The Challenge of African Potentials

Conviviality, Informality and Futurity

edited by Yaw Ofosu-Kusi, Motoji Matsuda

This collection of articles is based on presentations and
discussions at the 2018 African Potentials Forum, held in Accra, Ghana.
This forum was a part of the African Potentials Project, which aims to
clarify the latent problem-solving abilities, ways of thinking, and
institutions that have been created, accumulated, unified, and deployed
in the everyday experiences of Africans. The notion of Africa’s latent
power/potential is not related to romanticisation of the traditional
knowledge of African society and its institutions as fixed,
essentialised ‘magic wands’. This notion also raises objections against
political dogmas that seek to smoke out and eliminate thought and values
originating in Western modernity. The keyword of the Accra Forum was
futurity. Africa’s future is laden with possibilities, latent power, and
potential. It is bright and hopeful but, simultaneously, bleak and
thought-provoking. For nascent democracies and economically challenged
communities, the value of this potential lies not in its static
qualities but in how these qualities can be harnessed and translated
into beneficial practical outcomes. As a concept, ‘potential’ connotes a
time to come; a futurity that is full of known and unknown
possibilities, challenges, and opportunities.

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About the editors

Yaw Ofosu-Kusi

Yaw Ofosu-Kusi is Associate Professor of Social Studies and Dean of the
Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Education, Winneba,
Ghana. He obtained his doctorate degree in Applied Social Studies from
the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. His research interest is
primarily in urban childhood and the informal economy, with specific
attention given to child migration, street life and labour, and
children’s agency. One of his publications is ‘Dreams, expectations and
experiential realities of street children in Accra, Ghana‘, and Narrating
(Hi)Stories in West Africa (Berlin: Lit Verlag 2015).

Motoji Matsuda

Motoji Matsuda is Professor in the Graduate School of Letters at Kyoto University.

Review

“The ‘African Potentials’ project has creatively released the
perspective of African agency to the world audience, encouraging more
positive imagery of Africa. It unpacks genuine African abilities based
on indigenous knowledge as well as local contexts and institutions.”

Liu Haifang, Executive Director, Centre for African Studies, Peking University, China

“Through bringing distinguished scholars from Africa and Asia
together, this book discusses the African continent’s potential from
many perspectives, including language, education, religion and other
fields of humanities, which have often been ignored.”

Sun Xiaomeng, Dean of the School of Asian and African Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China

“Something new is expected to arise from the contact between Asia
and Africa. A close intellectual cooperation amongst Asian and African
scholars will blaze a trail in shaping the future world order. I welcome
this book as a collaborative model.”

Ajay Dubey, Chairperson, Centre for African Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

“This collection of articles showcases some of the results from the
works of Japanese and African researchers in a rare but ideal
collaborative effort spanning almost a decade. Both African and Japanese
researchers attempt to reconstruct concepts such as ‘informality’ and
‘futurity’ and turn them into something more convivial. In this sense,
this collection offers a stimulating ideological experiment on the
creation of new intellectual space.”

Hiromu Shimizu, Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University, President of the Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology

“This stimulating compilation undertakes a unique approach –
providing us with a solution to Africa’s contemporary problems from
Japanese-African perspectives. This compilation is the outcome of their
endeavours. One of the merits of this compilation is that it pursues a
praxeological approach stressing latent problem-solving abilities, that
is African potentials, for addressing diverse challenges that face
contemporary Africa.”

Prof. Chang Yongkyu, Director, Institute of African Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea President, Korean Association of African Studies

“The volume The Challenge of African Potentials is an eclectic mix
of contributions from African and Japanese scholars based on field work
in different African contexts. Adopting a humanistic and empathetic
approach to African lives and futures, the volume draws some parallels
from Japan’s history, culture and experiences with Western universals
and standards to urge space for the multiple knowledge systems, openness
and creativity in Africa to be used to realise its potentials. It is to
be hoped that this collaboration will develop into dynamic exchanges
that also enable African scholars to study Japanese societies and people
firsthand.”

Takyiwaa Manuh, Professor Emerita, University of Ghana, Legon

“This is a brilliant introduction to the power and potentials of
informality in contemporary Africa. Open, broad and convivial, it
challenges the usual images of backward Africa projected through the
lenses of Western modernity. Play, parties, laughter and satire create
alternative space for life and passages for development. It is a rare
and eye-opening account on everyday life in African societies through a
decade-long collaborative work of African and Asian activists and
scholars.”

Byung-Ho Chung (Professor of Hanyang University, South Korea, and Former President of Korean Society for Cultural Anthropology)