The postcolonial turn : [re-imagining anthropology and Africa]

Resource Information

The work The postcolonial turn : [re-imagining anthropology and Africa] represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Liverpool. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The postcolonial turn : [re-imagining anthropology and Africa]

Title remainder

[re-imagining anthropology and Africa]

Statement of responsibility

edited by René Devisch, Francis Nyamnjoh

Contributor

• Devisch, Rene
• Nyamnjoh, Francis B., 1961-
• Nyamnjoh, Francis B., 1961-

Subject

• Anthropology -- Africa
• Postcolonialism -- Africa

Language

eng

Summary

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 peopleís 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 RenÈ 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 peopleís 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

Member of

• Online access with subscription: Proquest Ebook Central

Cataloging source

CaPaEBR

Illustrations

• illustrations
• plates

Index

no index present

LC call number

GN645

LC item number

.P67 2011eb

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

• standards specifications
• bibliography