On the global stage Africa has often been overshadowed by Euro-centric interpretations of its history and role in an increasingly modernized world. Efforts to decolonize Africa have shifted beyond an economic or political level, to indiscriminate application in the fields of literature, language, philosophy, medicine, etc. which Dr. Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò argues as responsible for denying African agency and “suffocating” African thought. Dr. Táíwò questions whether this blanket utilization of ‘decolonization’ serves African empowerment, as well as how the history of Africa has been erased, bi-furcated, and contorted to fit the preferred narrative of the continent as a backwards place in need of saving.

About the Speaker

Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò is Professor of African Political Thought and current Chair at the Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, U.S.A. His research interests include Philosophy of Law, Social and Political Philosophy, Marxism, and African and Africana Philosophy. His writings have been translated into French, Italian, German, Chinese, and Portuguese. He is the author of, among others, Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously (London: Hurst\International African Institute, 2022). He has taught at universities in Canada, Nigeria, Germany, South Korea, and Jamaica.