Abstract:
This paper examines the complex engagements between what it calls the
“posts” – poststructuralism, postmodernism and postcolonialism – and African
studies. Specifically, it analyzes the analytical connections and contestations
between postcolonial theory and African historiography. The paper interrogates
some of the key ideas and preoccupations of both postcolonialism and
historiography and explores the intersections between them. It is argued that
the ambivalence and sometimes antagonism to postcolonialism by many
African scholars is largely driven by ideological and ethical imperatives, while
the troubled encounter between African history and postcolonialism is rooted
in apparent intellectual and epistemic incongruities. Linking the two is the
powerful hold of what I call nationalist humanism in the African imaginary, the
nationalist preoccupations of African intellectuals, and the nationalist proclivities
of African historiography. Productive engagement between African history
and postcolonialism is of course possible, but it requires mutual accommodation,
the incorporation in postcolonial studies of the insights developed in
African historiography, and within the latter of some of the constructive interventions
of postcolonial theory. Ultimately, however, I believe postcolonialism
has serious limits in its methodological and conceptual capacities to advance
what I would call the historic agendas of African historiography.
