Chinweizu's thought-provoking treatise:

http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7914:is-african-unity-necessary-for-the-total-liberation-of-black-africa-2&catid=96:columnists&Itemid=350

Africa would be liberated the day we begin to respect ourselves especially when it comes to trade.

The Irish hate the English as much as the Hutu hates the Tutsi but that doesn't stop the Europeans coming together to better their lot. We have a group of people with little regard for someone speaking a different language from us and would rather wallow in abject poverty than create a symbiotic relationship with them.

ow,

I'm glad you mentioned trade.

@post,

We formed OAU in order that we can foster bettee union, understanding and progress on the continent. That failed!

Then we thought since Europe created EU maybe if we change our OAU and calll it AU, then we will become a progressive people. Nonsense!

The problem is not name. It is not language or a curse or ego. . .our problem is not our spirit or our fortitude. . .the problem is that we are held back by an education system that conflicts with and work at cross-purpose with our nature and our philosophical view of the cosmos.

Currently, we have bent our philosophical nature to conform to the aspects of western education. We must undo that.

In order to find progress and unity, to become a world power, we must adapt western education. . .we need to mold it. . .to fit in with our philosophy. It will not look anything like we have now but it will be something that is effective, productive and efficieent for the Black race.

Negro_Ntns:

In order to find progress and unity, to become a world power, we must adapt western education. . .we need to mold it. . .to fit in with our philosophy. It will not look anything like we have now but it will be something that is effective, productive and efficieent for the Black race.

I am just curious about some things you raise in your post, Negro_Ntns:

1. What is 'our' philosophy that you mention?
2. What will this adapted education that we need, look like?

@ Question asked in the title of the post-African Unity is not necessary for the total liberation of 'black' Africa. Chinweizu makes his point very clearly and articulately. Though I am a bit sceptical about his obsession with Arab domination, which seems to border on the paranoid, i agree with him that, as a people, we have run out of excuses for our underdevelopment: waiting for a US of Africa to happen before we are 'liberated', is definitely not one of the most responsible ones!

Beneli,

I like your analysis and conclusion on the author's view.

In response to your questions

1. just because Africa did not have a textual accounts of our history should not be taken to mean, as settling Europeans claimed, that we had no knowledge of a global existence. Africans had a philosophy much more developed than the philosophy of those who conquered us. All human philosophies, whatever the racial type, was built upon divine principles.

The divine principles evolved into astronomy. From astronomy we evolved into personifaction of celestial and terrestrial bodies - deity worship. Then we evolved into religions.

There is no record of human abuse and persecution prior to religion. So religion became the first point in human history when the propagation of belief system also started a power struggle to dominate and rule.

For most part of that period, Africa remained in deity worship. This account is chronicled in Torah where Moses was decreed to lead His people out of Egypt so the destruction of their city and King will not touch the tribes. It is also in Bible where it is said that Christians fearing persecution from Rome escaped into Egypt for security. Qur'an also gave extensive account of a need to wage war against idol woshippers who continue in the practice of their fore fathers.

In the onset of Judaism, idolaters fought against the new belief. In the onset of Christianity, Judaism became suspicious and fought against its spread. In the onset of Islam, Christianity was suspicious and fought against a new belief system. The powers already acquired by each faction was never give up but used for more power and territorial domination. Meanwhile Africa remained isolated from the struggles and continued in the practice of the fore fathers. . .until the Arabs came with Islam and then followed by Christian Europe.

It should not therefore surprise that Western education is a hybrid of European and Arabian evolution from astronomy into the physical sciences. I don't know if you have but in case not, I would love for you to read "The Chemical History of a Candle" by the famous scientist Michael Faraday.

His narrations sound more esoteric than scientific and its hard to tell if he was not himself one of the priests in ancient Egypt.

The aspirations for more power to control and supervise the lives of other people outside of their belief system urged Europeans to seek better means for faster outcomes and as the results of these ambitions produced rewards then they developed a guild for recruiting people with inquisitive minds and persuasions to devote mind and resource into bulding social and political eminence. This was the beginning of western academy. From guild to what we now call schools.

Education has always been a birthright of every human even before the beginning of religion but western academy became a privilege.

In our age, we are witnessing the transition point into a new belief system. Cyber! The interconnectivity of ideologies existing as an open source database for creativity, identity, belonging, liberty, security and fulfillment. As it is in past, so it is now. Nations suspicous of the new belief system are reluctant to accept it and so they surveil, ambush and persecute those who practice it.

In all of this, Africa is stll behind. We are behind because the doctrines of deity worship acknowledges that mankind is one brotherhood and so it is counter intuitive and offensive to the spirit to dominate your belief upon another human. Its simple. . .you must not do unto others what you do not want done to you. Isn't that one of the laws in Torah, Bible and Qur'an? So our principal belief system in Africa is endorsed by the scriptures in which the Europeans and the Arabs have found inspiration to evolve their societies.

Not only that, the new age belief system of cyber society subsists on a tecchnological infrastructure built end-to-end in binary formatting. Binary secrets had been in Africa since whenever "Ifa" had existed.

The 256 corpus of Ifa divinity when broken into discrete binaries will result in a full complex or dynamic complex of a two way communication. . .

Faraday bent the scholarship of European guilds into his knowledge of the mystical power of a burning flame and produced science. Al Jibril, an Arab mystic used his knowledge of astronomy to produce mathematical equations known today as algebra.

None of these men were famous for academic excellence or degree but rather for creativity. Europeans come to Africa and study animals and create findings then turn around and teach us the findings. Why couldn't we do the studies. . .the animals are right here in our backyard?

So our philosophies reside in these old beliefs that our fore fathers practiced. Our redemption is in them.

2. I don't know what the product will be but at the core, it should be one that is distinctly African but not a runaway from a global understanding. In other words, it would have interface points between our definitions of social order and that of the western world.

Negro_Ntns:

1. So our philosophies reside in these old beliefs that our fore fathers practiced. Our redemption is in them.

Much as one can argue that the ‘ancients’ in the different cultures of mankind where in some ways ‘repositories of wisdom’, a lot of the stuff that they espoused-truth be told-were based on ignorance.  So I don’t quite agree with you that our ‘redemption’ lies in the beliefs that our forefathers practiced.

Negro_Ntns:

2. It should be one that is distinctly African but not a runaway from a global understanding. In other words, it would have interface points between our definitions of social order and that of the western world. 

I can see where you are coming from. And it’s quite interesting.  However, it’s the practicality of it all that i am really struggling to grasp, especially as it relates to the technological advancement of our people, which i think was the gist of Chiweizu’s argument. I agree, for instance, that there is need to tweak up the syllabi (or is it syllabuses) in our various academic institutions to reflect a bit of afro-centric ideologies and that sort of thing, but quite honestly, what really needs to be done is to provide our people access to very good education.

The way I see things, is that we can’t at this point in history, with all the information exploding onto us, go around trying to re-invent the wheel. Our direction should be for us to understand how the wheel works, improve on it, where necessary, and then use its principles to make other things. In other words our ‘redemption’-if we want to use such a word-is our proper education.

The greatest stumbling block that we have in Africa is ignorance.

Negro_Ntns:


1. just because Africa did not have a textual accounts of our history should not be taken to mean, as settling Europeans claimed, that we had no knowledge of a global existence. Africans had a philosophy much more developed than the philosophy of those who conquered us. All human philosophies, whatever the racial type, was built upon divine principles.

The divine principles evolved into astronomy. From astronomy we evolved into personifaction of celestial and terrestrial bodies - deity worship. Then we evolved into religions.

I agree with that analysis 100%

Negro_Ntns:

There is no record of human abuse and persecution prior to religion. So religion became the first point in human history when the propagation of belief system also started a power struggle to dominate and rule.

For most part of that period, Africa remained in deity worship. This account is chronicled in Torah where Moses was decreed to lead His people out of Egypt so the destruction of their city and King will not touch the tribes. It is also in Bible where it is said that Christians fearing persecution from Rome escaped into Egypt for security. Qur'an also gave extensive account of a need to wage war against idol woshippers who continue in the practice of their fore fathers.

It should not therefore surprise that Western education is a hybrid of European and Arabian evolution from astronomy into the physical sciences. I don't know if you have but in case not, I would love for you to read "The Chemical History of a Candle" by the famous scientist Michael Faraday.

His narrations sound more esoteric than scientific and its hard to tell if he was not himself one of the priests in ancient Egypt.

The aspirations for more power to control and supervise the lives of other people outside of their belief system urged Europeans to seek better means for faster outcomes and as the results of these ambitions produced rewards then they developed a guild for recruiting people with inquisitive minds and persuasions to devote mind and resource into bulding social and political eminence. This was the beginning of western academy. From guild to what we now call schools.

Education has always been a birthright of every human even before the beginning of religion but western academy became a privilege.

In our age, we are witnessing the transition point into a new belief system. Cyber! The interconnectivity of ideologies existing as an open source database for creativity, identity, belonging, liberty, security and fulfillment. As it is in past, so it is now. Nations suspicous of the new belief system are reluctant to accept it and so they surveil, ambush and persecute those who practice it.

In all of this, Africa is stll behind. We are behind because the doctrines of deity worship acknowledges that mankind is one brotherhood and so it is counter intuitive and offensive to the spirit to dominate your belief upon another human. Its simple. . .you must not do unto others what you do not want done to you. Isn't that one of the laws in Torah, Bible and Qur'an? So our principal belief system in Africa is endorsed by the scriptures in which the Europeans and the Arabs have found inspiration to evolve their societies.

Not only that, the new age belief system of cyber society subsists on a tecchnological infrastructure built end-to-end in binary formatting. Binary secrets had been in Africa since whenever "Ifa" had existed.

The 256 corpus of Ifa divinity when broken into discrete binaries will result in a full complex or dynamic complex of a two way communication. . .

Faraday bent the scholarship of European guilds into his knowledge of the mystical power of a burning flame and produced science. Al Jibril, an Arab mystic used his knowledge of astronomy to produce mathematical equations known today as algebra.

None of these men were famous for academic excellence or degree but rather for creativity. Europeans come to Africa and study animals and create findings then turn around and teach us the findings. Why couldn't we do the studies. . .the animals are right here in our backyard?

So our philosophies reside in these old beliefs that our fore fathers practiced. Our redemption is in them.

2. I don't know what the product will be but at the core, it should be one that is distinctly African but not a runaway from a global understanding. In other words, it would have interface points between our definitions of social order and that of the western world.

Chei! You are reading into all this a bit too much don't you think. Though an excellent insight I have my reservations but am tootired right now to get into them. maybe in a couple of days,

Much as one can argue that the ‘ancients’ in the different cultures of mankind where in some ways ‘repositories of wisdom’, a lot of the stuff that they espoused-truth be told-were based on ignorance.  So I don’t quite agree with you that our ‘redemption’ lies in the beliefs that our forefathers practiced.

Human consciousness is bound to time. If time cease our reality will cease with it.

500 yrs into the future that generation will look at back 2010 and condemn our ignorance and rudimentary knowledge of cyber. That's what time does to our memory. It inclines us to look back and disprove how things were done and challenges us to make it better. This is how mankind evolves - thank God for time!

There is another aspect of humanity that is not affected in the manner that time affect us and that is the unconsciousness of our being.

You can connect the brotherhood of mankind using a timeline marker (consciouss) but you can also connect our brotherhood using a cosmic awareness (unconscious).

There is a spirituality link which compels a man living in Russia to have a replica awareness of creativity and nature as a man living in Central Africa. . .and the two do not know one another or have a line of physical connection linking communinaction between the two. Their link is invincible and is managed in a mysterious way that we need not go into here.

That cosmic awareness is ever present and unlike reality, it does not run on time.

I don't know about yours, but in my observation and experience all the inputs that make a progressive and developed society in contemporary terms can be given attributes under four headings -

1. productivity
2. efficiency
3. effectiveness
4. attainment

In each the requirements demand a sense of timeliness; relativity; judgement, inspection and sustainability.

Repeatedly, other races exhibit these senses and attributes in their social order. All of Black societies, whether Africans, Carribean-Africans, European-Africcans or African-Americans, without exception, reject these disciplines and so that when examined under the requirements we are found to be socially disorderly or non-conforming.

African-Americans are separated from Africans and have existed for generatios in socially orderly envirnmennnt and are highly educated with a sharp awareness of the realities sorrounding them but yet find it unadaptable to their nature and so respond reluctantly to the demands of progress. It is not ignorance. . .its something else.

Even in separation, there is an invisible link that connect all children of Africa in their spirit. Through this link there are aspects of our nature which come forth to the surface and manifest itself. In Arts, we excel. . .far better than any other race on the planet.

Western society has created a prejudice around the globe that views our art with suspicion. At par, European art will lose against African art. So their need to expand power, dominance and influence has done damage to what is the single most effective way for us to influence global politics and social orderliness. They used the instruments of academia and ideology to project their art as a high order of humanity and African art as a base form of humanity, expressing the animal in man! Immersed in our social order, the European, under study, will exhibit responses similar to that seen in an African American. . .reckless, unassimilative and unresponsive to the beats and inspiration of nature.
Each to its own! In the laws of comparative advantage, you take to market that which gives you best advantage at minimum risk of effort to the output of those others you meet in the market. Through that understanding, that which you wanted but could not produce will be available for you at the market via the advantageous output of one best for crafting such item. Theefore your productivity, effectiveness, efficiency, attainment is rewarded in the resulting negotiations and treaties that ressult in the marketplace.

This is orderliness, progress and growth. We, Africa, by instituting our philosophies into the curriculum of our academics will develop scholarships and create "thoughts" different from that of Socrates, Archimedes and the likes. . .but nonetheless operating at par level or better but through which the creativity of our indigeneity and nature is called forth and our inspirations are manifested.

Some will argue that my position is discrediting the African's ability to excel in science. No. For those who truly unnderstand the connection, Art is the mother of Science. Art can exist without Science but not the other way around. The rest of the world need Africa. . .or they will perish.

I wached Andrew Young's presentation last night on a series called "What's wrong with Nigeria?". In the documentary, Bunmi Saraki, Governor of Kwara is said to have brought in Whites exiling from Zimbabwe and ave them every incentives including acres of land to farm and produce milk. The exiles, calling themselves refugees, did not invest anything. . .their only expectation is to generate agricultural yields and dairy. Saraki is educated in Western education but not in African philosophy or he would not have done such an abominable commitment. With our education are we moving forward or backward in our global understanding of the laws of comparative advantage?

So when you say the greaest disadvantage we have is ignorance. . .I must ask you, ignoramce in what? One who is adequately educated and excelled as we are, and particularly those who lead us, cannot be said to have ignorance of social order. . .so to speak. However, if he is not properly connected in his spirit to the cosmic force that guide his creativity, then all the education and higher degrees exist in titles only and does him or his flock any good. Aspiring to acquire more scholarship without first repairing that link will not in anyway redeem his ignorance.

So how do we redeem him?

Beneli, I hope my answer adressed both of your concerns.

Morpheus, I can pre-empt what you are ccoming back with lol! I look forward to the knowledge sharing.

More strong words from Chinweizu, definitely thought-provoking, at least for thinking Africans.

http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10747:black-colonialists-the-root-of-the-trouble-with-africa-12&catid=96:columnists&Itemid=350

I am beginning to wonder if Africans actually think. With all that is going on around us, we just turn an oblivious gaze towards our quick-fix dreams, and hide our heads in the sand. Pathetic.