Africa must be modern: A manifesto

This book is a brave and boisterous attempt to challenge Africa to follow a clear-cut development trajectory in the face of its disappointing performance in the development arena in the post-colonial period. Taiwo provides an interesting analysis of modernity as the key to attaining Africa's development. The author's bold declarations on Africa's development trajectory make the book exceedingly readable, and place Taiwo amongst the ranks of other African development trajectory scholars like Sabelo Ndlovu and Moeletsi Mbeki. However, it contains some shortcomings. The volume consists of a preface and six chapters. Chapter 1 sets out to justify the embrace of modernity as the key to attaining development in Africa. The author argues that for too long Africa has blamed her problems on colonization and the unfair interaction between the continent and the West – in particular the international political economy, whose machinations mirror colonial-era oppression of Africa. To this end, Africans have rubbished any sort of concept emanating from the West as oppressive, and yet that is where modernity started: the very modernity that Africa must embrace. In this chapter, the author tries to distinguish between modernity and Westernization. Taiwo subtly conceptualizes modernity as those values within the modern world worth emulating and borrowing. These values consist of principles, processes, and institutions which, if adapted to the local context, would help improve societies in Africa, and set them on the road to attaining human wellbeing and development. Taiwo seems to uphold liberalism as the root of the philosophy that humankind should follow in order to progress, and that involves adopting the best from other societies. In Chapter 2, the author treats readers to a more concise conceptualization of modernity with clear indicators. According to Taiwo, modernity consists of three basic tenets: the principle of subjectivity, the centrality of reason, and the idea of progress. The remaining chapters justify why Africa should uphold these tenets, using a philosophical approach.