Foucault Hardly Came to Africa: Some Notes on Colonial and Post- Colonial Governmentality (original) (raw)

SPEAKING BACK TO COLONIALITY: A GENERAL OBSERVATION USING A VARIETY OF AFRICAN CASE STUDIES

“Tell your story until your past stops tearing your present apart” (Mashile, 2016). In these important words uttered by renowned poet, Lebogang Mashile , I welcome you to my paper. The topic of engagement is about coloniality, with a focus on the various ways which coloniality shows up in reality. I have divided my paper into four sub-categories which critically engage coloniality. First, I will define coloniality in conjunction with differentiating it from colonialism or colonisation. Then, I will discuss coloniality of power by using the film Namibia Genocide and the Second Reich (Olusoga, 2004) as an example. Then I will discuss coloniality of being by using the film Once Were Warriors (Tamahori, 1994) an example. I will follow with a discussion on the coloniality of knowledge using the documentary Afrikaaps (Valley, 2010) as an example, before ending my paper with a succinct conclusion.

Post-Development, Foucault, and the Colonisation Metaphor

2002

Post-development, the most recent radical reaction to the problems of postwar development efforts, has been the focus of both strident criticism and restrained defence in Third World Quarterly. This article shows that addressing post-development's shortcomings is more useful than dismissing or limiting its potential. By using the work of Foucault, one of post-development's theoretical departure points, a clear distinction is drawn between the operation of power in colonial and development eras. This requires a shift away from repressive views of power, ideas that a singular force directs development, and the colonisation metaphor used by some post-development writers. This article then shows that combining Foucault's notion of dispositif with his concept of normalisation is useful for understanding the operation of power in the postwar development project, and for comprehending how power operates through the World Bank. In this way a critical engagement with post-development can improve our understanding and analysis of development.

Michel Foucault and the coloniality of power

Cultural Studies , 2021

Contrary to most postcolonial approaches that focus on modernity/coloniality, this article argues for the relevance of heterarchical theories of power. In his lectures at Collège de France, Foucault shifts from a microphysical and corpopolitical analytic of power towards a biopolitical analytic of power. This shift in Foucault's focus is analyzed through Quijano and Wallerstein's theorization of the modern/colonial world system. In doing so, this paper details the ways in which corpopolitics, biopolitics, and geopolitics operate on the micro-, meso-and macro-levels of power, respectively. Further decolonial research should give deeper consideration to heterarchical theories of power, particularly as they relate to multiple temporalities within the modern/colonial world system.

POSTCOLONIALISM: RESPONSES FROM AFRICA Foundation (AARF

2018

The British Empire covered a significant part of the globe, Africa being one of its major colonies. The emergent postcolonial agenda in African intellectual thinking is being reflected by the colonial legacies that stud mostly drawn from colonial writings. This paper attempts to examine the nature of post colonialism and its effects on Africa, its culture, society and foreign policy. It attempts to explain the colonial hangovers which continue in African society at large and how penetrative it has been. This paper further seeks to explain the atrocities done by the British during the colonial era and the continuation of it in terms of neo colonialism. Post colonial theory attempts to be sympathetic to the aspirations of the oppressed and give voice to the silenced. With this thought in mind one of the most important discussions of post colonialism comes from the British colonies, namely, Africa and India. As a plethora of articles have been written on India, this paper attempts to focus more on Africa and its experiences with it being a post colonial nation. Africa is a resource rich nation and yet suffers at the hands of the developed world. Many a times unstable government is also to be blamed for the abysmal predicament of the natives. Referring to papers on post colonialism this paper attempts to understand and explain how the natives being free from the clutches of imperialism can innovate their own standards of oppression.

Colonialism vs Postcolonialism: A Review of Basic Preliminaries

2019

The current paper is an attempt to review and present few main undercurrents and arguments of ‘colonialism’ and ‘postcolonialism,’ and try to articulate how these concepts help us to understand wider aspects of both these movements, and the resultant influence on colonizer and colonized peoples, cultures as well as literatures. The paper, however, will mainly rely on understanding the basic concepts of both these movements and locate them in historical perspectives to situate the emergence as well as decadence of colonialism and the gradual growth of postcolonial culture and literature across the countries that were once part of the vicious colonization project of the Europe.

Post-colonialism: Theoretical Foundations and Relevance to African Politics

2018

From social to economic and political thought, there is abundant evidence to suggest that even in the postcolonial moment, Africa is still saddled with the perpetuation of the colonial phenomenon, with obvious implications for contemporary political thought and practice. This chapter undertakes a systematic critique of “post-colonialism,” its historical evolution, specific deployments, theoretical foundations and relevance to contemporary African politics. It does this through a range of questions. Has Africa really gone beyond the colonial into the postcolonial? Is post-colonialism an act or process of passing, a movement from one point to another? Or is it the repetition or regeneration of something through other means? Is Africa actually caught between a postcolonial and neocolonial moment? Or are we presently experiencing multiple post-colonialism(s)? These questions are asked against the backdrop of Africa’s uncertain and unpredictable post-colonial democratic experiment.

Africa’s ‘Two Publics’: Colonialism and Governmentality

Theory, Culture & Society, 2016

In this article, I explore a possible ‘conversation’ between a leading African political sociologist, Peter P. Ekeh, in his theory of ‘two publics’, and the late French philosopher, historian and social theorist, Michel Foucault, in his theory of governmentality. I examine the ‘lingering effects of colonialism’ and point to how Ekeh’s insight and its usefulness for examining the politico-cultural consequences of colonialism in terms of the conduct of conduct in the public realm can be further enriched by relating it to the deeply penetrating insight on the nature of power and domination articulated through the concept of governmentality and sovereign power. The paper concludes that Ekeh’s thesis is particularly suitable for interrogating governmentality and its useful insights for understanding public life in Africa because, like Foucault’s theory of governmentality, it is grounded on a historical account of contemporary processes of socio-political and economic configuration.

The Problem of Colonialism

Critical Times

This article explores the ways in which Latin American decolonial theory is drawn on to make sense of colonial legacies in contemporary Africa. For Latin American decolonial theory, colonialism is characterized by enforced assimilation enacted through epistemic violence. Latin American decolonial theory self-consciously rejects thinking about colonialism as historically specific in favor of the more abstract concept of coloniality. When Latin American decolonial theory travels to Africa, its emphasis on colonial assimilation obscures a significant experience of colonialism that enforced difference rather than assimilation. The article discusses the key underpinnings of apartheid education as a form of colonial education, in order to show how colonialism was responsive to particular conditions and combined both epistemology and institutions. To think the problem of colonialism in the present requires a comparative account of the problem of colonialism that embraces both the history o...