May I add that another form of imperialism and domination is to try to silence scholars who fill the gap in our knowledge about the African past -
scholars who attempt to correct misconceptions and falsehood. Researchers have every right to make such corrections and to do so urgently
for the record, " for the heck of it"(Olayinka)- whether in terms of Egypt, Southern Africa or elsewhere in the continent.
Afrocentrism, whether old school or new school, justifiably contests the deliberate or accidental distortion of the African past. It has been a challenge to intellectual imperialism, and hegemony.
I believe Ken got the real motivation of Afrocentrism completely wrong. It is not that "we too are civilized" but rather," you have engaged in intellectual theft and are violating intellectual property rights, and we are developing a new epistemological system to rectify the situation."
The big challenge is to engage in such noble historical activity without swallowing hook, line and sinker, European notions of civilization -
notions that Europeans often fulfill through impersonation, I may add.
Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Professor of History
History Department
History Department
Central Connecticut State University
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
8608322815 Phone
8608322804 Fax
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kenneth Harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 4, 2017 8:38 AM
To: usaafricadialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African Writing Systems
Sent: Monday, September 4, 2017 8:38 AM
To: usaafricadialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African Writing Systems
The word civilization is a term of colonial discourse used to justify the domination of one group over another, either intellectually or politically. That has been true especially with africa, and the whole point of things fall apart has been to demonstrate the fallaciousness of the term. Not simply because whites are hypocritical in the use of the term—after all, that was conrad's point in heart of darkness-but more to take a community that has no large buildings or writing system, or any of the other european notions of the attributes of civilization, and to show its civilized values.
The trouble with old school afrocentrism and egyptology is that it swallows european notions of civilization and one-ups it by saying, we too are civilized, and before anyone else.
I will stand by this claim forever. There is nothing worse that adopting european notions of civilization, from latin civitas, and claiming we too are civilized. It is completely as mudimbe has claimed to be trapped by accepting the european frame of epistemology, to be trapped by the notions of value and education generated by the very society that conquered you.
The key word in the posting below is "inferiority."
Last point: conrad saw the hypocrisy in colonialism, but not in the notion of civilization. It took achebe to go that next step because conrad was an outsider with no knowledge of africa people or society, except from the outside and through the colonial lens. Achebe attacked him for his racism, an underlying attribute of the european "civilized" man. I am not using scare quotes to be ironic, but to signal exactly what mudimbe has written.
ken
Kenneth Harrow
Dept of English and Film Studies
Michigan State University
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-803-8839
harrow@msu.edu
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On 04/09/2017, 03:01, "'O O' via USA Africa Dialogue Series" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> 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"
>
>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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The trouble with old school afrocentrism and egyptology is that it swallows european notions of civilization and one-ups it by saying, we too are civilized, and before anyone else.
I will stand by this claim forever. There is nothing worse that adopting european notions of civilization, from latin civitas, and claiming we too are civilized. It is completely as mudimbe has claimed to be trapped by accepting the european frame of epistemology, to be trapped by the notions of value and education generated by the very society that conquered you.
The key word in the posting below is "inferiority."
Last point: conrad saw the hypocrisy in colonialism, but not in the notion of civilization. It took achebe to go that next step because conrad was an outsider with no knowledge of africa people or society, except from the outside and through the colonial lens. Achebe attacked him for his racism, an underlying attribute of the european "civilized" man. I am not using scare quotes to be ironic, but to signal exactly what mudimbe has written.
ken
Kenneth Harrow
Dept of English and Film Studies
Michigan State University
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-803-8839
harrow@msu.edu
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.english.msu.edu%2Fpeople%2Ffaculty%2Fkenneth-harrow%2F&data=01%7C01%7Cemeagwali%40ccsu.edu%7C258c447e5a6d4fab93c608d4f3925afc%7C2329c570b5804223803b427d800e81b6%7C0&sdata=ItB0c9sflDLkj8We1E12qBAfUx5d90RbNXmjb25SmGk%3D&reserved=0
On 04/09/2017, 03:01, "'O O' via USA Africa Dialogue Series" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> 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"
>
>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
>
>--
>Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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