuals on currents and periods in social thought and intellectual history, such as Mazui on questions of (pan) - African indentities, on Africanness and colonialism, and African socialism.

The politics of development in Africa have always been central concerns of the continent's literature. Yet ideas about the best way to achieve this development, and even what development itself should look like, have been hotly contested. African Literature as Political Philosophy looks in particular at Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah and Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, but situates these within the broader context of developments in African literature over the past half-century, discussing writers from Ayi Kwei Armah to Wole Soyinka. M.S.C. Okolo provides a thorough analysis of the authors' differing approaches and how these emerge from the literature. She shows the roots of Achebe's reformism and Ngugi's insistence on revolution and how these positions take shape in their work. Okolo argues that these authors have been profoundly affected by the political situation of Africa, but have also helped to create a new African political philosophy.

Provides an analysis of the authors' differing approaches and how these emerge from the literature. This book shows the roots of Achebe's reformism and Ngugi's insistence on revolution and how these positions take shape in their work. It argues that these authors have helped to create a African political philosophy.

Social theory and social theorizing about Africa has largely ignored African literature. However, because writers are some of the continent’s finest social thinkers, they have produced – and continue to produce – works which constitute potential sources for the analysis of social thought, and for constructing social theory, in and beyond the continent. This comprehensive collection examines the relationship between African literature and African social thought. It explores the evolution and aesthetics of social thought in African fiction, and African writers’ conceptions of power and authority, legitimacy, history and modernity, gender and sexuality, culture, epistemology, globalization, and change and continuity in Africa. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies.

This book mediates a dialectics between power and subjectivity versus history and politics. The invention of Africa is not merely a residue of Africa's encounter with Europe but a project in continuity in contemporary history of Africa, where history has become a location of struggle and meaning, a location of power and domination. Eze contends that postcolonial African studies that thrive by way of unanimity, analogy, or homogenenity are merely advancing a "defeatist" historicism. It attempts to gain essence by inverting the terms of colonial discourse and is decisively implicated in the very logic of coloniality. This method of historiography not only stifles the overall socio-political imagination of contemporary Africa but offers a dogmatic blueprint for politics of domination. Eze argues that a chance for an African Renaissance is dependent on review mechanisms of African historiography.

This book explores what constitutes contemporary African social and political philosophy with regard to its meaning, aims, sources, and relevance for today’s Africa. Kasanda denounces conventional approaches considering these either as a subcategory of general philosophy or as the ideological attempts of individual African leaders and professional philosophers, such as Nkrumah, Nyerere, Senghor, Fanon, Hountondji and Towa. On the contrary, Kasanda defines contemporary African social and political philosophy as an inclusive reflection of African communities with regard to power and equitable modes of social and political organization in order to promote human excellence for everyone. This perspective also includes the criticism of social and political concepts in use within African communities. The author postulates that contemporary African social and political philosophy relies on the legacy of precolonial African societies, as well as on the contribution of the diaspora throughout the world. Contemporary African social and political philosophy is rooted in the daily lives of African people, and it expresses itself through multiple modalities including, for example, art, religion, literature, music and the policy of urbanization of African cities. This book sheds new light on debates concerning topics such as ethnophilosophy, negritude, pan-Africanism, democracy, African civil society, African cultures, and globalization. It aims to ward off the lethargy that strikes African social and political philosophy, taking a renewed and critical approach.

The book Art and Political Thought in Bole Butake, through a pluralist critical approach, interrogates Butake’s major creative works—Lake God, And Palm Wine Will Flow, The Survivors, Shoes and Four Men in Arms, Dance of the Vampires and The Rape of Michelle —mainly in terms of their political underpinnings and cultural signification. The intention is to place his drama within the socio-political matrix of Cameroon and demonstrate the topicality of the issues of governance, marginalization, and corruption in Cameroon or Africa that Butake consistently foregrounds in his creative works. The study opens with an overview of the historical and social milieu that feeds Butake’s imagination and the introduction is followed by an interview of the playwright in which he explains his mission as a writer. The next two chapters appraise the political symbolism of Butake’s plays and chapter five undertakes a comparison of the colonial legacy and the culture of corruption in Butake’s Lake God and The Rape ofMichelle. Women in Butake’s imaginative universe play a non-negligible role in change. They are portrayed as political and social activists in their challenge to autocratic rule. This is the leitmotif of chapter six, which highlights the contribution of women towards political change in Cameroon. In chapters seven and eight, the focus is on articulating the cultural signification of Butake’s plays in terms of political change. Concomitantly, these chapters also demonstrate Butake’s seamless incorporation of elements of oral literature in his drama, as he interpolates proverbs, divinations and other elements of orality in his work. Chapter nine of the book points out how Butake foregrounds the character traits of his protagonists against the backdrop of traditional Noni religion as well as Christianity. Thus, the bigotry and belligerence of both the Fon and Father Leo in Lake God, for example, are projected through a supernatural frame. The conclusion appraises the contemporaneity of Butake’s drama. His oeuvre continues to inspire so many people: from disenfranchised groups that see in his drama a path to reclaiming liberties and to critics who are challenged to hone their literary tools in the endeavor to situate his works within the dynamics of politics and culture in Africa.