Ignoring the Obvious About the World

This essay takes up four kinds of “not knowing” that have been central to knowledge-making in African Studies. I chose ignorance and African history to open a dialogue with the other authors in this issue. The essay deals with therapeutic non-systems, cultural ignorance, disappearing knowledge, and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Helen Tilley
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: openjournals.nl 2024-12-01
Series:Journal for the History of Knowledge
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Online Access:https://journalhistoryknowledge.org/article/view/19473
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Summary:This essay takes up four kinds of “not knowing” that have been central to knowledge-making in African Studies. I chose ignorance and African history to open a dialogue with the other authors in this issue. The essay deals with therapeutic non-systems, cultural ignorance, disappearing knowledge, and sovereign forms of community care. It uses a now-classic article by Murray Last, on the health-seeking practices of Hausa speakers in northern Nigeria in the 1960s and 1970s, as its anchor. Embedded in the essay is a tacit question about the history of anarchic modes of collective organization in places under-served by states.
ISSN:2632-282X