Akala

Language · decolonization · the AI age

Essays

The argument, in long form. The shelf opens with The Dekolonial Paperz— William Ifeanyi Moore's notes and thoughts on colonization and the African mind — the essay collection the novel grew out of.

The Dekolonial Paperz · 13 papers

  1. 01What Is Colonialism?Colonialism strips a people of their cultural identity and installs the invader’s culture as the new ideal — until the natives police it themselves.
  2. 02How to Colonize a People 101Every culture comes fitted with protective forces against erosion — so how did colonisers unearth the traditional system? In four steps.
  3. 03Power Dynamics in Colonial RelationshipsThe frameworks of power that define our post-colonial reality — slave-master, reject-ideal, vulnerable-liberator — and the one Africa is stuck in.
  4. 04School: The Factory of Intellectual ControlThe education system is the factory of intellect — whatever the universities canonise reaches the public as the standard of reasoning.
  5. 05Church: The Factory of Virtue ControlWhile education directs the intellect, religion binds the spirit — setting the standards of “the good” a culture rewards or suppresses.
  6. 06Media: The Factory of Influence ControlWhere religion sets the foundational virtue for a philosophical ideal, the media refines taste for a material one — and capital decides the spin.
  7. 07Economics: The Factory of Resource ControlEconomics silently pulls the strings of culture — and colonial capitalism replaced an Africa where land, and a home, belonged to everyone.
  8. 08Aesthetics and the Colonial Mind: The Sacred, Beautiful, and ProfaneAesthetics is the psychological relationship between forms and the observer — and colonialism taught Africans to fear their own sacred forms.
  9. 09Understanding the African Aesthetic CriteriaAfrican art is identifiable anywhere on the planet yet denied the name of a movement — an erasure of the worldview that produced it.
  10. 10Virtue Aesthetics: The Form of the GoodThe virtue aesthetic beautifies what a culture calls spiritually virtuous — from the covered Virgin Mary to the bare-bodied power of Osun and Ala.
  11. 11Sex Aesthetics: The Forms and Signs of AttractionWhat counts as sexy shifts with culture and era, but trace any signifier back and it always leads to the reproductive instinct.
  12. 12Cultural Aesthetics (Memes R Us)Cultural aesthetics is the physical manifestation of a people's thought system — from ornaments and scripts to fashion and architecture.
  13. 13Closing RemarksThere can be no reversal of the colonial process — but Africa can get into the business of narrative-building, positioning our own thought to co-exist with it.

Call for essays

This shelf is not reserved for the maintainer. Scholars, writers, and anyone with an argument about language, ontology, and the machine age — the platform publishes with attribution, and disagreement is welcome if it is argued properly.

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