African Postcolonial Modernity

Today, African lives, cultures, and politics remain significantly affected by precolonial and postcolonial configurations of modernity, as well as hegemonic global systems. This project explores Africa's conversation with itself and the rest of the world in terms of the contest between these institutions and a pristine 'nature.' The African continent jostles between these polarities in a turbulent and unpredictable manner as wars, genocide, famine, and other hardships punctuate its history and its struggles to develop.

At the same time, this unpredictability is also a manifestation of hope, vigor and dynamism. This dynamic reveals often arresting insights into what humankind has been, what it is presently, and what it could be. In this sense, Africa manifests a sense of life that perpetually strives to escape modern institutions, even if it unavoidably must engage with those institutions.

Review: 'This book traverses numerous aspects of contemporary African modernity, institution-building processes and existence. The travails of current Nigerian democracy are addressed just at its knowledge-generating tertiary institutions are critiqued. In addition, the author explores the singular nature and rogue dynamics of African cities - how they are continually shaped and propelled by local imperatives and global configurations.

This makes them resilient and somewhat strangely survivalist in character even when besieged by extremely dire circumstances. This is a major contribution by a prominent voice grounded on the continent' - Francis B. Nyamnjoh, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Cape Town, South Africa