This paper sets out a new research agenda for work on postcolonial development, sovereignty and affect. It examines how ideals of postcolonial independence play out through the more heterogeneous affective atmospheres that disrupt neat paradigms of sovereign control and non‐sovereignty in everyday life. The example employed is everyday life in a Caribbean government office, but the paper develops a wider set of new conceptual tools and ethnographic approaches so as to facilitate research in postcolonial studies and affect more generally. 这篇文章提出一个新的关于后殖民发展, 主权及情感的研究纲领。此文研究后殖民独立的理想典范如何呈现在更异质的情感环境里, 及这种呈现如何在日常生活中打乱关于主权控制和非主权的规整范式。这篇文章使用的例子是一个加勒比海政府办公室的日常活动。然而, 通过这个例子, 本文建立了一套更广泛的新概念工具和人种学研究方法以协助后殖民研究和情感领域研究。