Editors’ Introduction

• Published in: The Journal of modern African studies 2019-06, Vol.57 (2), p.323-324
• Main Authors: Obadare, Ebenezer, Taylor, Ian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African studies; Colonialism; Developing countries; Freedom of speech; Higher education; Historians; Historiography; Ignatieff, Michael; International relations; Intervention; LDCs; Neocolonialism; NGOs; Nongovernmental organizations; Scholars
• ISSN: 0022-278X; 1469-7777
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022278X19000247

For the inaugural issue, we feature International Relations scholar Tom Young's analysis of the fallouts from the publication of Portland State University political scientist Bruce Gilley's controversial article, ‘The Case for Colonialism in Africa’ which appeared in Third World Quarterly (2017). In light of this, we had tasked Dr Young, not with a standard rebuttal, but an intervention that, taking the Gilley article as its initial provocation, uses its by no means original position (see for instance arguments advanced elsewhere by the historians Niall Ferguson and Michael Ignatieff, and foreign affairs analyst Robert D. Kaplan); and the furore triggered by it, as a moment to reflect on nagging issues in the African colonial experience, African historiography, postcolonial politics, and perennial, if intractable, epistemological and philosophical questions and debates on the status of the past itself. [...]in a bracingly well-written essay in which few turns are left unstoned, Dr Young ranges over topics as diverse – and seemingly disaffiliated – as free speech and the liberal tradition, safe spaces and trigger warnings, toleration, higher education, NGOs and the colonial legacy in Africa.