Literary CritiCism & theory • afriCa A d e s P o s t c o l o n iAl o “Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics What happens when social and political k A processes such as globalization shape n A r t i s t s thinks politics, art, aesthetics, modes of cultural production? Drawing on a media production, and ideas about home, range of writers and filmmakers from P An d • G l o bAl o always dynamically, through the lens of Africa and elsewhere, Akin Adesokan s A e s t h e t i c s expatriation. The book offers a necessary explores the forces at work in the pro- t duction and circulation of culture in a c alternative to ‘globalization’ and lends globalized world. He tackles problems o ‘postcoloniality’ a shot in the critical such as artistic representation in the era l o and theoretical arm. It not only brings of decolonization, the uneven develop- n ment of aesthetics across the world, and together various postcolonial locales (the i the impact of location and commodity A Caribbean, the Asian subcontinent, Africa, culture on genres, with a distinctive ap- l the diaspora), but enacts how they should proach that exposes the global processes A be thought together.” transforming cultural forms. r t —Grant farred, CorneLL University i Akin ADesokAn s is Assistant Professor of t “This book is a significant intervention in Comparative Literature s at indiana University A debates on postcolonialism and a model n Bloomington and au- d of intellectual ambition in its constant thor of the novel Roots • G crossing of disciplinary and generic in the Sky. His writ- l Photo by dele jegede boundaries.” ings have appeared in Screen, Textual o Practice, Chimurenga, and Research in b —Jonathan haynes, A lonG islAnd University African Literatures. l A e AfricAn expressive cultures s Patrick McNaughton, editor t h e t i c s Bloomington & Indianapolis IN i1u-p8r0e0s-s8.i4n2d-i6a7n9a6.edu DIA A k i n • A d e s o kAn N A Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics MECH.indd 1 7/25/11 1:30 PM Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics African Expressive Cultures Patrick McNaughton, editor associate editors Catherine M. Cole Barbara G. Hoffman Eileen Julien Kassim Koné D. A. Masolo Elisha Renne Zoë Strother AKi n A D E So K An Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics inDiAnA UnivERSity PRESS Bloomington and Indianapolis This book is a publication of indiana University Press 601 north Morton Street Bloomington, indiana 47404–3797 USA iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800- 842- 6796 Fax orders 812- 855- 7931 Orders by e- mail [email protected] © 2011 by Akin Adesokan All rights reserved no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of Americ an University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. > The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the Americ an national Standard for information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, AnSi Z39.48–1992. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Adesokan, Akinwumi. Postcolonial artists and global aesthetics / Akin Adesokan. p. cm. — (African expressive cultures) includes bibliographical references and index. includes filmography. iSBn 978-0-253-35679-6 (cloth : alk. paper) — iSBn 978-0-253-22345-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures—Social aspects—Africa. 2. Motion pictures and globalization. 3. Africa—in motion pictures. 4. intercultural communication in motion pictures. 5. Literature and globalization. 6. African diaspora in literature. 7. Literature and society. i. title. Pn1993.5.A35A34 2011 302.23′43096—dc22 2011014035 1 2 3 4 5 16 15 14 13 12 11 to nusiratu Asake and tolani Arike, mother and daughter in acknowledging that we are part of the Third World we are, to paraphrase José Martí, “affirming that our cheek feels the blow struck against any man, anywhere in the world.” Thomas Sankara, “Freedom Can Be Won only Through Struggle” (1984) Finally, a word on the possible “sexism” of my language. This issue has dogged my steps for a while and i want to state my position on it once and for all. English is not my language. Though i have developed a taste for it, it was once forced upon me . . . now that after thirty years of toil i have acquired reasonable competence in the language, i am told by the progeny of those who first imposed it on me that i have been taught the wrong English by their forefathers; that i must now relearn the language. Frankly, i am too old to do so. Ashis nandy, preface to The Intimate Enemy (1983) Contents Preface xi Acknowledgments xvii introduction: Generic transformations at the Crossroads of Capital 1 1. C. L. R. James Sees the World Steadily 30 2. Fitful Decolo ni za tion: Xala and the Poetics of Double Fetishism 57 3. tunde Kelani’s nollywood: Aesthetics of Exhortation 81 4. Jean- Pierre Bekolo and the Challenges of Aesthetic Populism 108 5. imaginary Citizenship: Caryl Phillips’s Atlantic World 133 6. Spirits of Bandung: A Sarcastic Subject Writes to Empire 156 Conclusion: Being African in the World 178 notes 185 List of References 203 Filmography 219 index 223