Title : Towards an Afrokology of knowledge production and African regeneration Author/s: Dani Wadada Nabudere
Page: 7
Full text: Subscribe to see full text
Abstract: This article addresses the issue of the scientificity of studying and generally investigating historical phenomena in which African achievements are properly recognised and appropriated as such by all humanity. This approach is not necessarily African-centric or Afrocentric. It is a universal scientific approach that goes beyond Eurocentricism. It recognises other sources of knowledge as valid within their historical, cultural or social contexts, and seeks to dialogue with them. It recognises tradition as a fundamental pillar in the creation of such cross-cultural knowledge in which Africans can stand out as having been the forebearers of much of what is called a Greek or European heritage. This scientific approach is provisionally called Afrokology, which encompasses the philosophical, epistemological and methodological issues, all seen as part of the process of creating an African self-understanding that can place Africa in today's global world, and in which it is recognised as a full partner and forebear of much of the human heritage.
African scholars must pursue knowledge production that can renovate African culture, defend the African people's dignity and civilisational achievements and contribute afresh to a new global agenda that can push humanity out of the crisis of modernity as promoted by the European Enlightenment. Such knowledge must be relevant to the current needs of the masses, which they can use to bring about a social transformation out of their present plight. We cannot just talk about the production of 'knowledge for its own sake' without interrogating its purpose. There cannot be such a thing as the advancement of science for its own sake. Those who pursue 'science for its own sake' find that their knowledge is used for purposes which they may never have intended it. Eurocentric knowledge is not produced purely for its own sake. Its purpose throughout the ages has been to enable them to 'know the natives' in order to take control of their territories, including human and material resources (Said 1978) for their benefit. Such control of knowledge was used to exploit the non-European peoples, to colonise them both mentally and geo-strategically, as well as to subordinate the rest of the world to their designs and interests. This article adopts and explores Afrokology, a philosophical, epistemological and methodological approach that emphasises that Africa's achievements are recognised.
The issue of an African Renaissance, which has been advanced politically, especially by the South African President Thabo Mbeki, cannot be viewed as an event in the politics of the African political elites, although that may be their purpose. It has to be taken up, problematised, interrogated and given meaning that goes beyond the intentions of its authors, and involve the masses of the African people in it if it has the potential to mobilise. It can be used as an occasion for beginning the journey of African psychological, social, cultural as well as political liberation. It can also be used as a mobilisation statement and the basis for articulating an African agenda for knowledge production that is not only relevant to African conditions, but also sets an agenda for the reclaiming of African originality of knowledge and wisdom, which set the rest of human society on the road of civilisation.[back to top]
Title: Centre for African renaissance studies, the academy, the state and civil society: Methodological implications of transdisciplinarity and the African perspective
Author/s: Catherine A. Odora Hoppers
Page: 33
Full text: Subscribe to see full text
Abstract: The Centre for African Renaissance Studies (CARS) at the University of South Africa was born in a political and social environment in which there is a new groundswell for a rebirth, where there are calls for ownership, accountability, excellence, responsiveness and substantive democracy on new terms. Surrounding the centre are the state, the academy and civil society, each with its limitations as well as possibilities for an institution that is established to foster, nourish and effect change in the context of the African Renaissance. The challenge before CARS is therefore one that involves the creation of new knowledge, analyses and interpretations of social reality on an ongoing basis. In working out its linkages and its strategies for dialogue, engagement and co-determination around the past, present and future of Africa, with players such as the state, the academy and civil society in general, therefore, the centre needs of necessity to clarify its position, role and vision in the field of knowledge production. It is here that transdisciplinarity signifies a distinct methodology in knowledge generation, development and utilisation. This article argues that the nature of the crisis we face today is definitely no longer that of 'economics', 'politics' or 'culture' per se; neither is it, for that matter, a crisis of the humanities versus the natural sciences; but rather it is one in which there is a peculiar convergence of all these factors and which, together, form an entirety exceeding the sum of its parts. [back to top]
Title: Pursuing gender equality in the African University
Author/s: Amina Mama
Page: 53
Full text: Subscribe to see full text
Abstract: Africa urgently needs strong, creative and intellectually productive institutions of higher learning to address continental knowledge needs in a manner that is closely grounded in the political and cultural aspirations of Africa's diverse peoples; women as well as men. This requires academics and academic administrators working in African universities to be deeply sensitive to the challenges of gender equality, social justice and democratisation. It requires that we dedicate ourselves to building knowledge institutions that demonstrate these basic values and work towards producing both the people and the ideas that will see to their propagation in the wider society. Ensuring equity of access at all levels and in all areas of the higher education sector is a minimal condition for the pursuit of gender equality. This requires developing a combination of institutional and intellectual strategies to advance the practice of gender equality in educational institutions, and to equip them for the production of both the people and the ideas that existing political and policy commitments to gender equality demand. [back to top]
Title: Mbeki and the peace process in Africa: A contribution to Africa's renaissance
Author/s: Mzobanzi M. Mboya
Page: 80
Full text: Subscribe to see full text
Abstract: Critics of South African President Thabo Mbeki's constant, consistent and continuous involvement in the continental wars and conflicts insist that the president's prime focus should be South Africa, and solving its basic problems of poverty and unemployment. However, it is important to highlight the duel relationship between South Africa and the continent during the long struggle against apartheid. Mozambique, Angola, and in part Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland are what they are now because of the reign of terror unleashed on them as a result of their direct support to the South African liberation movements. The poverty and starvation apparent in Angola and Mozambique were perpetrated by the white minority regime's constant bombing of, and acts of violence against these two countries, and direct support of the anti-government forces. As for the South African liberation movements, they continued to exist and function mainly because of the support offered to them by their independent African brothers. It must be realised that without this support, which for some countries was very costly (i.e., economically, socially and psychologically), liberation would not have come when it did. It has fallen on the shoulders of the newly liberated South Africa to try and intervene in the wars that cause instability on the continent and to try to bring about peace. [back to top]
Title: Public and private higher education in South Africa in the context of the African renaissance
Author/s: Nomsa Ngqakayi-Motaung a
Page: 91
Full text: Subscribe to see full text
Abstract: This article examines the concept of higher education as a public good in relation to the currently evolving interface between public and private higher education in post-apartheid South Africa. In order to illuminate the significance of the particular ways in which this public-private divide is unfolding, the first part of the article sketches the history of the emergence of higher education from the South African public and private elementary and secondary education system, and reaches some conclusions about the social, political and economic considerations that drove the emergence of this dualism in the colonial era and during apartheid, and the emergent assumptions on education as a public good. Making use of Amartya Sen's thesis of development as the expansion of freedoms, the second part constitutes an examination of the manner in which the liberatory agenda of post-apartheid education policy is shaping the current articulation between public and private higher education in South Africa. This is specifically with respect to issues of access, funding and knowledge acquisition and production. This article makes observations, not only about the consequences for development of the particular ways in which the public-private divide is evolving and how the nature of the interface connects with issues of the public good in education, but also about the degree to which the drive for the marketisation of education is impacting on current understandings of education as a public good. In the very last section, a South African case study is used to provide broad commentary on the nature of the public-private interface that may benefit development in the context of the African Renaissance. [back to top]
Title: Lessons from Ugandan indigenous knowledge systems regarding the management of HIV and AIDS Author/s: Esther Kibuka-Sebitosi a
Page: 111
Full text: Subscribe to see full text
Abstract: Health is one of the major challenges facing Africa today. Solutions need to come from within and outside Africa, drawing from Africa's indigenous knowledge systems. This article describes the life cycles of malaria, tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and presents some strategies for the control and prevention of these diseases that are lessons and experiences from African countries. [back to top]
Title: Knowledge production and the construction of 'Africa(ns)' in the Caribbean
Author/s : Verene Shepherd a
Page: 129
Full text: Subscribe to see full text
Abstract: This article traces the roots of how knowledge on Africa was produced and reproduced in the Caribbean. The discussion ranges from the views of Las Casas, who initiated the idea of black chattel slavery, through to the views of Thomas Thistlewood (1750-1786), Edward Long (1774), Maria Nugent (1802-1805), Thomas Carlyle (1845), and J. A. Froude (1880) and beyond. Among the questions to be asked and answered are: how deeply embedded in history was this attempt to construct Africanness within the discursive space of Creole? What strategies were used to transform Africans into New World Creoles and place them in a dialectical relationship to African? How successful were enslavers in their efforts to decentre 'nation' or African ethnic identification and shift the enslaved's allegiance from Akan, Igbo, Yoruba, and so on to 'Creole' or Caribbean?
The Caribbean has been affected by a historically constructed image that still influences self-knowledge as well as global attitudes towards its citizens. This image, paraded as 'truth' and 'knowledge,' was the product of the minds and pens of generations of writers from the North Atlantic System, from Christopher Columbus (1992) through Edward Long (1774) to Lowell J. Ragatz (1928) and beyond. These writers appropriated the project of producing knowledge on the Caribbean for overseas consumption, introducing the Caribbean and its people to a wider public. The machinery of knowledge production, particularly about the colonial Caribbean, was fed by several factors that opened up a discursive space for its 'producers': the European colonisation of the region from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century; the subordination of the indigenous peoples; the expropriation of Caribbean resources for the development of Europe; rivalry among imperial powers; the continued migration to, and settlement of, Europeans in the region; the forced relocation of Africans to provide labour for European economic enterprises; and the creation of a racist socio-political regime that dichotomised blackness and whiteness, ascribing a superior position to the latter.
The early writings produced, especially descriptive accounts of Africa and Africans, were not necessarily the result of careful research grounded in truth and objectivity. Yet, this 'knowledge' was powerful enough to result in the condemnation of indigenous and African ethnicities to the experience of the colonial 'Other' and to have a lasting impact on Caribbean and African diasporic identity, imagination and consciousness. This is because the knowledge produced had a discrete political purpose: to support European imperialism and 'dislodge and disorientate' the Caribbean in a similar way that it did Africa and the Orients, following Nabudere's and Edward Said's formulations (Nabudere 1994). In other words, 'knowledge about the distant “other” served the purpose of dominating it and exercising power and authority over it' (Said 1992). In the specific context of slavery, as some of the works sampled in this article will illustrate, the purpose of the production of knowledge about Africa and Africans was to prolong slavery and colonialism, and to discourage self-confidence among black people by demonising blackness and the geographical origins of African diasporic peoples and promoting whiteness (or even Creolit
/hybridity) as the ideal.
Of course, what colonial writers presented as knowledge about Africa and diasporic Africans was not allowed to go unchallenged. On the contrary, as this article will show, Caribbean scholars have engaged in an opposite project of reconstruction, constructing indigenous interpretations of the Caribbean experience, fashioned by explicit formulations and theoretical constructs, and offering the antithesis to the imperialist view of the Caribbean world. Before focusing on the (mis)representations of Africa and Africans, and the efforts of Caribbean scholars to reconstruct a more accurate image, this article will survey the historiography and the context within which the traditional knowledge system operated. It will be seen that even before Africans entered Caribbean space, the groundwork had already been laid in the historiography for the demonisation of the colonial 'Other', manifested in the writings about the indigenous peoples. [back to top]
Author: Andr 
Mbata B. Mangu
Page: 147
Full text: Subscribe to see full text
Abstract: This article argues that democracy is a prerequisite for the African Renaissance. The role of African intellectuals is crucial in making the dream of the African Renaissance come true. This article revisits the discourse on the African Renaissance, its history and content before dealing with the issue of democracy. Democracy is closely related to human rights and development and is a sine qua non for the African Renaissance. The current discourse on the African Renaissance is not new. The first international conference on the African Renaissance was held in Dakar, Senegal, from 26 February to 2 March 1996 where African intellectuals gathered to celebrate the works of Professor Cheikh Anta Diop, ten years after his death. The theme of the conference was 'African Renaissance in the Third Millennium'. The first African Renaissance Conference in South Africa took place from 28 to 29 September 1998. Thabo Mbeki - then, Deputy Pesident of South Africa - read the keynote address on 'Giving the Renaissance content: Objectives and definitions'.
This article complements efforts at redefining the roles of African intellectuals in fostering democracy through a conscious application of the framework of African Renaissance. [back to top]
Author: Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Page: 164
Full text: Subscribe to see full text
Abstract: Psychological renaissance is a critical step to an African Renaissance. It raises our level of self-awareness and historical awareness. It is a precursor to the mental growth that is part of African Renaissance. Both in Africa and throughout the African Diaspora, we must be more awake, conscious of our history, our environment, of all the changes taking place, constantly processing information, and in full use of our brains - at all times. In the struggle against economic and psychological enslavement which are the dual legacies of slavery and colonialism, it is absolutely necessary that we draw from our African values, our history and the examples set by our ancestors. This essay argues that a greater understanding of the motives for enslavement and racial domination is part of a psychological renaissance in a step towards an African Renaissance. [back to top]
Author: Author: Allan Boesak a
Page: 175
Full text: Subscribe to see full text
Abstract: The African Renaissance is now more than just an idea . . . In South Africa itself, ten years of democracy have ripened our discussions and deepened our insights. We are less starry-eyed and euphoric, and more cautious; less optimistic but more hopeful. We are beginning to understand much better just how much South Africa is part of Africa, as we are beginning to understand that ' Africa' is much more than a geographical connotation. Africa is its mountains and rivers, its valleys and high places; its sweeping savannas and its dense forests; its rich soil and its intimidating deserts. But Africa is Africa mostly in her children wherever they may dwell: in the wisdom of her elders and the courage of her youth, the strength of her mothers and the dedication of her fathers. Being an African is not simply a question of sharing the land, it is sharing the fate of Africa. We have come to understand Africa not just as a place, but as a manifestation of a vision; not just the land that we come from, but the destiny that we are called to fulfill.
Africa has a rich diversity of spiritualities and proffers a deep well from which we can all drink. Within the context of the African Renaissance we are called to look anew at those values, and see how, within our new situation they could contribute to the foundation and the fabric, the content and the practical implementation of the African Renaissance for the good of all our people. [back to top]
Author: Robinson Randall
Page: 184 Full text: Subscribe to see full text
Abstract: From Barbados to Burundi and from New Guinea to Nigeria, almost all that is known about crucial developments in other black nations comes from white world news organisations - BBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and other corporate-controlled media. Owing to this, as well as to the general longstanding relationship between the white world and the African Diaspora, our peoples, our strivings, our triumphs - are either routinely ignored or grotesquely distorted. There is no structural mechanism for the sharing of information throughout the African Diaspora. As a result, we truly are at the mercy of a corporate-controlled media that not only presents either no information or distorted information about the African Diaspora to the rest of the world, but feeds these distortions to us throughout the African Diaspora. In the process, the international media promotes and inculcates standards and values that are philosophically and culturally discordant with the global African reality.
Governments and peoples of the African Diaspora must begin to discuss, debate, and re-think for ourselves, and amongst ourselves, those circumstances and conditions, those values and realities, those yardsticks by which we will measure and judge ourselves. It is based on these standards that we should judge and assess the health and appeal of all nations. There are certain priorities, of course, that all nations and peoples should embrace - an informed and educated populace; affordable health care for all; employment that serves the needs of the individual and the interests of the nation. Beyond that, however, throughout the Diaspora we in the African Diaspora must recognise the strengths that are uniquely ours, and build on them. The giraffe becomes a pathetic caricature when it attempts to be a gazelle. The time has come for us to reclaim and re-assert our essential African-ness; to build societies where the social, economic, and spiritual development of the human being is paramount; to recognise all that is ours materially and spiritually - the minerals in the earth, the forests above it, our waterways, our God-given resources that for so long have been the source of enormous wealth for everyone but us; our traditions, our values, culture, our kinship networks, our humanity. [back to top]
International Journal of African Renaissance Studies