Partisan Universalism: Essays in honour of Ato Sekyi-Otu

281 Pages·2021·1.86 MB·English

by  Gamal Abdel-Shehid, Sofia Noori

Responding to the invitation ‘to re-member severed but shareable things’, these
loversoftruth,freedom,anddignitycelebratethesearingintellect,generosity,wit,
andcompassionofthepersonandthescholarAtoSekyi-Otu.Inthecrucialspaces
he opened to generate alternatives to brutally Eurocentric Marxism and a polit-
ically hopeless post-structuralism, racial separatism and imperialist universalism,
thewonderfullychallengingessaysofthiscollectiontogetheraffirmthatiftheuni-
versalcanonlyspeakinparticulartongues,itisourjobtodiscernandamplifywhat
isbeinguttered.CombinedwithSekyi-Otu’sautobiographicalreflectionsoflearn-
ingtobeBlackintheUnitedStatesandinsistencethatAfropessimismturnsthe
perverseontologyoftheantiblackworldintoaBlackontology,thisisaprecious
contribution. Not to be missed! — Jane Anna Gordon, author of Statelessness
andContemporaryEnslavementandco-editor(withDrucillaCornell)ofCreoliz-
ing Rosa Luxemburg
Critically engaging Ato Sekyi-Otu’snotion of partisan universalism, this timely
volume of essays speaks directly to the onto-metaphysical issues that will give
Africanathoughtthenewfoundationsthatwillenableittomovebeyondthelin-
guisticturn,brushasidetheashesofAfro-pessimism,engageBadiou’snewmath-
ematical universalism, and to launch new projects of liberation on decolonized
groundsofgreaterepistemicindependence.Amustreadforallconcernedwiththe
future of Africana theory and praxis.— Paget Henry, author ofCaliban’s Rea-
son.
AtoSekyi-Otu’sthoughtisoneofthemostimportantandexcitinginAfricatoday.
Itisnoexaggerationtoaffirmthatheisoneofthetwomostinnovativecontem-
porary dialectical thinkers, the other being Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba. The texts
compiled in this volume celebrate and engage with the work of Sekyi-Otu and
were all delivered at a conference in his honour held at York University in Octo-
ber2019.TheybeareloquentwitnesstoSekyi-Otu’sstatureasathinkerandalso
tohisconsistentcommitmenttotheuniversalizationofhumanityinboththeory
and practice. Deeply anchored in African cultures and modes of life, Sekyi-Otu
hasshownhowideasofhumanuniversalityareingrainedinAfricanpopularsay-
ingsandproverbsandareregularlyreflectedinartisticcreations.Thevarioustexts
collectedhereprovidenotonlyaglimpseoftheextraordinarydepthofhisthink-
ingandbreadthofhisknowledge,butalsoofhisgenuinecommitmenttoabetter
worldforallofus.—Michael Neocosmos,EmeritusProfessorintheHumani-
ties, Rhodes University, South Africa

Partisan Universalism

Partisan Universalism
Essays in honour of
Ato Sekyi-Otu

Edited by
Gamal Abdel-Shehid & Sofia Noori
Published by
Daraja Press
https://darajapress.com
Published in East Africa by
Zand Graphics Ltd https://zandgraphics.com/
© 2021 Gamal Abdel-Shehid
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-990263-05-7
Cover image: Nergis Canefe
Cover design: Kate McDonnell
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Partisan universalism : essays in honour of Ato Sekyi-Otu / edited by
Gamal Abdel-Shehid and Sofia Noori.
Names: Abdel-Shehid, Gamal, 1966- editor. | Noori, Sofia, editor. | Sekyi-
Otu, Ato, honouree.
Description: Based on a conference held at York University, Toronto,
October 2-4, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210155027 | Canadiana (ebook)
20210155116 | ISBN 9781990263057 (softcover) | ISBN 9781990263064
(PDF)
Subjects: LCSH: Humanism—Philosophy—Congresses. | LCSH: Political
science—Philosophy—Congresses. | LCGFT: Festschriften.
Classification: LCC B821 .P37 2021 | DDC 144—dc23
This book is dedicated to the memory of Charles Mills, who passed
away as we were going to press. Charles was dear to Ato and
considered Ato one of his mentors. Charles, as is well known, went
on to become a formidable scholar and mentor in his own right.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Gamal Abdel-Shehid
Fanon for a post-imperial world: On universals and other 10
human matters
Stefan Kipfer
The Sea Menagerie: Esi Edugyan’s Atlantic 32
Patrick Taylor
Reconsidering Fanon’s language of recognition in 47
Indigenous studies
Sophie McCall
On Fanon and Lacan: Continuities and structural 63
psychiatry
Gamal Abdel-Shehid
Aimé Césaire’s Two ways to lose yourself: The Exception 81
and the rule
Jeremy M. Glick
This Africa to Come 97
Nigel C. Gibson
Speaking for, speaking through, speaking with: Abstract 118
and concrete universality in the struggle for human
emancipation
Jeff Noonan