Thinking Freedom in Africa : Toward a Theory of Emancipatory Politics

Previous ways of conceiving the universal emancipation of humanity have in practice ended in failure. Marxism, anti-colonial nationalism and neo-liberalism all understand the achievement of universal emancipation through a form of state politics. Marxism, which had encapsulated the idea of freedom for most of the twentieth century, was found wanting when it came to thinking emancipation because social interests and identities were understood as simply reflected in political subjectivity which could only lead to statist authoritarianism. Neo-liberalism and anti-colonial nationalism have also both assumed that freedom is realisable through the state, and have been equally authoritarian in their relations to those they have excluded on the African continent and elsewhere. Thinking Freedom in Africa then conceives emancipatory politics beginning from the axiom that people think'. In other words, the idea that anyone is capable of engaging in a collective thought-practice which exceeds social place, interests and identities and which thus begins to think a politics of universal humanity. Using the work of thinkers such as Alain Badiou, Jacques Rancière, Sylvain Lazarus, Frantz Fanon and many others, along with the inventive thought of people themselves in their experiences of struggle, the author proceeds to analyse how Africans themselves – with agency of their own – have thought emancipation during various historical political sequences and to show how emancipation may be thought today in a manner appropriate to twenty-first century conditions and concerns. Cover......Page 1 Half-title......Page 3 Title......Page 5 Copyright......Page 6 Dedication......Page 7 Contents......Page 9 Foreword......Page 11 Preface......Page 15 Acknowledgements......Page 29 Introduction: Politics is thought, thought is real, people think......Page 33 Part 1: Thinking political sequences: From African history to African historical political sequences......Page 67 1. Theoretical introduction: Understanding historical political sequences......Page 69 2. From Saint-Domingue to Haiti: The politics of freedom and equality, 1791–1960......Page 101 3. Are those-who-do-not-count capable of reason? On the limits of historical thought......Page 126 4. The National Liberation Struggle mode of politics in Africa, 1945–1975......Page 144 5. The People’s Power mode of politics in South Africa, 1984–1986......Page 166 6. From national emancipation to national chauvinism in South Africa, 1973–2013......Page 189 7. Rethinking militancy in the current sequence: Beyond politics as agency......Page 221 8. Understanding fidelity to the South African emancipatory event: The Treatment Action Campaign and Abahlali baseMjondolo......Page 254 Part 2: Opening up the thought of politics in Africa today: Exceeding the limits of sociology: Beyond representation......Page 273 9. Theoretical introduction: Social representation, modes of rule and political prescriptions......Page 275 10. Marxism and the politics of representation: The ‘agrarian question’ and the limits of political economy – class, nation and the party-state......Page 295 11. Thinking beyond representation, acting beyond representation: Accounting for worker subjectivities in South Africa......Page 341 12. Renaming the state in Africa today......Page 390 13. Domains of state politics and systemic violence: The concept of ‘uncivil society’......Page 432 14. The domain of civil society and its politics......Page 479 15. The domain of traditional society and its politics......Page 505 16. Towards a politics of solidarity: Feminist contributions......Page 553 Conclusion: Reclaiming the domain of freedom......Page 564 Bibliography......Page 584 Index......Page 625 "Using the work of thinkers such as Alain Badiou, Jacques Rancière, Sylvain Lazarus, Frantz Fanon and many others, along with the inventive thought of people themselves in their experiences of struggle, the author proceeds to analyse how Africans themselves - with agency of their own - have thought emancipation during various historical political sequences and to show how emancipation may be thought today in a manner appropriate to twenty-first century conditions and concerns."-- Provided by publisher