Africa in Fragments

Africa in Fragments is one of a few texts to tackle many topics on the position and challenges of Africa, its peoples, and its diaspora in the world today. It is part of a new genre that makes old and new academic debates on the problems and predicaments of Africanness accessible 
to a broad spectrum of audiences while outlining and defending the author's own compelling arguments. This book is also one of a few texts breaking new ground by bringing nation, continent, and diaspora into conversation. It weaves together analyses of Nigerian, African, and global African topics in an informed but polemical style, challenges readers to rethink their preconceptions on the topics, and offers profoundly new insights into these issues.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Of Africa’s Fragments and Polemics

Section I: Nigeria (Nation and Politics)

1. How Nigeria Can Survive

2. The Other Problems of Corruption

3. The Case for Real Constitutional Reform

4. Nigerians’ Love–Hate Relationship with Government

5. The “Federal Character” Conundrum

6. Can Nigeria Afford (Literally) This Democracy?

7. Northern Elites and Northern Economic Backwardness

8. The Limits of Electoral Reform

Section I: Nigeria (Society and Letters)

9. My Oga Is Bigger Than Yours

10. Anti-Intellectualism and Book People

11. Bongos Ikwue and Idoma Cultural Cosmopolitanism

12. Names and Naming in Nigeria

13. Helicopter Escapes and the Common Good

14. The Patriotism Blackmail

Section II: Africa and the World

15. Africa, Corruption, Poverty, and Moral Consequence

16. Abuja Millennium Tower and the Problem of Explaining Africa

17. Arab Racism against Black Africans: Toward an Understanding

18. Boko Haram, African Islam, and Foreign Islamic Heterodoxy

19. African Participation in the Atlantic Slave Trade: A Deconstructionist Approach

20. Why Do Africans Migrate to the West?

21. Immigrants, Uprising, and the Revenge of History

22. Of African Immigrants and African Americans

23. Debt Cancellation, Aid, and Africa: A Moral Response to Critics

24. Race, Racism, and the Immigrant Black Experience in Euro-America

25. Nollywood and the Functional Logic of Mediocrity

26. Toward a New African Renaissance

Conclusion