Architects of Memory: Information and Rhetoric in a Networked Archival Age

by Nathan R. Johnson (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 2020 - $49.95 [Hardcover], ISBN: 978-0817320607, [available in ebook], 224 pp., list of figures, acknowledgements, introduction, 6 chapters, notes, references, index, 6 B/W illustrations).

Nathan Johnson’s pursuit of foregrounding Rhetoric within memory’s infrastructure, across the spatiotemporal evolution of technology and techniques (christened as mnemonic techne), paved way for the reconstruction of memory’s originating myths and a retelling of

The proposition of the Belt and Road Initiative by China in 2013 indicated a new approach of the country’s foreign diplomacy through a remap of the Old Silk Road along six major economic corridors. Since the launch of the initiative, at least a total of 126 countries, and no less than 40 countries in Africa, have signed the memorandum of understanding with China on bilateral relations. The expansion of China’s economic interests has also impacted on its policy towards international security, as it has become more involved in the internal security operations of some of its partner countries. In

Power, as an experiential reality, is as old as the universe when considered as the ability to influence. The understanding of its dynamics has therefore been the preoccupation of the knowledge quest from the earlier times, as man sought to understand the relations of power within the operations of nature. The inquiry into the earliest beginnings of the universe, with the proposition of various elements including fire, water, air and the earth as the most basic material components of nature, explored the relevance of these variants of matter to becoming. The human has remained at the centre of

The Necropolitics of Breath in a Policing State

Philip Olayoku Blog Post

The sombre mood within the globe, following measures to curtail the further spread of the deadly new coronavirus codenamed COVID-19, was interrupted by the enduring menace of police brutality; again stirring the world’s consciousness to the challenge of social inequality even if everyone remained vulnerable to infection by the virus. This period of the world’s healing process would thus be incomplete without revisiting the enduring question of police violence and its attendant targeted fatalities with waves of #Blacklivesmatter protests spiralling across different continents. This question

Soleimani in SOTU… and The US Legacy in Iran Polity

Philip Olayoku Blog Post

In recent months, we have seen proud Iranians raise their voices against their oppressive rulers. The Iranian regime must abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons, stop spreading terror, death, and destruction, and start working for the good of its own people. Because of our powerful sanctions, the Iranian economy is doing very poorly. We can help them make it very good in a short period of time, but perhaps they are too proud or too foolish to ask for that help. We are here. Let’s see which road they choose. It is totally up to them.

                                                             

In the aftermath of British colonialism, the governance of Hong Kong was handed over to the Chinese in 1997 under the ‘One Country, Two Systems arrangement’, with the intention that Hong Kong will maintain its political semi-autonomy for at least half a century. Such an arrangement, following the bane of every post-colony hitherto under the British and French invasion, was bedeviled, ab initio, with future implosions from the inherited structural divide and rule mechanism. For one, the colonial governance model was anything but democratic as far as the locals were concerned, with allegations

Peter Geschiere’s (2011) proposition that the coinage of the term ‘Autochthony’ in Ancient Greece by the Athenians was in reaction to the influx of immigrants, with the intent of curbing their influence through exclusion from citizenship. Without the attempt to engage in the debate on the historical veracity of the term, the idea of autochthony is layered at its very base by the concept of power and exclusion; and, in contrast, has been flipped on its head with the history of Transatlantic Slavery, Western Colonialism and the neo-colonial context in the Global South. Even so, identities have

'We are all Zakyzaky': Shiism and the Nigerian State

Philip Olayoku Blog Post

The deployment of soldiers for internal security in Nigeria since the emergence of Boko Haram and the spread of incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers across the country has continued to create the paradox of growing insecurity in the different areas of their intervention. While the Tiv communities in Benue State have been arguably the worst hit by the crises between farmers and the herdsmen, the news that the Nigerian army compounded the agitations in the state by burning down buildings in Naka, Gwer West LGA on Wednesday 18 April, 2018, can only serve to validate the claim that