Dissidence and the African Writer

The underlying logic of African struggle for independence from European1 rule and subsequently from neo-colonialism in all its manifestations was (and is) that European intrusion into African life was inhumane and disruptive. European enslavement of Africans bespoke a denial of African humanity, and European colonization of continent denied Africans right to follow developmental course charted by their past experiences as most consistent with their values and aspirations; it pointed them instead along courses dictated by European selfinterest. The same logic indicates that successful struggle for African selfdetermination would lead to a resumption, as much as consistent with new realities, of march halted by European incursion, and that it would be supremely ironic if self-determination was followed by an acceptance of new, Europeanimposed orientation (mental, social, or political) as unimpeachable. The African claim to self-determination is not predicated on a supposed intrinsic superiority of African ways to European ways, but on principle that for good or ill every people must be free to exercise ultimate control over its destiny. At height of campaign for independence, Nigerian politicians, for example, defiantly demanded from Britain the right to govern or misgovern ourselves. In that formulation was a denial of any right to any people to intrude into private lives of any other people under any pretext and an affirmation of rights of any people to freely conduct its own affairs and requisite internal (even internecine) debates without sort of outside interference that colonization represented. Self-determination, of course, does not suggest isolationism, nor is it incompatible with new internationalism that existence of United Nations and other regional associations of sovereign nations symbolizes. Thus, even though there has been a repudiation of colonialism, economic, political and historical factors necessitate a new order of mutual involvement between Africa and rest of world. In other words, while old relationship between Europe and Africa was based on exploitative self-interest, new, to a significant degree, is based on mutual interests. There also exists, however, a residual patronal instinct that finds expression in a watchfulness to ensure that tenderfoots who succeeded to power in newly independent African countries do not destroy legacy of civilization that colonizers bequeathed them. This watchfulness has often

Dependency (UML · Political science · African history and culture studies · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Global Peace and Security Dynamics

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