ABSTRACT
The Introduction makes the reader see the need and scholarly significance of the book for Africa, states the main argument, and shows how the chapters concertedly advance the objectives of the work. The lopsided world order that emerged with capitalist modernity and the disruption of indigenous modes of living and knowing present an enormous challenge to Africa. The Introduction demonstrates how Africa is caught up in the throes of modernity, whose most insidious epistemic implications are experienced in the “engendering” and marginalization of Africa’s indigenous knowledges and knowledge-productions. It is considered that any effective response to modernity from Africa must be epistemically grounded. Therefore, this work sets out to provide a “home-grown” epistemic response, arguing that the Igbo sense of solidarity, a vital Igbo epistemic resource, is useful and relevant to modern contexts and could make for a more balanced and wholesome modernity if incorporated into (Igbo/African) modernization. A work that foregrounds and thoroughly explores one of Africa’s “endangered” epistemic resources vis-à-vis its relevance to modern socio-political contexts is, at the very least, an appropriate response to the (epistemic) challenge modernity presents to Africa.
