How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa

368 Pages·2012·2.04 MB·English

by  Olúfémi Táíwò

How Colonialism
Preempted Modernity in Africa

HOW
COLONIALISM

PREEMPTED MODERNITY
(cid:2)
IN AFRICA
é
Olúf mi Táíwò
indiana university press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton Street
Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
www.iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796
Fax orders 812-855-7931
Orders by e-mail [email protected]
© 2010 by Olúfémi Táíwò
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American Univer-
sity Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
> The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American Na-
tional Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Taiwo, Olufemi.
How colonialism preempted modernity in Africa / Taiwo Olufemi.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-35374-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-22130-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Africa—Civilization—Philosophy. 2. Africa—Colonial infl uence. 3. Africa—Colonization—
History. 4. Europe—Colonies—Africa—History. 5. Colonies—Africa—History. 6. Africa—
Politics and government. 7. Missionaries—Africa—History. 8. Democracy—Africa.
9. Capitalism—Africa. I. Title.
DT14.T35 2009
325.6—dc22
2009019610
1 2 3 4 5 15 14 13 12 11 10
To
Segun Osoba
Toye Olorode
Dipo Fashina
Teachers, Friends, Comrades
And
John Olubi Sodipo
Sweet are the memories of the just.
The proof is that at present [that is, while colonialism lasted] it is the indigenous
peoples of Africa and Asia who are demanding schools, and colonialist Europe
which refuses them; that it is the African who is asking for ports and roads, and
colonialist Europe which is niggardly on this score; and that it is the colonized
man who wants to move forward, and the colonizer who holds things back.
—Aimé Césaire
We claim, in common with the rest of mankind, that taxation without represen-
tation is a bad thing, and we are pledged, as all free peoples have had to do, that
in our several communities the African shall have that common weapon for the
protection and safeguarding of his rights and interests, namely, the franchise. It is
desirable, we hold, that by our vote we shall determine by what laws we shall be
governed and how the revenues which we help to put together shall be utilized.
Equally do we hold with others that there should be free scope for the members
of the community, irrespective of creed or colour, to hold any offi ce under the
crown or fl ag to which a person’s merits entitle him or her.
—J. E. Casely Hayford
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Of Subjectivity and Sociocryonics 1
PART I. COLONIALISM
1. Colonialism: A Philosophical Profi le 21
2. Running Aground on Colonial Shores: The Saga of
Modernity and Colonialism 49
3. Prophets without Honor: African Apostles of Modernity
in the Nineteenth Century 98
4. Reading the Colonizer’s Mind: Lord Lugard and the Philosophical
Foundations of British Colonialism 128
PART II. THE AFTERMATH
5. The Legal Legacy: Twilight before Dawn 157
6. Two Modern African Constitutions 202
PART III. LOOKING FORWARD
7. Globalization: Doing It Right This Time Around 237
Conclusion 273
Notes 275
Selected Bibliography 323
Index 329

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For a work that has had as along a gestation as this one, it is quite in order that I have
garnered a lot of debts along the way. While the work developed I moved around a
lot, and as much as possible, I shall thank my benefactors according to where I met
them and where they came to affect the shape or direction of this work.
The oldest antecedent of all the chapters of this book came out of the original
project for which I was awarded a Rockefeller Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Africana
Studies and Research Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, back in 1990.
There I met Kofi Anyidoho. If I could claim nothing else from my stay but Profes-
sor Anyidoho’s friendship and his interest in and sponsorship of my work ever since,
it would have been well worth it. Fortunately, Ithaca was also a place where I was
blessed to interact with some old friends and make new ones. I would like to thank
David Lyons, whose friendship and mentoring had a greater impact on me than I
think he realized. I also thank Anne Adams; Biodun Jeyifo; Jim Turner; Robert Har-
ris, Jr.; Abdul Nanji; and the late Don Ohadike. Yetunde Laniran always managed
to save me from the terror of computers and their quirky ways.
In 1991, I moved to the Philosophy Department at Loyola University in Chicago.
I was the benefi ciary of the kindness and professional support of so many colleagues
during the many years I spent there. As the individual acknowledgments in differ-
ent chapters show, the bulk of the research that has been gathered in this book was
done while the department at Loyola served as my home base. My Chicago years
were productive but they also were some of the most diffi cult periods of my life so far,
both personally and professionally. I am forever thankful for the support of my Chi-
cago family, who never let me really discover how bad my situation then was until
I left and was able to look backward with some detachment. I thank Hugh Miller
and his family; David Schweickart, David Ingram, Thomas Sheehan, and the rest
of the Heartland Café Sunday morning group; Julie Ward and her husband, Ezio
Vailati, “my countryman”; Holly Graff; David Ozar; Ardis Collins; Sue Cunning-
ham; Andrew Cutrofello; Jennifer Parks; the late Hans Seigfried; Ken Thompson;
Heidi Malm; Patricia Huntington; Tom Carson; Diane Suter; Cheryl Johnson-Odim
and her family; Susan Cavallo; Judith Wittner; Ayana Karanja; Clement Adibe and