Neocolonial decolonisation

 Two books by Nigerian authors. One against #neocolonialism and one against #decolonisation. They share some concerns but are probably on opposite ends on many topics. For me, both hold a powerful message – especially in a time where much of the work I do is directly or indirectly related to these topics. And where I often feel uncomfortable with any side of any debate around this.

Taiwo, in his Against Decolonisation takes a very firm stand against all attempt to decolonize Africa. He starts by saying that

decolonisation “has simply become a catch-all trope, often used to perform contemporary ‘morality’ or ‘authenticity’.” (p.4)

And he ends by saying that “I see no place for the decolonising trope in this daunting but exciting challenge.” (p.222).

His main thesis is very simple: let Africans decide for themselves which knowledge, frameworks, artefacts, arguments they want to use – and do not force a clean-up act on them, denying the right to use whatever they want to. Decolonisation is completed, and anything that is done, used, developed, written, argued (whether good or bad) is people’s free agency. Saying that this is still a mindset of the colonised, comes down to a racist argument that Africans are childish.

I am not sure if I share all of his love for modernity (subjectivity, rationality, individuality, governance by consent) but his argument that modernity and colonialism are too easily take together is clear. In fact, colonialism was an abrogation of modernizing processes that were going on because of other influences. He argues his case for very specific examples in literature, language, philosophy, and politics: there is no going back to some non-existent, generalized and idealized past, where no foreign idea had been exchanged yet. Colonialism is made too big (evil though it was) when it is regarded as the defining period for all of Africa. Spain doesn’t define itself that way, even though it was colonized for seven centuries.

Ekeocha is not so much a proponent to decolonise everything, but addresses the neocolonial attitudes in much of bilateral, multilateral and philanthropic development cooperation, where value frameworks and ideological convictions from the West are being imposed on African states, without much regard for African voices, except a carefully selected set of voices that are in agreement.

Are Taiwo and Ekeocha on opposite ends concerning their views on (neo-) colonialism and decolonisation? I don’t think so. For both, colonialism was and is a great evil. There is a marked difference in audience between the two books. Taiwo mainly addresses those who want to decolonise Africans, either forcing decolonisation in neocolonial ways, or (admittedly: mostly) in self-censoring ways: his bibliography of appr 180 works contains about 80% works by African authors. And Ekeocha directs her criticism not so much to Africans, but to Western leaders who push their agendas. Her focus is mostly on agendas related to reproduction, but this could be extended to agendas of decolonisation.

Combining these two books helped me make a little bit sense of my uneasiness around many discussions about #localisation, #decolonisation and even #shiftthepower. This is not to say that I see no use in any of those efforts, but we may run the risk of either engaging in another neocolonial enterprise (or pushing an agenda from a privileged position), or we may contribute to a line of thinking that forces ‘the other’ to unthink the way she or he thinks, just because we think that is better for her or for him – without being open about the missionary nature of such an enterprise.

(I think it was a post by Themrise Khan that led me to Taiwo, and I forgot who pointed me to Ekeocha.)