Derrida, Africa, and the Middle East

223 Pages·2009·2.959 MB·English

by  Christopher Wise (auth.)

Derrida, Africa, and
the Middle East
Previous Publications
Whither Arabism? (2009)
The Yambo Ouologuem Reader (2008)
Developing American Studies at Arab Universities (2004)
The Desert Shore: Literatures of the Sahel (2001)
Yambo Ouologuem: Postcolonial Writer, Islamic Militant (1999)
Littératures du Sahel (1998)
The Marxian Hermeneutics of Fredric Jameson (1995)
Translation
The Parachute Drop (2004), by Norbert Zongo
Derrida, Africa, and
the Middle East
Christopher Wise
Derrida, Africa, and the Middle East
Copyright © Christopher Wise, 2009.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-61417-8
Earlier versions of the following chapters have appeared in the following
journals: Chapter One, “Saying ‘Yes’ to Africa: Jacques Derrida’s Specters
of Marx,” in Research In African Literatures, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Winter) 2002:
124–142; Chapter Three, “Deconstruction and Zionism: Jacques
Derrida’s Specters of Marx,” in Diacritics, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Spring) 2001:
56–72; Chapter Four, “The Figure of Jerusalem: Jacques Derrida’s
Specters of Marx,” Christianity and Literature, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Autumn)
2004: 73–91. Versions of these essays printed in this book supersede
previously p ublished versions.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2009 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
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this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
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Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
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ISBN 978-1-349-37839-5 ISBN 978-0-230-61953-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230619531
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Wise, Christopher, 1961–
Derrida, Africa, and the Middle East / Christopher Wise.
p. cm.
1. Derrida, Jacques—Political and social views. 2. North Africans—
France—Attitudes. 3. Derrida, Jacques—Religion. 4. Jewish
philosophers—France—Attitudes. 5. Derrida, Jacques. Spectres
de Marx. I. Title.
B2430.D484W57 2009
194—dc22 2008030442
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: March 2009
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Judi, Zachary, Zoë, Ayesha, and Michael
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Contents
Preface ix
1 Saying “Yes” to Africa 1
2 Deconstruction of the Veil 13
3 Arab-Jew 27
4 Deconstruction and Zionism 45
5 The Figure of Jerusalem 59
6 Conjuration 75
7 The Secular Trace 89
8 The Double Gesture 107
9 Realism without Realism 129
10 The Wordless Yes 149
11 Deconstruction and the African Trace 167
Notes 189
Works Cited 201
Index 209
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Preface
Every book has its story and this one, written between the turbulent
years of 2001 and 2007, is certainly no exception. When I began this
book, Jacques Derrida was still alive, the World Trade Centers in New
York City were still erect, and the very notion of U.S.-led wars against
Afghanistan and Iraq seemed little more than a fantasy of the far
right. I was first drawn to Derrida as an Africanist scholar working in
Sahelian literatures and society, especially Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger,
and Senegal, but also further north into Morocco, Algeria, and
Mauritania. Much of my research is focused on the culture of the
Djoliba, one of the truly great river civilizations of the world, and I
could see from my work among Fulani, Dogon, Songhay, and Mossi
peoples that Derrida’s Specters of Marx especially resonates with
Sahelian culture. This is so because the Sahel, in my view, is a culture
that was influenced by Ancient Egyptian civilization. The Songhay
language, for instance, is classified as a “Nilo-Sahelian” language,
and cultural theorists have long studied links between the Songhay,
the Fulani, the Dogon, and the Ancient Egyptians. To talk about
links between Egypt and the Sahel is complicated for various reasons,
not least because of the long history of Arabic slavery in the region
and non-European and Arabic forms of racism toward black Africans.
(The Fulani are a mixed ethnic group of both Arab and African ori-
gins.) Specters of Marx begins with a discussion of the opening scene
of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as if it is a conjuration rite, and I had learned
from my research in the Sahel that conjuration rites are common in
this region in Sufi brotherhoods, especially among the Umarian
Tidjaniya. My initial interest in Specters of Marx therefore grew out of
my desire to better understand conjuration, not as some residue of
archaic societies, but as a vital, fascinating, and contemporary practice
in West Africa. No other serious contemporary philosopher offered as
attractive a means for theorizing conjuration, so I began to read
Derrida more seriously, despite my initial reservations about the appli-
cability of deconstruction in this context. The more I studied Specters
of Marx, and related texts like Archive Fever, Circumfession, and Veils,