Dr. Olufemi Taiwo a Nigerian who is now Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University, has written a seminal new book on global philosophy, Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously (Hurst, 2022), which has salutary lessons for Africa, the continent of his birth, and for the world at large, including Guyana. A key message of the book is that in post-independence countries we are responsible for shaping our own futures, on the basis of respect for human dignity, rights, democracy, the rule of law and the application of reason.
A central submission of Prof. Taiwo’s book is that, with the advent of political and economic decolonization in the former colonial territories, their leaders should have been faithful to their responsibility for shaping the future of their countries and that we must now recognize that many of the shortcomings and depravities that followed independence were attributable to our leaders.
In Guyana, a theatre of the cold war with peoples of different origins, we needed to work assiduously at nation-building. Instead, we subverted the Independence Constitution, subverted elections and a referendum, and practised paramountcy of the party in all spheres of life, including the judiciary. We still have to heal from the consequences of these depravities.
Prof. Taiwo makes a distinction between what he labels Decolonisation 1 and Decolonisation 2. He considers that Decolonisation 1 was attained with independence, and that, thereafter, responsibility for shaping the future of countries rested with their leaders, even acknowledging the relevance of international factors. He rejects Nkrumah’s concept of neo-colonialism as a convenient self-exculpatory excuse for the failures of independence and post-independence leaders.
He groups under the label Decolonisation 2, thinkers, political activists, scholars and cultural agitators who call for the complete ‘decolonisation of values’, in thought, books, philosophy, politics, economics, and culture on the ground that everything associated with the colonial experience must be rejected. In the course of his discussion, he refers to the positions of Frantz Fanon, Kwesi Wiredu, and Ngugi wa Thiongo.
He considers Fanon as a humanist, and while acknowledging their historic contributions to African thought, thinks that Wiredu and Thiongo have gone too far in their quest to Africanize philosophy. Fanon, he noted, “is calling for the restoration of the equality all humans share by virtue of their humanity itself….A fundamental humanism animates Fanon’s philosophy.”
Taiwo rejects Decolonization 2 as fatally flawed on the ground that the history of the world is centred in the one-ness of humanity, the cross-fertilization of thought among peoples and cultures, and humanity’s constant quest for enlightenment and modernity. In this quest for enlightenment and modernity, humanity has evolved universal values that must be recognized as a part of, and applicable to, all societies, all countries, all peoples. He thinks that attempts to frame modernity as an exclusively ‘European’ or ‘Western’ inheritance are manifestations of the racialisation of consciousness. The same applies to claims about the ‘Europeanness’ of reason, rationality, individualism. In Guyana, we will need to be attentive to the phenomenon of “the racialisation of consciousness”. It can be a deadly brew.
Dr Taiwo writes: “I am convinced of the fruitlessness of extending the scope of decolonisation beyond its original meaning…of making a colony into a self-governing entity with its political and economic fortunes under its own direction…’Decolonisation’ today, however, has come to mean something entirely different: forcing an ex-colony to forswear, on pain of being forever under the yoke of colonisation, any and every cultural, political, intellectual, social and linguistic artefact, idea, process, institution and practice that retains even the slightest whiff of the colonial past. I call this Decolonisation 2.” Taiwo thinks that we must recognize that the accumulated thought of humankind is part of our shared heritage.
The theme of upholding universal values recurs repeatedly in this fascinating book. Prof. Taiwo challenges adherents of Decolonisation 2, who repudiate universalism, and comments that anti-universalism is chief among those ritual anathemas of anti-imperialism or, as they say, ‘counter-hegemonic discourse’. He seeks to bring into the discussion the products of the genius of African agency in claiming the universal.
Prof. Taiwo insists on respect for, and protection of, the dignity and rights of every human being, for the fundamental principle that government must be based on the consent of the people, and be grounded in the rule of law. He considers that these universal values are part of the shared heritage of humanity. He thinks that independence was meant to bring in states headed by governments that respect the inviolate dignity of their citizens and are answerable to them. Decolonisation in politics should have meant that the colonised would no longer have to chafe under the rule of governments imposed without their consent. We have experienced this in Guyana.
Taiwo comments: “Africans did not think that freedom, control over their own lives, respect for their individuality or a state whose functioning serves them and are legitimised by them were ‘European’ or ‘Western’ concepts. No government can have legitimacy unless it has been consented to by the governed – the principle of governance by consent”. This, Taiwo considers, “is the defining characteristic of the modern age…In politics, Africans should be in control of who governs them, and that governance must be based on the consent of the governed.” He underlines the demand of people “for human dignity, for the state, run by people from within their own ranks, to serve and respect them; and for individuals, in their capacity as humans and citizens, to be the authors of their own scripts, and for the integrity of their person to be held sacrosanct by the state, its agents, and their fellow-citizens.”
This is undoubtedly a seminal book that has deep lessons for Guyana and its people. One can draw from it the lessons that Guyana must work meaningfully at defining what it means to be Guyanese; must develop a culture drawing on the heritage of all of its peoples; must be democratically governed in the interest of all its peoples; must build on the universal values of human dignity, human rights, democracy, the rule of law, and respect for the cultures of our people; and must be ever vigilant about the explosive danger that can result from the ‘racialisation of consciousness’ to which Dr Taiwo has drawn attention.
Dr Bertrand Ramcharan is formerly Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General and Chancellor of the University of Guyana.
