The "Modern Sovereign," a notion indebted both to Hobbes's Leviathan and Marx's conception of capital, refers to the power that governed the African multitudes from the earliest colonial days to the post-colonial era. It is an internalized power, responsible for the multiform violence exerted on bodies and imaginations. Joseph Tonda contends that in Central Africa-and particularly in Gabon and the Congo-the body is at the heart of political, religious, sexual, economic, and ritual power. This, he argues, is confirmed by the strong link between corporeal and political matters, and by the ostentatious display of bodies in African life. The body of power asserts itself as both matter and spirit, and it incorporates the seductive force of money, commodities, sex, and knowledge. Tonda's incisive analysis reveals how this sovereign power is a social relation, historically constituted by the violence of the African cultural Imaginary and the realities of State, Market, and Church. It is to be understood, he asserts, through a generalized theory economic, political, and religious fetishism. By introducing this crucial critical voice from contemporary Africa into the English language, The Modern Sovereign makes a significant contribution to field of anthropology, political science, and African studies.


About the Author
Joseph Tonda is professor of sociology at Omar Bongo University, Libreville, Gabon. He is also a regular visiting instructor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Chris Turner is a translator and writer living in Birmingham, UK. He has translated more than eighty books from French and German.

Reviews
"Tonda offers a fascinating insight into 'the imaginary power' and 'power of the imagination' in Central Africa. This analysis highlights the essential place occupied by the body and the structuring role of violence and fetishism at once religious, political, economic and sexual." * L'Homme *



Book Information
ISBN 9780857426888
Author Joseph Tonda
Format Hardback
Page Count 456
Imprint Seagull Books London Ltd
Publisher Seagull Books London Ltd
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 28mm