Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African Writing Systems

That is precisely my point.  There really is nothing to be proven.  What Prof Bekerie has shown for the heck of it (just for record purposes) is that these things were there at the point of conquest for anyone who wanted to see them.  

The conqueror just needed some justification to cover his brigandage to seem to be on the moral high ground: 'we colonised them for their own good' as the papal bull referred to by S Kadiri demonstrates.  It legitimates why West Africans needed to be dragged to Christby force if necessary.

For me (and from the psychoanalytic perspective) writing occurs IN THE MIND.

Readers can ponder on when a book is considered written: when conceived, when mechanically put to paper or when it appears in print (published?)

For me I consider all my written work as written when I CONCEIVE them for by that time I know what I want to write about and how I want it shaped.  The moment when the final product comes out (3 months 2 years or 20 years) is not when it was written.

The exteriority of writing is only the demonstration and shared artifact of the mind.

Technically historians dont consider possession of writing as the determinant of a civilized culture but one of the contingent attributes.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: 'O O' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>

Date: 04/09/2017 11:56 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African Writing Systems

"It now seems convetional for any group that lays claim to civilization to show proof that it has a writing system equal to the West in evolutionary stages or in a completed format"

But isn't a belief in the absence or presence of such a writing system as the determinant of the inferiority or non-inferiority of a civilization suspect logically and  psychologically -- and thus a breeding ground for egregious inferiority or superiority complexes that continue to put much of black scholarship or historiography on a defensive and diversionary trajectory that keeps gnawing the (human) spirit?



> On Sep 3, 2017, at 9:34 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu> wrote:
>
> It now seems convetional for any group that lays claim to civilization to show proof that it has a writing system equal to the West in evolutionary stages or in a completed format

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