Paper short abstract:

Neotraditionalism sees decolonization as retraditionalization. It is an invention of new tradition based on the image of precolonial one in public memory. This connection between real and invented traditions is the essence of neotraditionalism as a decolonial ideology and political strategy.

Paper long abstract:

In post-colonial sub-Saharan African states, an appeal to the historical past for the construction of national identity acquires great importance. In particular, it becomes important due to the failure of attempts to copy political models based on European theories and experience and therefore turning to “neotraditionalism” as an ideological basis in attempts to rally citizens around authorities. In such ideologies, decolonization is actually understood as “retraditionalization” – a return to pre-colonial models of political and social relations. However, in practice, this is an invention of new tradition under the guise of restoring pre-colonial traditions. The policy of neotraditionalism is not a deception of the population, but the exploitation not of the tradition of the past itself, but of its image imprinted in the cultural memory of the people. At the same time, neotraditionalism manifests itself in different spheres of post-colonial societies’ life, including political, also beyond the conscious policy of states. This is because the bearers of state power simply exploit, directing and strengthening neotraditionalist tendencies in societies, but do not generate the phenomenon of neotraditionalism as such, since in many non-Western versions of modernity neo-traditionalism is an attribute of the modern cultures of the peoples of these countries themselves. What makes neotraditionalism possible is the eclecticism of public consciousness and collective picture of the world generated by colonialism and strengthened by the transformations of the postcolonial era. This inextricable connection between real tradition and invented tradition is the essence of neotraditionalism as a decolonial ideology and political strategy.