The Anti-Colonial Archive: France and Africa's Unfinished Business

Abstract

A few years ago, Ania Loomba explored a number of critical approaches to the vigorously debated relationship between the local and the global in her book Colonialism/Postcolonialism (1998). Since then, her work on the interface between colonial and postcolonial discourses has become a new reference point in what remains an ongoing exchange on this local/global question in postcolonial theory. 1 Loomba, in her conclusion to the chapter "Challenging Colonialism," points to what she considers a sensible suggestion by Peter Hulme to move away from grand narratives "not on epistemological grounds, but rather [because] the grand narrative of decolonisation has, for the moment, been adequately told and widely accepted. Smaller narratives are now needed, with attention paid to local topography, so that maps can become fuller" (252). Loomba affirms Hulme's call for renewed focus on smaller narratives and local topographies, but leaves open questions about what postcolonialism's grand narrative may exclude.