Full Description
This book looks at the very different responses to the African predicament from prominent writers like Soyinka, Ngugi and Achebe, to the military men in power and the students who defy repression. It suggests that intervention by international agencies who claim to promote 'democracy' and 'empower the youth' may reinforce authoritarian attitudes and structures.
The essays in the book give voice to the outrage, ridicule and revolutionary ardour, as well as to the reformist caution, of those directly affected. The shallow pretences of those in power and the hypocrisy and arrogance of the foreign helpers are also exposed.
The book concludes that being an 'insider' or an 'outsider' is less important than being committed to listening to ordinary people.
Contents
Predicament and Response: An Introduction - Björn Beckman and Gbemisola Adeoti
Part I: Intellectuals, Writers, and Soldiers
1. Psychopaths in Power: The Collapse of the African Dream in 'A Play of Giants' - Olusegun Adekoya
2. Re-establishing the Basis of Social Order: A reflection on Achebe's Reformist Agenda and Ngugi's Marxist Aesthetics - M. S. C. Okolo
3. Narrating the Green Gods: The (Auto) biographies of Nigerian Military Rulers - Gbemisola Adeoti
Part II: Students, Youths and People
4. Ambiguous Transitions: Mediating Citizenship among Youths in Cameroon - Jude Fokwang
5. Student Radicalism and the National Project: The Nigerian Student Movement - Björn Beckman
6. Transnational Governance and the Pacification of Youth: Civic Education and Disempowerment in Malawi - Harri Englund
7. Identity and Knowledge Production in the Fourth Generation - Nana Akua Anyidoho
Contributors
Index
