Political Obligation and Military Rule: A Postscript

media release: Lecture: Political Obligation and Military Rule: A Postscript

Thursday, March 19, Elvehjem L150, 5 PM

Workshop*: Researching Obligation and Agency in Africa

Friday, March 20, University Club Room 313, 12 PM

*Registration is required for participation in the workshop. Please register by emailing cvcps@mailplus.wisc.edu.

Workshop Abstract:

This workshop features Professor Olúfẹ́mi Taiwo in conversation with UW-Madison professor of African Cultural Studies, Matthew H. Brown. In interview style, they will explore the pitfalls and payoffs of employing the concept of agency to understand concepts like political obligation and decolonization and how they may be represented visually.

Biography:

Táíwò’s primary field is philosophy, with much of his work focusing on politics in Africa and the legacies of colonialism. His most recent book, Against Decolonization: Taking African Agency Seriously, argues that the ascendence of “decolonization” rhetoric in the humanities risks making the agency, and therefore the lived realities, of people from Africa and other formerly colonized regions invisible in the face of an otherwise overwhelming colonial legacy. More directly, one of his strongest contributions to African political philosophy is a canonical essay on the subject of political obligation in nonconstitutional contexts, particularly military rule. He will contribute to the Center’s programming by addressing the agency, and therefore rendering visible the choices, of people who find themselves in political dispensations where they must grasp to understand their political obligations to regimes they haven’t chosen.

Táíwò’s book, How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010) was a joint winner of the Frantz Fanon Book Award of the Caribbean Philosophical Association in 2015. His works have been translated into French, Italian, German, and Chinese. At the present time, he working on a monograph tentatively titled, Does the United States Need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission?

For more information, see Táíwò’s website.