I am terribly confused on this issue of post-modernism. The hey day
of the intellectual `period' is waning and I have yet to comprehend
the involvement of the local intellectual community (U. S.). I ask
the following out of sheer ignorance and tell you so that you don't
mistake ignorance for cleverness.
I have long thought, while struggling to wade through the opaque
language of self-styled `intellectuals of and from the people' or
postmoderns, that the primary message of the postmodern exercise was
one of critique, deconstruction, giving voice to the other--as
clearly distinct from listening to the voices of others as they try
to explain themselves. Even Spivak's `us' seems much more diverse
than she, at times.
This question is for the Africanists: have I been terribly mistaken
to identify Cesaire, Lumumba, Nyrere, Cabral, Fanon, etc. as early
African postmodern-ists clearly preceeding the postmodern entry into
the American academy. Could the *Palm Wine Drinkard* be counted as
postmodern as well? N'gugi, maybe?
Is postmodern critique limited to academics of the last three
decades primarily in European and American universities with a few
post-independence add ons? Or does postmodern only apply to those
whose tarmac is kept in good repair?