Recovering praxis: Cultural studies in Africa: The unnaming continues (reply to Wright, 1998 and McNeil, 1998)

Despite the contribution by Handel Wright (1998) in the first issue of this Journal, seminal work within Africa and other non- Western countries remains largely unnamed by the corporatizing enterprise that cultural studies is becoming in the Western North. The push to publish, linked as it is to markets, money and power, has displaced praxis, with its threats of danger, detention and death. Cultural studies has largely affiliated itself with publishing capital. This intervention therefore asks: Can the field be coherent? Why is African work de-centred? What relevance does African cultural studies have for the West and the North? Has imperialism triumphed? And, what can be done?.