Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2023 8:30:57 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Menace of "Theoretical Framework" Hazing in Anglophone Africa
--Dear friends,I suppose those who share the view that white theorists are to be shunned should shun my contribution. Why not, you can make these discriminations if you want. I agree with moses's 5 points, generally, except not point 5 where he states that it is preferable to find an african theorist when possible. I don't totally agree that there is a meaningful difference between african or non-african, in many if not most cases. We read the same texts, we argue the same theoretical points, regardless whether they are foucault or mbembe, and force a philosophical discussion that is either fruitful or ends.The theorists i have turned to most in recent decades happened to be african—gikandi, mbembe. Prior to that i learned to love the work of an algerian jew named derrida; and indian deconstructionist named spivak, and another indian theorist named bhabha. None of these people picked their "theory" regionally, ie as western or indian or african.
When i hosted my first african literature assn conference at msu around 40 years ago i had as the goal to bring as many strong theorists together as i could. Some came from africa, some from europe or america. Edward Said gave a talk in which he stated african scholars should begin their work using conrad (which he himself did). I was profoundly disappointed that he, the great scholar on orientalism, would want us to speak from the ground of speaking back to, rather than affirming positively. I felt achebe was a much stronger place to begin. Skip gates spoke at that conference, as did appiah, spivak, palmer, and others. Gates spoke to the question of using "white" theorists, or europeans or not, and he answered in a manner that i think moses would appreciate: use whatever strengthens your argument.That has always been the truest answer to the claim that you should choose a theorist based on race.We should not have to use theory in our writings; i agree completely with those who criticize it as a pointless mechanical requirement. But if we can use any writing from any author from anyplace, it would be cutting off our own noses to spite our faces to pick the theorists based on race.
There is one caveat i'd make to this. I agree that any writing about african texts should come from a perspective or location that is centered in african realities, thought, tastes, creative spaces, lived experiences. If these imbue our thought, they are grounded and make sense. But i would not want a judge to decide on the appropriateness of the theorist based on other criteria besides the one major rule: does this thought enrich my argument.Ken
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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2023 4:11:14 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Menace of "Theoretical Framework" Hazing in Anglophone AfricaBiko, I don't think Professor Njoya or any other critic of the "theoretical framework" tyranny in Anglophone African academies will say Africans embracing theory are embracing the traps of disciplined White knowledge bromides.
I think the problem lies in our people mandating and enforcing "theoretical framework" as a basis for validating a work of scholarship and, in the process, creating a situation in which our scholars, in order to fulfill the mandate and mollify gatekeepers and peers alike, are uncritically borrowing largely unrelated, Eurocentric, and even racist theories from Euro-America and, in doing so, neglecting to 1) theorize from their own Africa-inflected work, and/or 2) drawing on a rich wellspring of African theoretical knowledge and thought.
What Njoya and others are saying is that when theory is mandated in such a mechanical, draconian, and unintellectual way, it wittingly or unwittingly validates the offensively racist notion that the West is the site of theory and Africa is a land of raw or empirical data, so for Africa-originated knowledge to enter the global epistemological marketplace, it must be dressed up, however awkwardly, in Western theory.--
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On Sep 24, 2023, at 2:56 PM, 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Theories are systematic ideas about the nature of phenomena and Africana Theories (AT) represent critical ideas about the world of people of African descent with a centered focus on Africana peoples and for their own interests rather than against them, to end oppression and exploitation. This is what Terry Kershaw defined as the Africana Paradigm – critical, centered, scholar-activism. Molefi Asante defines it as Afrocentricity. The field of Africana Studies is vast and theory is only a part of it. But as in every field, theory is the defining subject and theorists tend to be the most influential in every field. If you want to make your name in any discipline, then you must pay attention to theory in order to understand the subject better and to make your own original contribution to knowledge. Because theory is so important in higher education, dead white men tend to monopolize it and they are called the founding fathers of this or that.
Have you ever wondered why theory books are so white in a world where white people are a minority? The answer is that white people had been trying to stop us from learning, they have been stealing our ideas, and they want us to believe that we cannot do theory, we should only be native informants for the benefit of white theorists. We resist that with the knowledge that we invented writing long before there was any European in history and we have our theorists to study. We have also studied white theorists and white students are welcome to study AT for the benefit of all.
Some may say that we may be playing into the traps of white men if we seek to develop interest in theory while our people suffer indignities afflicted by capitalism, sexism and racism. Do you think that theory is a waste of time? Are you excited to learn about the AT you may not have been familiar with before?
Biko
--On Sunday, 24 September 2023 at 11:38:31 GMT-4, Toyin Falola <toyin.falola53@gmail.com> wrote:
This is not what I was told, unfortunately.
I was told that a thesis must follow a prescribed structure.
I think our colleagues in Africa have to talk so that it does not become the regular trope: diasporan scholars--- which is a way of shutting down a debate.
--
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