A01=Joseph Tonda
academic
african
Author_Joseph Tonda
capital
Category=JP
central
colonial
colonies
congo
cultural
culture
economic
economy
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
era
gabon
hobbes
leviathan
marx
philosophical
philosophy
political
politics
post-colonial
power
powerful
region
regional
religion
religious
research
ritual
scholarly
sexual
sociological
sociology
time period
violence
Product details
- ISBN 9780857426888
- Weight: 540g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 30 Apr 2021
- Publisher: Seagull Books London Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
The “Modern Sovereign,” a notion indebted both to Hobbes’s Leviathan and Marx’s conception of capital, refers to the power that governed the African multitudes from the earliest colonial days to the post-colonial era. It is an internalized power, responsible for the multiform violence exerted on bodies and imaginations. Joseph Tonda contends that in Central Africa—and particularly in Gabon and the Congo—the body is at the heart of political, religious, sexual, economic, and ritual power. This, he argues, is confirmed by the strong link between corporeal and political matters, and by the ostentatious display of bodies in African life. The body of power asserts itself as both matter and spirit, and it incorporates the seductive force of money, commodities, sex, and knowledge. Tonda’s incisive analysis reveals how this sovereign power is a social relation, historically constituted by the violence of the African cultural Imaginary and the realities of State, Market, and Church. It is to be understood, he asserts, through a generalized theory economic, political, and religious fetishism. By introducing this crucial critical voice from contemporary Africa into the English language, The Modern Sovereign makes a significant contribution to field of anthropology, political science, and African studies.
Joseph Tonda is professor of sociology at Omar Bongo University, Libreville, Gabon. He is also a regular visiting instructor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Chris Turner is a translator and writer living in Birmingham, UK. He has translated more than eighty books from French and German.
