Modern civilization, as Bayo Akomolafe might divine it, is a labyrinthine confluence of humanity's relentless chase for progress and the intricate, often overlooked, relationships we hold with the more-than-human world. It is a tapestry woven with threads of industrialization, technological prowess, and an insatiable drive for control, yet marred with disconnection, ecological devastation, and spiritual impoverishment. This civilization manifests in towering cities, digital networks, and the global economy, but also in the undercurrents of loss—loss of indigenous wisdom, biodiversity, and the sacred kinship between beings. Modernity, while brandishing promises of a brighter, more efficient future, paradoxically shrouds us in shadows of alienation, urging us to reimagine our place not as dominators, but as humble participants in an enfleshed, entangled cosmology.

See also: white modernity, slave trade, racial justice, contemporary activism, life itself