Decolonisation of Materialities or Materialisation of (Re-)Colonisation

Download or read book Decolonisation of Materialities or Materialisation of (Re-)Colonisation written by Nhemachena, Artwell and published by Langaa RPCIG. This book was released on 2017-11-28 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary scholarly discourses about decolonising materialities are taking two noticeable trajectories, the first trajectory privileges establishing “connections”, “relationships” and “associations” between human beings and nature. The second trajectory privileges restoration, restitution, reparations for colonial dispossessions, lootings and disinheritance. While the first trajectory presupposes that colonialism was merely about “separation”, “alienation”, and “disconnections” between human beings and nature, the second trajectory stresses the colonialists’ dispossession, disinheritance and privations of Africans. Drawing on contemporary discourses about materialities in relation to semiotics, (non-)representationalism, rhetoric, ecocriticism, territorialisation, deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation, translation, animism, science and technology studies, this book teases out the intellectually rutted terrain of African materialities. It argues that in a world of increasing impoverishment, the significance of materialities cannot be overemphasised: more so for the continent of Africa where impoverishment “materialises” in the midst of resource opulence. The book is a pacesetter in no holds barred interrogation of African materialities.