scholarly journals The Dialectics of Political Ideology and Power Relations in African Literature: A Reading of Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí’s Baṣọ̀run Gáà

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Sola Owonibi
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
African Literature ◽  
New Historicism ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Underlying Theory ◽  
Creative Writers

Introduction Ideology underscores how we make sense of history and reality. It is the underlying theory that governs every organized movement, institution, and government. In Politics, ideology superintends the constructs, subversions, moderations, and resistance of power. In Literature, ideology plays even a deluxe role as it is the vehicle that drives political and cultural purposes. A close consideration of the African creative canvass reveals that her imaginative writings are burdened with the ideology of socio-cultural redemption. Although replete with a recasting of themes that stress the subversions and resistance of political and religious power, especially in the continent’s post-colonial space, there is not much thematic commitment among creative writers to the ideology that constructs and moderates power. Using the New Historicism as the theoretical basis, this paper proposes that to understand the logic that has bedeviled post-colonial African governance, there is need to revisit power structures that characterize the continent’s pre-colonial history. It is in this burden that this paper shall attempt to examine the dialectics of political ideology, power relations and the prophetic in Baṣọrun Gáà ̀. The paper also argues that the private anxieties of the playwright, as presented in the play, 160 Lere Adeyemi are prophetic in nature and that Baṣọrun Gáà is weakened by the burdens of ̀ his strength, in other words, blinded by sight.

Modeling and Implementation of Formal Power Structures in Enterprise Information Systems

2010 ◽  
pp. 174-188
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Enterprise Information ◽  
Enterprise Information Systems ◽  
Organizational Power ◽  
Authority Relations ◽  
Formal Power

The concepts of power and authority are inherent in human organizations of any type. In some organizations power relations on individuals are defined explicitly and formalized in organizational documentation. In other organizations power relations are implicit, less strict and may change depending on contextual conditions. As power relations have important consequences for organizational viability and productivity, they should be considered explicitly in enterprise information systems (EISs). Although organization theory provides a rich and very diverse theoretical basis on organizational power, still most of the definitions for power-related concepts are too abstract, often vague and ambiguous to be directly implemented in EISs. To create a bridge between informal organization theories and automated EISs, this chapter proposes a formal logic-based specification language for representing power- (in particular authority) relations and their dynamics. The use of the language is illustrated by considering authority structures of organizations of different types. Moreover, the chapter demonstrates how the formalized authority relations can be integrated into an EIS.

scholarly journals Medium and Credibility in the African Novel: The Novelistic Vision of G.D Nyamndi and Blessed A. Njume

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Andrew T. Ngeh
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
New Historicism ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Creative Writers ◽  
Social Reference ◽  
Art For Art's Sake ◽  
The Military

The post-colonial African novelist is committed beyond his/her art to a statement of value. Thus he is not interested in art for art’s sake. This study distances itself from Dan S. Izevbaye’s 1971 position for a ‘suppressed social reference’ in literary discourse. The post-colonial novelist believes that he must be socially committed in order to be universally engaged. In his/her novelistic vision, he/she questions the very foundation of the independence of most African nations. There is a consensus amongst African creative writers that the independence of most African countries is a sham because independence means self-determination. George D. Nyamndi in his The Sins of Babi Yar (2012) and Blessed Ambang Njume in his In a Web (2016) set out to bring out the visionary role of a committed writer and his moral obligation to his society. Using the medium of effective communication, the two novelists highlight corruption and the abuse of power as banes to socio-political development in Cameroon in particular and Africa as a whole. Using new historicism and the concept of socialist realism to interpret, evaluate and analyse the two novels under study, the paper explores and highlights the moral responsibility of a committed novelist in post-colonial African society. In this light, this study submits that the law courts, the judiciary, the military, the church and the educational systems in post-independent Africa are conduits and mechanisms for the propagation of neocolonialism and imperialism. Rev. Father Aaron in a Web and Justice Dan Mowena in The Sins of Babi Yar provide clear justifications for these social ills.

Design, power and colonisation: decolonial and anti-oppressive explorations on three approaches for Design for Sustainability

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas B. TORRETTA ◽  
Lizette REITSMA
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Design For Sustainability ◽  
The People ◽  
Reflexive Practice ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Design Power ◽  
Relational Issue

Our contemporary world is organized in a modern/colonial structure. As people, professions and practices engage in cross-country Design for Sustainability (DfS), projects have the potential of sustaining or changing modern/colonial power structures. In such project relations, good intentions in working for sustainability do not directly result in liberation from modern/colonial power structures. In this paper we introduce three approaches in DfS that deal with power relations. Using a Freirean (1970) decolonial perspective, we analyse these approaches to see how they can inform DfS towards being decolonial and anti-oppressive. We conclude that steering DfS to become decolonial or colonizing is a relational issue based on the interplay between the designers’ position in the modern/colonial structure, the design approach chosen, the place and the people involved in DfS. Hence, a continuous critical reflexive practice is needed in order to prevent DfS from becoming yet another colonial tool.

Blackism and Pan-Africanism in Post-Colonial African Literature: A Reading of Femi Osofisan’s Plays

Imbizo ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clement Olujide Ajidahun
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Black People ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
African Renaissance ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
New Social Order

This article is a thematic study of Femi Osofisan’s plays that explicitly capture the essence of blackism, nationalism and pan-Africanism as a depiction of the playwright’s ideology and his total commitment to the evolution of a new social order for black people. The article critically discusses the concepts of blackism and pan-Africanism as impelling revolutionary tools that seek to re-establish and reaffirm the primacy, identity, and personality of black people in Africa and in the diaspora. It also discusses blackism as an African renaissance ideology that campaigns for the total emancipation of black people and a convulsive rejection of all forms of colonialism, neo-colonialism, Eurocentrism, nepotism and ethnic chauvinism, while advocating an acceptance of Afrocentrism, unity and oneness of blacks as indispensable tools needed for the dethronement of all forms of racism, discrimination, oppression and dehumanisation of black people. The article hinges the underdevelopment of the black continent on the deliberate attempt of the imperialists and their black cronies who rule with iron hands to keep blacks in perpetual slavery. It countenances Femi Osofisan’s call for unity and solidarity among all blacks as central to the upliftment of Africans. The article recognises Femi Osofisan as a strong, committed and formidable African playwright who utilises theatre as a veritable and radical platform to fight and advocate for the liberation of black people by arousing their revolutionary consciousness and by calling on them to hold their destinies in their hands if they are to be emancipated from the shackles of oppression.

Identity propaganda: Racial narratives and disinformation

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110292
Author(s):  
Madhavi Reddi ◽  
Rachel Kuo ◽  
Daniel Kreiss
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
Social Orders ◽  
Racial Narratives

This article develops the concept of “identity propaganda,” or narratives that strategically target and exploit identity-based differences in accord with pre-existing power structures to maintain hegemonic social orders. In proposing and developing the concept of identity propaganda, we especially aim to help researchers find new insights into their data on misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda by outlining a framework for unpacking layers of historical power relations embedded in the content they analyze. We focus on three forms of identity propaganda: othering narratives that alienate and marginalize non-white or non-dominant groups; essentializing narratives that create generalizing tropes of marginalized groups; and authenticating narratives that call upon people to prove or undermine their claims to be part of certain groups. We demonstrate the utility of this framework through our analysis of identity propaganda around Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2020 US presidential election.

Tense and Tender Ties: The Politics of Comparison in (Post) Colonial Studies

Itinerario ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 263-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Laura Stoler
Keyword(s):  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Racial Categories ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Colonial Encounter ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Research Domain

This essay takes as its subject how intimate domains - sex, sentiment, domestic arrangement and child rearing - figure in the making of racial categories and in the management of imperial rule. For some two decades my work on Indonesia's Dutch colonial history has addressed patterns of governance that were particular to that time and place but resonant with practices in a wider global field. My perspective thus is that of an outsider to, but an acquisitive consumer of comparative historical studies, one long struck with the disparate and congruent imperial projects in Asia, Africa and the Americas. This essay invites reflection on those domains of overlap and difference. My interest is more specifically in what Albert Hurtado refers to as ‘the intimate frontiers’ of empire, a social and cultural space where racial classifications were defined and defied, where relations between coloniser and colonised could powerfully confound or confirm the strictures of governance and the categories of rule. Some two decades ago, Sylvia van Kirk urged a focus on such ‘tender ties’ as a way to explore the ‘human dimension’ of the colonial encounter.’ As she showed so well, what Michel Foucault has called these ‘dense transfer point[s]’ of power that generate such ties were sites of production of colonial inequities and, therefore, of tense ties as well. Among students of colonialisms in the last decade, the intimacies of empire have been a rich and well-articulated research domain. A more sustained focus on the relationship between what Foucault refers to as ‘the regimes of truth’ of imperial systems (the ways of knowing and establishing truth claims about race and difference on which macro polities rely) and those micro sites of governance may reveal how these colonial empires compare and converge.

Personal Law and Citizenship in India's Transition to Independence

2011 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELEANOR NEWBIGIN
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Liberal Citizenship ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Personal Law

AbstractStudies of the post-colonial state have often presented it as a structure that has fallen under the control of self-interested sections of the Indian elite. In terms of citizenship, the failure of the state to do more to realize the egalitarian promise of the Fundamental Rights, set out in the Constitution of 1950, has often been attributed to interference by these powerful elite. Tracing the interplay between debates about Hindu property rights and popular support or tolerance for the notion of individual, liberal citizenship, this paper argues that the principles espoused in the Fundamental Rights were never neutral abstractions but, long before independence, were firmly embedded in the material world of late-colonial political relations. Thus, in certain key regards, the citizen-subject of the Indian Constitution was not the individual, freed from ascriptive categories of gender or religious identity, but firmly tied to the power structures of the community governed by Hindu law.

POST-GADDAFI REPERCUSSIONS IN NORTHERN MALI

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Klute
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Regional Power ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Islamic Movements ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
Independence Movement ◽  
Mode Of Life ◽  
Warrior Class

While utopias of (political) autonomy or an independent (Tuareg) state have for long been part and parcel of internal debates among Tuareg, it was only recently that the claim for independence was formulated to the outside world. A Tuareg state, Azawad, was even put into practice, albeit for some months only. A second characteristic is that there has never been a serious attempt at integrating all Tuareg, regardless of the country they are living in, into a unique nation-state. Is the 'national identity' of the respective post-colonial states so strong that it supplants the 'claim for independence'? Or is the pre-colonial form of political organisation among Tuareg, the regional drum-group (ettebel), still so vivid that it impedes the establishment of a state that would encompass all Tuareg? Apart from the independence movement MNLA (Mouvement National pour la Libération de l'Azawad) operating in Northern Mali, there are Islamist groups which fight for the spread of an Islamic mode of life. Some of these succeeded in recruiting Tuareg, particularly among the Tuareg of the Kidal region. The appeal of the 'Islamic claim' to the Kidal Tuareg goes back to their genesis as a political entity during the period of colonial conquest when the French installed a regional 'drum-group' within the framework of administrative chieftainship. As nearly all regional Tuareg claim descent from members of the Islamic army that conquered North Africa in the 7th century, regional power differs from power structures in all other regions inhabited by Tuareg. It is based on a double legitimacy: that of Islamic nobility, and that of the Tuareg warrior class. For several months, however, there has been ideological dissent among the Tuareg followers of the Islamic movements. This debate revolves around several issues, particularly the question as to whether or not the Islamic mode of life is to be limited to the sole region of Kidal. 

Good governance and local autonomy in the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Europe and the Caribbean: An uneasy relationship

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-24
Author(s):  
Jaap Woldendorp
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Local Autonomy ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Independent State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Netherlands Antilles ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Overseas Territories

The existence of a specific ministry for overseas territories in the Netherlands — Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties (Interior Affairs and Relations within the Realm or Kingdom) — is the outcome of a few hundred years of (post) colonial history. In the 1970s and 1980s Dutch governments pushed for independence of the Netherlands Antilles and Suriname in order to get rid of the colonial stigma. In 1975, Suriname became an independent state. However, subsequently a combination of factors made decolonization of the Netherlands Antilles unfeasible. The first factor was the experience with the negative developments in Suriname after its independence.

The Circular Routes of Colonial and Postcolonial Domestic Work: Però’s and Ciaravino’s Alexandria and Ghermandi’s “The Story of Woizero Bekelech and Signor Antonio”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Fiore
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Emigration And Immigration ◽  
Women Migrants ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
Post Colonial

The chapter explores the connection between emigration and immigration through a combined reading of texts where demographic movements are defined by colonial routes: Renata Ciaravino’s script for the 2005 play Alexandria directed by Franco Però about adventurous women from the Friuli region who emigrated to Egypt in the 1920s to work as wet nurses and maids anticipates the silent yet profoundly important role of today’s domestic helpers and caretakers in Italy as portrayed by Gabriella Ghermandi’s colonial/post-colonial “The Story of Woizero Bekelech and Signor Antonio,” included in her 2007 novel Regina di fiori e di perle. The two texts highlight the forms of emancipation that women migrants develop as part of relocations abroad as well as the forms of awareness about colonial power relations that they prompt among locals.

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