Social Sciences and Cultural Studies for the Transformative Development of Postcolonial Africa

The essays that have been assembled into this volume, unique in its combined multilateral perspective and assertive style, collectively offer scholars in the social sciences and humanities a valiant and neatly paved multilateral approach to the concept of development in post-colonial Africa, with the latter’s rich and ever emerging cultural undercurrents as a pathfinder. With a scan of both past and present-day African experiences that would serve as indicators for the future, the collection is an enriching guide to the issues that revolve around the stagnation in the development of the African continent over three quarters of a century post-colonially, and will, therefore, be of interest to both scholars and students of African studies and development studies, stakeholders of African development, and policy-makers. * Blasius Achiri-Taboh, Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Buea, Cameroon * This volume is a timely contribution to ongoing discussions about development in postcolonial Africa. Drawing on a range of disciplinary perspectives from the social sciences, humanities, and cultural studies, this group of African scholars interrogate inherited models of progress and propose a roadmap for development that is both contextually grounded in a number of case studies and conceptually foregrounding. The emphasis on transformative development—understood as a holistic and multidimensional process—allows for critical engagement with questions of identity, nationhood, knowledge production, and institutional reform. By centering African experiences and perspectives, the book invites reconsideration of Eurocentric dominant narratives and provides analytical tools for rethinking development in theory and practice. This book will be of use to scholars, policymakers, and anyone committed to Africa’s future. * Maria Mazzioli, University of Groningen, Netherlands *