Is Afropolitanism a Colonial Mentality?

Résumé

Afropolitanism has emerged as a notable platform that aims at not just imagining an African futurity, but also one whose protagonists exude confidence in its future via the praxis of a movement. Afropolitans appear eager to create a new species of Africans that would embrace the rest of the world with or without an African identity. This posturing has led to sustained criticisms by scholars like Binyavanga Wainaina and Grace Musila who are unimpressed by what they see as a self-flagellating effort to sell a commodified, identityless and exotic Africa to the world. This article extends this kind of criticism explaining why Afropolitanism might be viewed as the very manifestation of an incautious, colonial mentality. More than this, it will show how Afropolitanism as a platform for imagining an African futurity seems ignorant of Africa’s political history especially around the imagination of Africa-centred futures. In the end, it will prove that Afropolitans are trying to create an African futurity without Africans, based on an image of Africa acceptable to non-Africans.