Báyò Akómoláfé (renowned philosopher, writer, activist, professor of psychology, and international speaker) answers the question above with his novel concept of “postactivism,” which invites us to move beyond the binary thinking of “us versus them” and engage in more nuanced, open-ended, and transformative ways of addressing social and environmental challenges.

This conversation between Dr. Báyò Akómoláfé and Dr. Angel Acosta on June 16, 2023 was a robust contemplative experience which wrestled with questions about how we approach social change.

The two acknowledge that established forms of activism do genuinely seek positive change, but Akómoláfé posits that a new iteration of action could be far more powerful. Conventional approaches to change often hold single-minded, goal-oriented perspectives, employ combative binary worldviews, and assume that humans are separate from nature and should forcibly control scenarios to fix discrete problems.

Akómoláfé suggests that rather than seeking to dominate or overpower the problems we face, we should learn to listen deeply to diverse voices and embrace complexity, uncertainty, and multiple perspectives. Postactivism welcomes humility, curiosity, and collaboration; it acknowledges that we live in a multidimensional world with a plurality of perspectives, and owns that we are embedded in the imperfect world we hope to heal.