Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Whose Face is on the Coin? The Split Economy and Political Theology

Bro Nimi, 

It seems that you are having doubts about your vow of poverty. I guess that the catchy tune by Mike Okri, Time Na Money, must be sticking to your mind especially after it was used as a popular jingle on Radio FM Port Harcourt in the 1980s. I responded to that jingle in one of my poems by stating:

Mike Okri - Time Na Money

Most people work hard

Still yet they dey poor

A few people idle

How manage they dey rich?

Some people murder 

In order to prosper

Many people crazy 

But they no dey lazy

No kill yourself because of money

Money no be everything

Money no fit buy everything

Time and money

Na man dey make them so

Time and money

Woman dey make them too

Make them no control man

Woman go control them (see my collection, Today Na Today)

This essay by you, Wariboko, is an appetizer and it invites readers to salivate about the book main course. My initial reflection is that the split between economy and finance capital appears spurious because finance capital or imperialism is not separate from the economy. The real split is the one between labor and capital but St. Paul did not prophesy about that one as he commanded slaves to obey their masters like God while women should obey their husbands even whey they are abusive. 

Max Weber stated that the reason why capitalism originated in Protestant countries rather than in Buddhist or Catholic ones was because only Protestantism preached that money is a good sign of divine blessings but Marx, Du Bois, James, Williams, Fanon, and Rodney pointed out that it was the enslavement of millions of Africans for hundreds of years that created capitalist wealth, not protestantism. Neocolonialism, according to Nkrumah constitutes the last stage of imperialism which Lenin saw as the highest stage of capitalism. It will be interesting to see how you, Nimi, engages with these materialist theories that are not theological or psychic.

A Freudian slip is visible in the split when you see that contradiction in capitalism as a psychic one and not a materialist one. The critique of capitalism does not start from the assumption that money is the root of all evils. In fact, according to Marx, Capitalism is a damn good mode of production compared to feudalism and to slavery. The critique is that capitalism is not as good as it gets and that the inherent contradictions between capital and labor 

will be resolved through a revolution led by the working class. Nimi, you never even mentioned workers or labor power while invoking St. Paul as the psychic basis for giving to Caesar what is Caesar's.

Biko

On Thursday, 23 July 2020, 19:51:47 GMT-4, Nimi Wariboko <nimiwari@msn.com> wrote:

 

Whose Face is on the Coin?  The Split Economy and Political Theology

 

By Nimi Wariboko

 

This essay addresses the question before us by wedding a theory of the economy's fundamental antagonism to the notion of immunitas, or immunity. With this combination of economic theology and political theology, I am able to argue that coin—and for that matter the Caesar's coin that Jesus examined—represents a twofold immunization that fights against communal flourishing. The coin (state-issued currency) is a symptom of an economico-body politic autoimmune disease. Roberto Esposito has clearly explained the notion of immunitas in political philosophy in his oeuvre. The theory of the economy and its fundamental obstacle is spelled out in my book: The Split Economy: Saint Paul Goes to Wall Street.

 

See the link for the rest of the essay.

 

https://politicaltheology.com/whose-face-is-on-the-coin-the-split-economy-and-political-theology/

 

 

 

Nimi Wariboko, Ph.D

Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics

Boston University

745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 420

Boston, MA 02215, United States

Tel: 617-353-0814

nimiwari@bu.edu-

 

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