‘The Killer That Doesn’t Pay Back’: Chinua Achebe's critique of cosmopolitics
‘The Killer That Doesn’t Pay Back’: Chinua Achebe's critique of cosmopolitics
‘Cosmopolitics’ is what a number of liberal thinkers now advocate: a freely created, cosmopolitan cultural identity based on notions of ‘global’ citizenship. This chapter focuses on Achebe's historical account of imperialism through the Royal Mail, his suggestion that its promise of global citizenship is not only false but also fatal. Achebe's Home and Exile subtly and powerfully implicates contemporary cosmopolitical thought in the historical violence practised by European colonialism in Africa. Cosmopolitan perspectives are ultimately present-day expressions of the old ‘Pax Britannica’: the liberal story that Empire likes to tell about itself. Economic theft, social chaos and physical violence are beautifully condensed in the phrase ‘The Killer That Doesn't Pay Back’, which Achebe's youthful villagers used to describe the colonial British Post Office.
Keywords: cosmopolitics, cosmopolitan cultural identity, global citizenship, European colonialism, economic theft, colonial British Post Office
Manchester Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
