of cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitanization illustrate. At this juncture, it will serve us
better to take into account an often unacknowledged predicament of cosmopolitans:
Like the distinction between ‘modernity and ‘modernization’, we have to distinguish between
cosmopolitanism as a set of normative principles and (really existing) cosmopolitanization.
The distinction turns on the rejection of the claim that cosmopolitanism is a conscious and
voluntary choice, and all too often the choice of an elite. The notion ‘cosmopolitanization’ is
designed to draw attention to the fact that the emerging cosmopolitan of reality is also, and
even primarily, a function of coerced choices or a side-effect of unconscious decisions. The
choice to become or remain an ‘alien’ or a ‘non-national’ is not as a general rule a voluntary
one but a response to acute need, political repression or a threat to starvation. (Ulrich Beck
and Natan Sznaider 2006:7-8)Once the above delineation is put in context against the specific backdrop of postcolonial
Africa, it becomes evident that the choice of cosmopolitanism in recent times, especially
from the late 1980s has not been voluntary, after all. The recrudescence of military rule
that plagued Africa in the 1960s and 70s and which continued unabated up to the early
part of the 90s for instance served as an unfortunate impetus for the “voluntary” exit of
many African intellectuals. But such exit, it must be remarked, was not exclusive to the
elite class as many others that fell below the skilled labour categorization also joined the
train of migration to the West in search of greener pastures. As observed earlier in the
introductory chapter, where military dictatorship was not a factor, other forms of
leadership excesses engendered the dispersal of a significant number of African human
capital the West. The deplorable conditions have spread to all spheres and have
significantly affected artists, writers and scholars many of whom have since relocated to
the West and in the process internalized the informing impetus of their relocation. Having
settled into Western system of knowledge production and career practice, the tendency
among this category of intellectuals is to look back on the moments of exit, especially
where they were not linked to direct confrontation with authorities, and conclude that
they are better categorized as cosmopolitans than as exiles. But the reality on the ground
often puts the lie to their claims as has been illustrated in When it no Longer Matters
Where you Live for instance. The title poem gives cogency to the observation as the “the
Iroko”, despite the confessed security of his status in the several seasons of uprooting and
“transplanting” it has witnessed, eventually testifies to the desirability of home no matter
the benefits that accrue from being at home in the world: