Can a Liberal be a Chief? Can a Chief be a Liber – Some Thoughts on an Unfinished Business of Colonialism
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A01=Olufemi Taiwo
Author_Olufemi Taiwo
Category=JP
Category=NHTQ
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Product details
- ISBN 9781734643527
- Weight: 102g
- Dimensions: 118 x 179mm
- Publication Date: 05 Nov 2021
- Publisher: Prickly Paradigm Press, LLC
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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An argument against the idea of the indigenous chief as a liberal political figure.
Across Africa, it is not unusual for proponents of liberal democracy and modernization to make room for some aspects of indigenous culture, such as the use of a chief as a political figure. Yet for Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, no such accommodation should be made. Chiefs, he argues, in this thought-provoking and wide-ranging pamphlet, cannot be liberals—and liberals cannot be chiefs. If we fail to recognize this, we fail to acknowledge the metaphysical underpinnings of modern understandings of freedom and equality, as well as the ways in which African intellectuals can offer a distinctive take on the unfinished business of colonialism.
Across Africa, it is not unusual for proponents of liberal democracy and modernization to make room for some aspects of indigenous culture, such as the use of a chief as a political figure. Yet for Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, no such accommodation should be made. Chiefs, he argues, in this thought-provoking and wide-ranging pamphlet, cannot be liberals—and liberals cannot be chiefs. If we fail to recognize this, we fail to acknowledge the metaphysical underpinnings of modern understandings of freedom and equality, as well as the ways in which African intellectuals can offer a distinctive take on the unfinished business of colonialism.
Olúfémi Táíwò is professor of Africana studies at Cornell University.
