Imagining a dialectical African modernity
Achebe's ontological hopes, Sembene's machines, Mda's epistemological redness
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11422740 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Melissa Tandiwe Myambo (University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 457-473 |
| Publication date | 2014-10-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Contemporary African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0258-9001 • E-ISSN: 1469-9397 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02589001.2014.979608 |
| OpenAlex | W2082860093 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 7 |
In Chinua Achebe's book of essays Hopes and Impediments, he asserts that Nigeria's failure to ‘develop’ and ‘modernise’ like Japan is because of a ‘failure of imagination’. Yet for many Africans, modernity is a tainted ‘gift’ because it was introduced into the African continent along with European colonial capitalism which simultaneously caused an ontological crisis of self. Although many Africans want to ‘catch up’ with the West, how is it possible when Western technological superiority was equated with white racial superiority? Achebe declares that, as Africans ‘begin their journey into the strange, revolutionary world of modernization’, literature should function as guide. Hence, I examine Ousmane Sembene's novel God's Bits of Wood which depicts Africans laying claim to ‘race-less’, ‘language-less’ ‘machines’. But does (Western) technology change culture? Can African culture appropriate technology to form a dialectical African modernity? If so, what role does ‘tradition’ play? In Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness, we witness the emergence of a traditional modernity made possible by a dialectical epistemology
Aesthetics · Capitalism · Colonialism · Democracy · Dialectic · Epistemology · Modernity · Modernization theory · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · Witness · African history and culture studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2014 - 2023 (10) |
| Highly cited | No |