CHCI, Africa is a Country, and WPR's To the Best of Our Knowledge Collaborate for Radio Show on "Decolonizing the Mind"

In this third episode of Ideas from Africa Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson, producers and hosts of To the Best of Our Knowledge, explore what Decolonizing the Mind portends for African writers, thinkers, and revolutionaries as well as its global significance in the twenty-first century. The hosts discuss the historical, social, and political consciousness of transnational, transatlantic, and pan-African movements. They examine the concept in connection with the agitations for independence in Africa, the civil rights movement, and the contemporary black struggle against racism and imperialism.

Dissecting the psychological depth and visibility of the relics of colonialism and its pathology in identity politics, Englishness, and the language question, Strainchamps and Paulson are joined by Adom Getachew (Political theorist and Professor, University of Chicago), Simon Gikandi (Professor of English, Princeton University), and "the father of decolonizing the mind," Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (Author and Professor of English, University of California, Irvine).

The guests on this episode have been featured participants in CHCI events in 2019. Simon Gikandi was one of the leaders at the 2019 CHCI-Mellon Africa Humanities Workshop, "Africa as Method and Concept," held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Later that year, Ngugi wa Thiong'o was the concluding keynote speaker for the CHCI-Mellon Global Humanities Institute in Santiago, Chile focused on the "Challenges of Translation."

Listen to the episode on the TTBOOK website or on the CHCI Voices website.