We are pleased to invite contributions to a panel titled, "New Forms of Governmental Rationality? Revising Africa's Post-colonial Futures" at the upcoming European Conference on African Studies (ECAS), which will be held from May 31 to June 3, 2023 in Cologne (Germany).
Summary: This panel interrogates how the socialist “futures” imagined at the dawn of independence were connected to the neoliberal “futures” that came to define African states in the last quarter of the century.
Full Abstract: The decade of the 1960s often referred to as the “decade of Africa,” was one of optimism as over sixteen colonies gained their independence in 1960 alone. For leaders such as Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Africa was on her way to spearheading an industrial revolution. However, between the 1980s and 1990s, previously socialist states became sites of what scholars such as Gregory Mann term “new forms of governmental rationality realized through NGOs.” How did this occur? This panel interrogates how the socialist “futures” imagined at the dawn of independence were connected to the neoliberal “futures” that came to define African states in the last quarter of the century. Instead of rehashing conventional arguments which have tended to critique the global North for its imposition of unrealistic economic policies on African contexts without regard to local specificities, the panel seeks to understand the prehistory of neoliberalism. Building on the works of non-Africanist scholars such as Quinn Slobodian, we show that what became of the neoliberal late century had roots dating back to the colonial and postcolonial periods and involved African actors. Using case studies in West and East Africa, we focus on the various actors - state and non-state - whose activities provided fertile ground for neoliberalism to take root.
Paper submissions must consist of a title, name(s) of author(s), a short abstract of fewer than 300 words, and a long abstract of fewer than 250 words. All submissions must be via the conference website by January 23, 2023.
Link to submission site: https://ecasconference.org/2023/programme#12430
More on ECAS: https://www.ecasconference.org/2023/
Looking forward to reading your proposals.
Adwoa Opong-opong@chapman.edu
Adwoa Opong
Assistant Professor, Chapman University