Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously (African Arguments) Paperback – 30 Jun. 2022

It is my hope that this book becomes required reading in our academies and that its insights will filter into mainstream conversations on race and culture. Táíwò makes clear that Africa's problems are different from America's, but the distinction he draws between the political decolonisation that came with independence and the broader, frequently misguided processes of "dismantling" the legacy of the coloniser bears relevance in America and Britain nonetheless.He unpacks a wealth of patronizing assumptions that accompany academic attempts to bifurcate modern/European from traditional/native approaches to self-governing. He shows how critics ignore the actual words of Fanon and the complex histories of countries like Liberia, as well as precolonial intellectual developments. Others would wish to extricate a pure African philosophy from any Western analytic (and therefore universal) influence, while still others would have authors not write books or poetry in English or French. (Arabic appears not to fall within the realm of foreign.)These are impossible, counter-productive tasks, Táíwò finds. As an advocate for agency, he is a positive voice for the benefits of synthesis and intellectual freedom.

Taiwo urges his fellow academics and countrymen to drop their fascination with decolonialism and argues that this simplistic framework gets in the way of absorbing and adapting principles of universal human rights and liberal governance to Africa. It’s refreshing to read someone who is unafraid to stand up to an academic mob.

A timely and lively book. "Taking African Agency Seriously" argues against empty ahistorical abstractions and for fully serious, concrete engagements with particular realities. Is it "Against Decolonisation"? Not really but it is against the sort of ubiquitous nebulous "decolonisation talk", which victimises Africans instead of empowering them. An interesting and informative read, though a bit repetitive at times.