Beyond the Political Spider: Critical Issues in African Humanities (African Humanities Series)
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Beyond the Political Spider: Critical Issues in African Humanities by Kwesi Yankah is the first title in the newly established African Humanities Association (AHA) publication series.
By integrating his own biography into a critique of the global politics of knowledge production, Yankah, through a collection of essays, interrogates critical issues confronting the Humanities that spawn intellectual hegemonies and muffle African voices. Using the example of Ghana, he brings under scrutiny, amongst others, endemic issues of academic freedom, gender inequities, the unequal global academic order, and linguistic imperialism in language policies in governance.
In the face of these challenges, the author deftly navigates the complex terrain of indigenous knowledge and language in the context of democratic politics, demonstrating that agency can be liberatory when emphasising indigenous knowledge, especially expressed through the idiom of local languages and symbols, including Ananse, the protean spider, folk hero in Ghana and most parts of the pan-African world.
“Fascinating snapshots from an engaged scholarly life in Africa, valuable as an archival resource for the understanding of this period of higher education in Africa.” – John Higgins, Arderne Chair in Literature, Department of English Literary Studies, University of Cape Town
“This book is unique and gives a powerful rendition of the state of the Humanities in Africa (with Ghana as a case in point). It grapples with some of the pertinent issues dogging the Humanities in Africa. It comments on the Humanities scholarship in Africa, and subtly throws a challenge for future scholarship. It draws on African traditions, communal heritage, and governance in discussing the role and place of the Humanities in Africa. It also brings into the analysis the ever-changing imperatives and modernity in re-configuring African Humanities.” – Mark Benge Okot, Head of Department, Literature, Makerere University, Uganda
“Beyond the Political Spider’ effectively draws, in a unique fashion, from literature, history, linguistics and other cognate disciplines in the African Humanities.” – Sati Umaru Fwatshak, Department of History, University of Jos, Nigeria
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION 1: DEFINING MOMENTS
Chapter 1: Rising with the African Humanities
Chapter 2: Science speaks, the Humanities answer
Chapter 3: Arts and the African identity
SECTION 2: TOWARDS ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
Chapter 4: The quest for a new world academic order
Chapter 5: The drumbeat of academic freedom
Chapter 6: Towards gender parity in higher education
SECTION 3: LANGUAGE IN GOVERNANCE
Chapter 7: Language and the dilemma in public policy
Chapter 8: Kwame Nkrumah’s Verandah Boys
Chapter 9: Language, education, and electoral choices
SECTION 4: RHETORIC AND SOCIAL POWER
Chapter 10: Proverbs, presidents and the politics of expediency
Chapter 11: The making and breaking of Kwame Nkrumah
Chapter 12: Tweaa: Meaning and the social power of little words
Chapter 13: The folktale as a political transcript
SECTION 5: OUTSTANDING HUMANISTS
Chapter 14: J. H. Kwabena Nketia: 1921–2019
Chapter 15: Efua Sutherland: 1924–1996
Chapter 16: Agya Koo Nimo
Epilogue
Index
Additional information
| Weight | 0.8 kg |
|---|---|
| Published Year | 2021 |
| Page Count | 340 |
| ISBN | 9781920033804 |
| Format | Paperback |
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