Postcolonial Turn : Re-Imagining Anthropology and Africa.
Title:
Postcolonial Turn : Re-Imagining Anthropology and Africa.
Author:
Devisch, Rene.
ISBN:
9789956726813
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (468 pages)
Contents:
Cover -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- 1 - The Postcolonial Turn: An Introduction -- A Scholarly Debate -- The Borderlinking Anthropological Endeavour -- Cosmopolitan Sciences and Local Knowledge -- The 'Clash of Civilisations' Revisited -- Opening up the Research Design in and on Africa -- Epilogue -- References -- Part 1 - A Staunch Critique of Intellectual Colonialism and the Pursuit of Sociocultural Endogeneity -- 2 - Africanity: A Combative Ontology -- Prelude -- Africanity versus Afrocentrism -- Africanity versus Vindicationism -- There is already Evidence of this -- Africanity and the End of African Studies -- References -- 3 - Against Alterity - The Pursuit of Endogeneity: Breaking Bread with Archie Mafeje -- Introduction -- Meanings and Encounters -- Against Alterity -- Negation of Negation: Mafeje on Anthropology -- Against Disciplinarity and Epistemology? -- The Pursuit of Endogeneity -- For Mafeje -- A Return to Intimacy -- Archie, Bitter? -- Generous and Loyal -- Lessons of Mafeje's Scholarship -- Notes -- References -- 4 - Mafeje and Langa: The Start of an Intellectual's Journey -- The Langa Project -- Mafeje's Field Research -- Rethinking Langa -- Speaking Truth to Power -- Notes -- References -- Part 2 - Bifocality at the Core of the Borderlinking Anthropological Endeavour -- 5 - What is an Anthropologist? -- Journey 1: In the Congo, 1965-1974? -- Journey 2: Decolonising the Gaze -- Journey 3: Witness to the Clash of Civilisations -- Journey 4: How do I See Tomorrow's Anthropologist? -- Notes -- 6 - Existential Dilemmas of a North Atlantic Anthropologist in the Production of Relevant Africanist Knowledge -- Introduction -- Anthropology as Intercultural Loyalty -- Witnessing 'the Clash of Civilisations'? -- The Thrice-born Anthropologist.
The Anthropologist as Hero -- Notes -- References -- 7 - Kata Nomon: Letter to René Devisch -- Legere -- Meditari -- Orare -- Coda -- 8 - The Shared Borderspace, a Rejoinder -- Intercultural Polylogue and its Ethic of Desire -- A Rejoinder to van Binsbergen and Mudimbe -- People's Reappropriation of Local Knowledge -- Towards an Intercultural Emancipation -- Notes -- References -- Part 3 - Cross-pollination in African Academe between Cosmopolitan Sciences and Local Knowledge -- 9 - All Knowledge is first of all Local Knowledge -- Political, Epistemological and Sociocultural Dimensions -- The Role of Whelan Research Academy -- References -- 10 - Is there one Science, Western Science? -- Explanation of Terms -- Western Contribution to Science -- Other Knowledge Traditions -- Towards a Pluralistic and Complementary World Science -- References -- 11. Ethnomathematics, Geometry and Educational Experiences in Africa -- Ethnomathematical Research in Mozambique -- Geometry / Mathematics in African History and Cultures -- Integration of Ethnomathematics into Teacher Education -- Experimentation with ideas from ethnomathematics in education -- References -- Part 4 - Toward the Local Domestication of the Ruling Modern Logic: The 'Clash of Civilisations' Revisited -- 12 - Immunizing Strategies: Hip-hop and Critique in Tanzania -- Local Impact and Global Relevance -- Breaking Through the Mzee Code: 'The New Generation' -- Survival Strategies: Pessimism and Immunisation -- Duels and Brains: Streetwise Philosophy -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- 13 - Christian Moderns: Parody in Matricentric Christian Healing Communnes of the Sacred Spirit in Kinshasa -- Data and Methods -- Master Scenarios of Modernisation, Acculturation, and Citizenship -- Deconstructing (post)Colonial Identity and Power Dichotomies -- Liturgy as a Whole-making Performative Site.
Parody and the Potentialities of an Intertopos -- Parody and Critical Encounter with the Otherness -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- References -- 14 - Responding to Rooted Cosmopolitanism: Patriots, Ethnics and the Public Good in Botswana -- Introduction -- Rooted Public Cosmopolitans: From Ghana to Botswana -- Richard Mannathoko: Family, Ethnic Group, Inner Circle -- Hope and Three Aspects of Public Cosmopolitanism -- Cosmopolitanism as Socially Viable: Inclusion and Alliance -- Civic Culture: Biography and Documentary Practice -- Civic Culture: The Predicament of Public Cosmopolitanism -- The Partial Measure of the Public Man: Funeral Programmes -- If not Cosmopolitan, Wordly Cosmopolitan? -- Rooted Public Cosmopolitanism: Biography and Ethnography -- Family Friend: Richard Webner -- The Senior Statesman's Speech -- The Quest for the Horizon: The Promise in the People -- Afterthought -- Notes -- References -- 15 - Epilogue: Opening up the Research Design in and on Africa: "To Souls Forgotten" -- 1 -- 2 -- Back cover.
Abstract:
This innovative book is a forward-looking reflection on mental decolonisation and the postcolonial turn in Africanist scholarship. As a whole, it provides five decennia-long lucid and empathetic research involvements by seasoned scholars who came to live, in local people�s own ways, significant daily events experienced by communities, professional networks and local experts in various African contexts. The book covers materials drawn from Botswana, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania. Themes include the Whelan Research Academy, rap musicians, political leaders, wise men and women, healers, Sacred Spirit churches, diviners, bards and weavers who are deemed proficient in the classical African geometrical knowledge. As a tribute to late Archie Mafeje who showed real commitment to decolonise social sciences from western-centred modernist development theories, commentators of his work pinpoint how these theories sought to dismiss the active role played by African people in their quest for self-emancipation. One of the central questions addressed by the book concerns the role of an anthropologist and this issue is debated against the background of the academic lecture delivered by Ren� Devisch when receiving an honorary doctoral degree at the University of Kinshasa. The lecture triggered critical but constructive comments from such seasoned experts as Valentin Mudimbe and Wim van Binsbergen. They excoriate anthropological knowledge on account that the anthropologist, notwithstanding his or her social and cognitive empathy and intense communication with the host community, too often fails to also question her own world and intellectual habitus from the standpoint of her hosts. Leading anthropologists carry further into great depth the bifocal anthropological endeavour focussing on local people�s
re-imagining and re-connecting the local and global. The book is of interest to a wide readership in the humanities, social sciences, philosophy and the history of the African continent and its relation with the North.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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