Books by Jeremiah O Arowosegbe

Claude E. Ake, radical African political philosopher of the first four decades of the postcolonial era, stands out as a progressive social force whose writings continue to have appeal and relevance long after his untimely death in 1996. In examining Ake's intellectual works, Jeremiah O. Arowosegbe sets out the framework of his theoretical orientations in the context of his life, and reveals him as one of the most fertile and influential voices within the social sciences community in Africa.In tracing the genesis and development of Ake's political thought, Arowosegbe draws attention to Ake's compelling account of the material implications and political costs of European colonisation of Africa and his conception of a different future for the continent. Approaching his subject from a Gramscian and Marxist perspective, Arowosegbe elucidates how Ake's philosophy demonstrates the intimate entanglement of class and social, cultural and historical issues, and how, as a contributor to endogenous knowledge production and postcolonial studies on Africa, Ake is firmly rooted in a South-driven critique of Western historicism.It is Arowosegbe's conviction that engaged scholars are uniquely important in challenging existing hierarchies, oppressive institutions, and truth regimes - and the structures of power that produce and support them; and much can be drawn from their contributions and failings alike. This work contributes to a hitherto neglected focus area: the impact across the continent of the ideas and lives of African and other global South academics, intellectuals and scholar-activists. Among them, Ake is representative of bold scholarly initiatives in asserting the identities of African and other non-Western cultures through a mindful rewriting of the intellectual and nationalist histories of these societies on their own terms. In foregrounding the contribution of Ake with respect to both autochthonous traditional insights and endogenous knowledge production on the continent, Arowosegbe aims at fostering the continuance of a living and potent tradition of critique and resistance.Engaging with the lingering impact of colonialism on previously colonised societies, this timely book will be of immense value to scholars and students of philosophy and political science as well as African intellectual history, African studies, postcolonial studies and subaltern studies.

Most works on Claude Ake have been limited to a celebration of his intellectual biography, pedigree and stature. This is partly because most scholarly commentaries on political and social theorists in Africa have been treated as either parts of the colonial liberation struggles or as parts of the neo-colonial historiographical narrations of African anthropology or metaphysics, with the veiled objective of denying the existence and reality of African political thought. The consequence of this oversight is that whereas within the disciplines in the arts and the humanities, accomplished African(ists) have been extensively studied; only very few social scientists have been studied. The contributions and profiles of social scientists in Africa and the diaspora have therefore remained a largely underdeveloped genre. This study interrogated the relevance of Ake's works with a view to examining the constituents and prospects for knowledge production in Africa.

This study examines Claude Ake's analysis of the problem of political integration and its continuing relevance for contemporary Africa. One of his major works, A Theory of Political Integration, is discussed in the light of his conception of the conditions for achieving political integration in the new states in the immediate post-independence period. Focusing on Africa, the study discusses the complex web of violent conflict and wars over natural resources from the 1990s as an impediment to political integration in the continent. Epitomized by the erosion of the stateness of many African polities, a renewed salience of informal politics and an adaptation to diminished state presence and service provision, the post-Cold War conflict situations across Africa are significant departures from the Cold War experiences in the continent. This study examines the emergent political complex in the region and establishes how it feeds into the global struggles for natural resources as well as ongoing structures of imbalances characterizing the global flows of capital and Africa's growing marginalization and poverty.