KU African studies scholar explains his ‘Ambivalent Encounters’

LAWRENCE — Don’t mistake James Yékú’s ambivalence for apathy or both-sides-ism, much less for being part of the backlash against decolonization.

He says so explicitly in his new collection, “Ambivalent Encounters and Other Essays” (Griots Lounge), where, for example, the University of Kansas associate professor of African & African American studies insists that logic and ethics compel him to drill down through the many layers (ethnic, generational, academic) of controversy surrounding some fellow Nigerian-born writers now living in the West, and let the chips fall where they may.

It is this same penetrating gaze that caused his article, first published by Al Jazeera and critiquing “The Myth of the Physical African Team,” to go viral during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Yékú has reprised the piece in the new volume, along with a handful of others that dissect the role of race in football (worldwide soccer) culture. One chapter is a love letter to the poetic Nigerian radio commentators Yékú encountered in his soccer-mad youth.

The first section of “Ambivalent Encounters” is titled “Knowing Books” and starts with a personal recollection of the author’s grandfather emphasizing the power of the written word. This certainty in the old man’s mind is counterposed against the agonizing mystery of his son’s (the author’s uncle’s) disappearance in the midst of this century’s massive migration from Africa to Europe. 

“I wanted to start on a personal note, unlike the sections where I discuss some theoretical issues around ambivalence and books and print culture, as well as social media,” Yékú said. “I had written about my grandfather in my last collection of poems ... but I thought that brief poetic narrative needed to be retold in an essay form. And I imagine, at some point in the future, I might return to it again because it haunts me, as absences tend to do.”

The second section is subtitled “Nigerian Social Media Cultures,” the study of which has become one of Yékú’s specialties.

And while Yékú explores how cancel culture on social media is weaponized for gain in one essay, he is likewise critical of the forces who seek to ostracize or “cancel” anyone, including writers enmeshed in scandals and controversies.

In the book, Yékú refers to this dynamic as part of “our unforgiving age of conviction.”

“It's about this inability to recognize and respect difference,” said the KU researcher. “The moment that somebody has a different perspective from you, there is a temptation to have them canceled. It appears there is something about our era that is tickled by offense and a lack of redemptive politics. For me, that is problematic. It's one of the reasons we can't have any meaningful conversation with a person with a different point of view ... and one of the reasons I may not be able to reach them, or they can't reach me — because we're both quick to judge each other ... and dismiss whatever they bring to the table.

“I think if society continues to go in that direction, then the kind of postelection trauma seen among some U.S. progressives recently will continue, because we continue to bring ideas to the table we believe to be absolute and non-negotiable standpoints, whereas what we should be doing is to try to have civil and nuanced debates and listen to one another.”

Yeku explores these ideas more in the context of African literature and algorithmic cultures in a second academic monograph scheduled for publication in spring 2025.