Re-imagining Communication in Africa and the Caribbean: ‘Releasing the Psychic Inheritance’

This opening chapter sets the context for a succession of critical discourses by a diverse range of scholars on media, culture and technology from Africa and the Caribbean. It identifies the harsh realities of European colonialism as the shared historical experience by the peoples of these two regions, and notes their continuing psychic disempowerment by a still prevailing post-colonial hegemony. The chapter alludes to the challenges faced by these regions in seeking to resist uncritical adoption of past practices and analytical frameworks. It unveils summaries of the varied research initiatives and professional practices being undertaken to help renew these societies through culture, communication and technology. The chapter foregrounds the book’s other 18 contributions by some 20 scholars from 12 countries in Africa and the Caribbean, who together seek to help transform the psychic inheritance of self-doubt into concepts of empowerment and renewal for the Global South.