BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.6.1//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news5409@zasb.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20261027T115159 DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20261113T161500 SUMMARY:Aymeric Bisoka (Mons University): The End of the White World: Rhêg mapolitics in the Afrocritical Tradition DESCRIPTION:What if the deepest sign that a world is coming to an end were not its disappearance\, but the fact that it is gradually ceasing to be ne cessary?\\r\\nThis lecture begins with a paradox. The world forged through the slave trade\, slavery\, colonialism\, racial capitalism\, and Europea n imperial expansion has by no means disappeared. Its material asymmetries persist\, its hierarchies continue to take new forms\, and some of its ca tegories still shape our present. Yet something has happened to this world . There was a time when Africa had to be explained from elsewhere\; when i ts humanity could be debated\, its capacity for thought questioned\, its h istory denied\, its ability to govern itself assessed\, and its future pla ced within a historical trajectory whose destination others claimed to kno w. This world did more than dominate: it claimed the authority to determin e the very questions that others were required to answer.\\r\\nFor more th an a century\, however\, African and Black writers\, philosophers\, artist s\, theologians\, activists\, and political thinkers have persistently eng aged with these questions—turning them around\, challenging their premis es\, reframing them\, and sometimes abandoning them altogether. From Négr itude to Afropolitanism\, from controversies over African philosophy to Af rocentricity\, from debates on Pan-Africanism to efforts to rethink and re invent democracy in Africa\, something has accumulated beyond victories an d defeats\, and even beyond answers that have since become obsolete.\\r\\n Drawing on a book in progress\, this lecture explores that accumulation by reconstructing the historical tradition I call Afrocritique and developi ng the concept of rhêgmapolitics as a way of understanding its political significance. I argue that this tradition does more than transmit ideas\, concepts\, or answers. Across generations\, it accumulates ways of breaki ng free from inherited intellectual dependencies\, transforming the very c onditions under which subsequent generations can think\, contest establish ed assumptions\, and formulate questions of their own. If rhêgma names t his process of breaking free from imposed frameworks of thought\, rhêgmap olitics captures the forms of political agency that emerge through it: th e capacity not only to refuse questions imposed by others\, but also to de termine which questions matter\, to act upon them\, and to shape the horiz ons of what becomes possible. The end of the white world thus names a part icular historical shift: not the disappearance of its power\, but the grad ual loss of its monopoly over defining what can be thought\, what can be d esired\, and what can be imagined as possible.\\r\\nWhat\, then\, remains of a world's power when those it once constituted as its objects begin to decide for themselves which questions are worth asking?\\r\\nAymeric Nyeny ezi Bisoka is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Mons Un iversity\, Belgium. His research engages with the political ecology of nat ural resources\, the political economy of international interventions and an afro-critical perspective on the social sciences. His work is based in post-structuralism and a decolonial approach. His reflections on issues of epistemology\, methodology\, and ethics draws on his research in the Afri can Great Lakes region\, but is also informed by his ten years' profession al experience in the field of development cooperation in Africa and Europe .  X-ALT-DESC:

What if the deepest sign that a world is coming to an end wer e not its disappearance\, but the fact that it is gradually ceasing to be necessary?

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This lecture begins with a paradox. The world forged th rough the slave trade\, slavery\, colonialism\, racial capitalism\, and Eu ropean imperial expansion has by no means disappeared. Its material asymme tries persist\, its hierarchies continue to take new forms\, and some of i ts categories still shape our present. Yet something has happened to this world. There was a time when Africa had to be explained from elsewhere\; w hen its humanity could be debated\, its capacity for thought questioned\, its history denied\, its ability to govern itself assessed\, and its futur e placed within a historical trajectory whose destination others claimed t o know. This world did more than dominate: it claimed the authority to det ermine the very questions that others were required to answer.

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For more than a century\, however\, African and Black writers\, philosophers\ , artists\, theologians\, activists\, and political thinkers have persiste ntly engaged with these questions—turning them around\, challenging thei r premises\, reframing them\, and sometimes abandoning them altogether. Fr om Négritude to Afropolitanism\, from controversies over African philosop hy to Afrocentricity\, from debates on Pan-Africanism to efforts to rethin k and reinvent democracy in Africa\, something has accumulated beyond vict ories and defeats\, and even beyond answers that have since become obsolet e.

\n

Drawing on a book in progress\, this lecture explores that accu mulation by reconstructing the historical tradition I call Afrocritique  \;and developing the concept of rhêgmapolitics \;as a way of understanding its political significance. I argue that this tradit ion does more than transmit ideas\, concepts\, or answers. Across generati ons\, it accumulates ways of breaking free from inherited intellectual dep endencies\, transforming the very conditions under which subsequent genera tions can think\, contest established assumptions\, and formulate question s of their own. If rhêgma \;names this process of breaking fre e from imposed frameworks of thought\, rhêgmapolitics \;captur es the forms of political agency that emerge through it: the capacity not only to refuse questions imposed by others\, but also to determine which q uestions matter\, to act upon them\, and to shape the horizons of what bec omes possible. The end of the white world thus names a particular historic al shift: not the disappearance of its power\, but the gradual loss of its monopoly over defining what can be thought\, what can be desired\, and wh at can be imagined as possible.

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What\, then\, remains of a world's power when those it once constituted as its objects begin to decide for t hemselves which questions are worth asking?

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Aymeric Nyenye zi Bisoka is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Mons University\, Belgium. His research engages with the political ecolog y of natural resources\, the political economy of international interventi ons and an afro-critical perspective on the social sciences. His work is b ased in post-structuralism and a decolonial approach. His reflections on i ssues of epistemology\, methodology\, and ethics draws on his research in the African Great Lakes region\, but is also informed by his ten years' pr ofessional experience in the field of development cooperation in Africa an d Europe. \;

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