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Postcoloniality as a fractal aspect of postmodernity:
subject, methodology, forecast (The 70th anniversary of Alfred Sauvy’s article “Three Worlds, One Planet”)

Neklessa A.I.,

Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, neklessa@intelros.ru

elibrary_id: 74629 |

DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2022.02.10

Rubric: Orbis terrarum: international relations

For citation:

Neklessa A.I. Postcoloniality as a fractal aspect of postmodernity: subject, methodology, forecast (The 70th anniversary of Alfred Sauvy’s article “Three Worlds, One Planet”). – Polis. Political Studies. 2022. No. 2. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2022.02.10

Abstract

The article is based on the report “Postcoloniality: subject field, methodological foundations, social perspective” delivered at the seminar of the Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The article offers an analysis of the main aspects and trends of Postcoloniality as an interdisciplinary area of scientific research and as one of the “big challenges” of the contemporary world. The actuality of the problem is determined by the need to rethink the socio-cultural heritage of civilization, its current status and prospects. Coloniality continues to exist in the postcolonial world, but the struggle for political sovereignty is replaced by the sociocultural decolonization of people and communities. In the field of disciplined reflection, Postcoloniality is positioned as a complex area of research, an academic theory and a critical concept that claims to revise the Eurocentric discourse in the field of socio-humanitarian knowledge. Postcoloniality is also one of the characteristics of the emerging postmodern Universum. A large “homeless” nomadic community is emerging on the planet, which does not fit into the Procrustean bed of geographic localization and national statehood. Postmodernity, relying on creativity, experimenting with a variety of ways of self-organization and self-realization, finds itself in a symbiotic union with Postcoloniality. Today, turning the old encumbrances into a resource, the former inhabitants of the third world are mastering the planet, forming multi-vector coalitions in a constructive/destructive way. Having acquired a transcontinental subjectivity, they intercept the strategic initiative. Alfred Sauvy’s vision of the role of the third world is coming true, the potency of which he compared seven decades ago to the transforming force that once sent the feudal-estate world order into the dustbin of history. The story of the “burden of the dark-skinned man”, having passed in its “African aspect” by a long march along the steps of Pan-Africanism, negritude, the movement of “black panthers”, Afrocentrism and BLM actionism in the entry way of the new century, has come close to the embodiment of the synthesis of Afropolitism, with Postmodernity scattered across the planet, strengthening solidarity positions of Modernity which decolonizes the integral Cosmopolitanism. 

Keywords

postcoloniality, postmodernity, civilization, transit, evolution, third world, sovereignty, decoloniality, activism, critical theory, afropolitism.

 Full Text 

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