A mother writes her child’s name on an enrollment form. The clerk draws a line through it and offers a version that will be easier for the institution. It seems a minor concession, but the child will learn a lasting lesson: official acceptance may require moving away from the names, speech and judgments that once felt natural. ALIENATIONS begins with this ordinary scene and follows the far-reaching consequences of allowing another authority to define what counts as normal.
Inside the book
Ne Nlaza Kusimbiko examines how alienation moves through language, family expectations, beauty standards, education, religion, employment and public administration. A student rehearses the “acceptable” pronunciation of a surname. A family answers a child in a prestigious school language while grandparents become bystanders. A buyer chooses the foreign logo before assessing repairability or function. Each case shows a preference becoming a hierarchy—and that hierarchy acquiring a practical cost.
The argument goes beyond individual prejudice. Procedures, hiring signals, curricula, procurement rules and archives can continue reproducing unequal judgments even when the people operating them reject discrimination. The book traces these patterns through history and institutional incentives, while distinguishing the survival of a capacity from the institution’s ability to recognize it.
The later chapters move toward repair: recovering the power to observe and classify, testing surviving practices rather than romanticizing them, changing how institutions evaluate evidence, and rebuilding the links between knowledge, responsibility and action. For readers interested in psychology, education, African intellectual independence, systems design or the everyday mechanics of domination, this 2026 expanded edition offers a concrete investigation rooted in identifiable situations.
Editorial presentation grounded in publisher-provided book files.
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