Postcolonial Despotism from a Postmodern Standpoint: Helon Habila's Waiting for an Angel.

Waiting for an Angel (Book); Criticism; Habila, Helon; Marxist philosophy; Despotism; Imperialism; Postcolonialism; Postmodernism (Philosophy)

In Waiting for an Angel, Helon Habila criticizes African Marxists for holding that despotism in postcolonial Africa is largely consequent on the lingering effects of colonialism and on neocolonial exploitation. He also rejects their view that revolution is capable of ending political oppression and engendering an egalitarian order. For Habila, postcolonial despotism is coextensive with the will to power of the national rulers, and efforts aimed at countering it through revolutionary activism cannot but prove futile given the formidable means of violence available to the state. I argue in this article that Habila's disagreements with African Marxists are largely informed by the critique postmodernism levels at Marxism. Like many postmodernists, he is impatient with the primacy Marxism accords economics over politics and regards the calls of Marxist revolutionaries for radical change to be reckless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]