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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:'Causes' versus 'conditions': imperial sovereignty, postcolonial violence and the recent re-emergence of Arendtian political thought in African studies
Author:Lee, Christopher J.ISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:South African Historical Journal
Volume:60
Issue:1
Pages:124-146
Language:English
Geographic terms:Africa
South Africa
Rwanda
Subjects:political philosophy
State formation
imperialism
political violence
African studies
About person:Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582470802287752
Abstract:Since the Rwandan genocide of 1994, an increase in scholarship on genocide and mass violence has developed over the past ten years, an interdisciplinary effort that has initiated a search for both a 'usable past' and at times a useful 'theoretical past'. Against this backdrop, the present article is concerned with the provisional reemergence of Hannah Arendt's thought in African studies. It aims to explore the main facets of this underrecognized legacy to claim a contemporary place for her within the history of political thought on Africa and imperialism more generally. Divided into two parts, the article first provides a summary of Arendt's engagement with imperial conditions in Africa, as found in her first major work 'The origins of totalitarianism' (1951). Her influence is then traced in recent studies on South Africa and Rwanda, though not without critique. The insights and limitations of her interpretations rest on a distinction between 'causes' versus 'conditions', with her emphasis on the latter circumscribing the effectiveness of her analysis. Distinguishing such points of view is a key lesson to be drawn from her work, offering further means for understanding and assessing the contours of contemporary scholarship. The article concludes that her ideas have prefigured current debates and deserve renewed recognition. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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