Modernization as Spectacle in Africa [Hardcover]

For postcolonial Africa, modernization was seen as a necessary outcome of the struggle for independence and as crucial to the success of its newly established states. Since then, the rhetoric of modernization has pervaded policy, culture, and development, lending a kind of political theatricality to nationalist framings of modernization and Africans perceptions of their place in the global economy. These 15 essays address governance, production, and social life; the role of media; and the discourse surrounding large-scale development projects, revealing modernization's deep effects on the expressive culture of Africa.

Peter J. Bloom is Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is editor (with Ch. Didier Gondola and Charles Tshimanga) of Frenchness in the African Diaspora (IUP, 2009).

Takyiwaa Manuh is Emeritus Professor of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. She is editor (with Catherine M. Cole and Stephan F. Miescher) of Africa after Gender? (IUP, 2006).

Stephan F. Miescher is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is author of Making Men in Ghana (IUP, 2005).

Introduction: Modernization as Spectacle in Africa
Stephan F. Miescher, Peter J. Bloom, and Takyiwaa Manuh

Part I. Modernization and the Origins of the Package
1. After Modernization: Globalization and the African Dilemma
Percy C. Hintzen
2. Modernization Theory and the Figure of Blindness: Filial Reflections
Andrew Apter

Part II. Media, Modernity, and Modernization
3. Film as Instrument of Modernization and Social Change in Africa: The Long View
Rosaleen Smyth
4. Mass Education, Cooperation, and the African Mind
Aaron Windel
5. Is Propaganda Modernity? Press and Radio for Africans in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi during World War II and its Aftermath
Mhoze Chikowero
6. Elocution, Englishness, and Empire: Film and RadiolÃé