African Philosophy as the Practice of Resistance

Abstract

In what follows I will present my views regarding the questions, and areas of concern, that are of fundamental importance to the contemporary discourse/practice of African philosophy. I will present a programmatic statement of what I take to be a form of resistance in the realm of theory. And so, in keeping with the above, I will explore and concretely engage three interconnected and nodal points: 1. the indigenous re-orientation of philosophic work 2. the critique of Eurocentrism 3. and the question of our "generic human identity" The concerns expressed in the above three points are, in my view, crucial issues that warrant on-going discussion and debate. In examining them my hope is to further develop their articulation in view of making their importance more palpable and pressing. (2) For, it is out of such efforts that we can better grasp, and possibly participate in changing, our dismal contemporary neo-colonial situation located in-between (3) our former status of colonial subjects and our present wretched condition of being dependent formerly colonized peoples. It is this dismal and barren in-between, which constitutes our lived present. Our postcolonial situation, to properly be such, has to put in question this colonial residue-the in-between-ness of our present. 1. We are today, at the end first decade of the 21st century, at a point in time when the concrete dominance of the universe of Euro-American singularity is being encompassed, or engulfed, by the multi-verse of our shared humanity. In this context, the central concern for the practice of philosophy focused on the formerly colonized world should be directed at helping to create a situation in which the enduring residue of the colonial past is systematically put in question. For, even if, at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, we are beyond the "Age of Europe" (4) yet, every aspect of our existence in the formerly colonized world is still-in essential and fundamental ways-determined and controlled by our former colonizers. I say this not in order to shift blame but to locate specifically the source of our present predicament, not only as regards our economic and political dependence on the West, but also as regards the basic dependent orientation of our theoretic efforts. Indeed, as Paulin J. Hountondji has correctly noted: "Historically, science and technology, in their present form on the African continent, can be traced back to the colonial period." (5) In today's Africa, the practice of science, technology, and theoretic work in general--as conducted in African universities and research centers, such as they are--continues, in the same vein, as during colonial times. How this practice might be changed, in view of present needs, is a question that is seldom, if ever, asked! As Hountondji points out, this deplorable situation is taken "for granted" (6) and as "normal" by those engaged in scientific work. Now, this "subjective" acceptance and internalization of colonial hegemony under "new" conditions--the neocolonial in-between-ness of our present--has its concrete "objective" (7) correlate in: [T]he historical integration and subordination of ... [our systems of knowledge] ... to the world system of knowledge and "know-how," just as underdevelopment as a whole results, primarily, not from any original backwardness, but from the integration of our subsistence economies into the world capitalist market. (8) On the subjective side, the side of agency, this equation--the concrete--material subordination of our societies, that subtends our being a superfluous appendage to "the world system of knowledge"--is sustained and perpetuated, into the future, by an "ideology ... of universalism" (9) which is the lived-matrix of the subjectivity, the conscious self-awareness (i.e., thinking), of Westernized Africa. As Immanuel Wallerstein has noted; "Universalism is a faith, as well as an epistemology. …