Follow up
I want to add to the list of texts mentioned, Chimakonam's EZUMEZU. As I pointed out
in a Choice Review:
Ezumezu, the philosophical system of ideas expounded, is aimed at decentering and replacing
"the Aristotelian Greco-European logocentric view of reason" with a system of logic that is inspired by
African ontological realities and dynamism, thus providing "a foundation for African philosophy."
The final chapter focuses on "epistemicide" and the destruction of African
epistemologies as well as Christian missionary collaboration with the colonialists to achieve this end.
The text shines a brilliant spotlight on African knowledge, philosophy, and
intellectual endogeneity from one of Africa's leading philosophers. (Modified Abstract)
But you have to decenter the eurocentric approach from various disciplines and perspectives
simultaneously. I appreciate the way Feyerabend does this from within the belly of the beast
and from within the history of science. That is why I make reference to his works.
George Sefa Dei does it from within Indigenous Knowledge epistemology and education,
Bewaji from philosophy, Biko does it from criminology and law, Bangura from mathematics; Van Sertima,
Molefi Asante, Chilisa and Diop got us to rethink methodology;Joseph Inikori from economics.
George James in Stolen Legacy points to the real foundation of Greek philosophy. It is a long list.
I have tried to do it from history and AIK along with several historians of Africa, none the least
Toyin Falola, our distinguished moderator.
The Western world did not singlehandedly build the modern technologies you cited and I shall
certainly revisit that issue, so this is not the last of my responses to your brilliant rejoinder.
Gloria Emeagwali
On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 9:06 AM Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.emeagwali@gmail.com> wrote:
Who is the real father of African Studies?Definitely not Mudimbe.He is not even onthe list and one wonders how Kenarrived at that conclusion. Is there anyreason why Diop, his predecessoris ignored?But how about Edward Blyden?In 1887 he wrote Christianity,Islam and the Negro Race;West Africa before the Europeans in1905 and about twenty books.Then there are William LeoHansberry, Du Bois, Rogers,Schomburg, John Hendrik Clarke etc.a few decades later."Well I was only referring to therecent era not the earlier one"Ok. Got your point. How aboutCheikh Anta Diop, author ofPrecolonial Black Africa in 1987,one year BEFORE Mudimbe'sInvention of Africa!Come tothink of it Falola is a moreappropriate candidate giventhe number of books produced,his publishing house and vast numberof scholars in the field thathe has worked with."Well I was only looking for someonewho spoke French and English"Really? In that case it's back toDiop.Gloria EmeagwaliSent from my iPhoneOn Jun 22, 2020, at 7:30 AM, 'Michael Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:"the field of contemporary african studies was built on (Mudumbe)'s work . . ." (kh)Really? First of all, I duff my hat in the direction of all of you who have read and fully understood Mudumbe's work(s). I have failed miserably in that area but it probably has nothing to do with the great philosopher. I still hail the depth of his intellect. Indeed, Parables & Fables is one of the most prominent classics in my library in Nigeria. But if I may ask, Ken, why would V.Y. Mudumbe be the "father of African Studies", just to paraphrase you? Where does that live the likes of Jan Vansina, M.J. Herskovits, D.P. Kunene, Philip Curtin, A.C. Jordan, L. Harries, and the list goes on and on . . .? But that is not the issue. . .I think the counsel that Dr. Ogundiran offered Toyin in his first critique of Toyin's work is quite solid and critical in terms of the need to reach out to practicing Ogboni members with humility so as to gain a phenomenological insight into the meaning of their practice so he would not be misconstrued as an armed-chair investigator and he would be able to provide an organic analysis because the "mother's milk is sweet", the anthem of the Ogbonis is no gimmick. As the Yorba say, "No one can know the mother of Ošo, the child, more than the child itself." If Toyin would adhere to that counsel, his work on the Ogbonis could be as ground-breaking as Marcel Griaule's Conversation with Ogotemmeli, that was the single counsel the Griaule's team followed and broke the ground for the world's knowledge of the much-acclaimed Dongon cosmology today. I happen to know a member of his team at Yale, the late John Middleton, and he would be the first to tell you that you cannot truly grasp, let alone interpret, the meaning of a culture and the phenomenal nuances that surround it when you only read about it, and your analysis or interpretation would always be warped if it fails to align with what the practitioners of that culture consider as its meaning/s!Keep it up, Oluwatoyin!Michael--On Sunday, June 21, 2020, 5:13:26 PM EDT, Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:toyin is correct; it has to do wiith the place of disciplines within discourse. i doon't know if i have to will to refute gloria's denigration of mudimbe. i don't think you get him. not sure what good it would do to defend him.. as far as i am concerned, th field of contemporary african studies was built on his work, with that of others who were foundational to postcoloniialism at the time--bhabha and spivak, then mudimbe, then mbembe -- the trajectory is clear.
ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.emeagwali@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 21, 2020 4:55 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Classics in Ogboni Studies : Babatunde Lawal, Philosopher of OgboniWell by the time you are done withMudimbe, you may start to questionthe great project you are embarkingon, and abandon it. He is a masterof spin. For focusingon Ogboni Studies he may label youan ethnocentric - and shame youinto silence.--
He dismisses Blyden, Diop, Obengaand all the great pan Africanists, witharguments that cater for aparticular demographic - with aquestionable agenda. Blydenis his punching bag.
The Eurocentricsactually love Mudimbebecause he createsa vacuum for them to fill.
This is somewhat speculative butI won't be surprised ifto the Black Lives Matter movementhe retorted "all lives matter"-in total distortion of the gravityand organizational necessitiesof the here and now, in thismoment of resistance againstpolice brutality. He would probablyreject the logical construct:
All Lives MatterBlack people have LivesTherefore Black Lives Matter
Don't get me wrong. I recognizeMudimbe's profound understandingof colonialist historiography.Heeven critiques some Eurocentric worksthat only a master of the Frenchand Belgian archiveswould come across,and provides unforgettable,illuminating, intellectual insightsand contributions to epistemology-but his frequent dismissalof Black identity, indirectly orotherwise, is suspect.
With intentional oraccidental sleight ofhand, this erudite philosopherof Romance Languages andLiterature, often underminesthe Black people who speak forthemselves.
Professor Gloria EmeagwaliVimeo.com/gloriaemeagwali
On Jun 21, 2020, at 2:42 PM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:
i get the impression that ken is addressing mudimbe's general idea of the construction of africa as a field of study in western discourse, an orientation he perhaps sees akin's post as projecting in terms of seeking to let african discourses speak for and define themselves
toyin
--On Sun, 21 Jun 2020 at 18:44, Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.emeagwali@gmail.com> wrote:
Mudimbe's texts are largely--historiographical/methodologicaland focus very peripherally onYoruba culture, if at all, in my view,but correct me if I am missing outsomething specific.
Symbols and the interpretationof the African past;Which idea of Africa;The power of theGreek paradigm; and Domesticationand the Conflict of memories -constitute the agenda for "The ideaOf Africa."
In "The Invention of Africa"he begins with: Discourse of Powerand Knowledge; Questions of Method;The Power of Speech; Blyden'slegacy and questions; and thepatience of philosophy.His West African bibliographicreferences are scanty and so, too,overall content- heavily inspiredby Central African realities.
GE
On Jun 21, 2020, at 11:59 AM, Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
well, the key key key text, The Invention of Africa. changed the field, as far as i am concerned. then the sequel, The Idea of Africa.k
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.emeagwali@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 21, 2020 11:53 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Classics in Ogboni Studies : Babatunde Lawal, Philosopher of OgboniWhich of Mudimbe's books--are you referring to, Ken?
GE--
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 21, 2020, at 5:09 AM, Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
dear akin, i love your answer. surprised, when you got to the limiits of the discipline, that you didn't cite mudimbe, the sage on this topic.ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Akin Ogundiran <ogundiran@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 20, 2020 9:06 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Classics in Ogboni Studies : Babatunde Lawal, Philosopher of Ogboni--Hello Chika, Thank you for the reference. I reread David Doris's book not too long ago and I didn't see anything he said about the Ogboni that is troubling or that goes against Thompson's cool aesthetics. The latter is a metatheory that Thompson applied to both the African and African Diaspora art (not just the Yoruba). Toyin should indeed read Vigilant Things so that he can reach his own conclusion on this.--
One problem with many of our studies is that when we approach African institutions from the narrow view of a discipline, we reduce them to the limitation of that discipline (whether it's art history or physics). "Ogboni aesthetics" is one example of this reductionist tendency.
Toyin, I admire your efforts in seeking knowledge about the Ogboni but I encourage you to make efforts to visit the Ogboni members and their iledi. Doing so might show you that this is not as exotic as you are making it to be. But for you to gain that access, you must be ready to practice what a colleague of mine called "epistemic humility." I have had the opportunity and privilege of speaking with Ogboni members, and visiting Ogboni houses in the course of my research. I've also been to the US Congress for closed door meetings, and visited some of the most admirable but highly restricted institutions in the Western world. I don't see the difference between them and the Ogboni. Everyone in a community knows the members of the Ogboni. They know Apena, Olurin, Erelu, etc. It is lack of knowledge that would make anyone think that Ogboni is an exotic institution, the unknowable, the Other. This is what the British colonial institution taught us to believe. You know why? Because the Ogboni was an underground resistance to colonialism, the same way that the Ogboni resisted "foreign" domination in their communities for centuries. For example, the Egba resistance against the Oyo Empire in the late eighteenth century would not have been possible and successful without the Ogboni. It is sad that our colonizers (White Nationalists) succeeded in their war of mental dislocation which then leads to ignorance. And many of us are still perpetuating that ignorance. There is nothing more secretive about the Ogboni than any other institution anywhere, committed to governance, indigenous rights, and self determination. If it is that secretive, how come Babatunde Lawal, Henry Drewal, Rowland Abiodun, and David Doris (all art historians-Caucasian and Black), among others, know so much (and share so much) about the Ogboni?
Akin OgundiranUNC Charlotte
On Friday, June 19, 2020 at 7:09:05 PM UTC-4, Chika Okeke-Agulu wrote:On current Ogboni research, you might want to check the ongoing work of David T. Doris at Michigan. His Vigilant Things: On Thieves, Yoruba Anti-Aesthetics, and the Strange Fates of Ordinary Objects in Nigeria (2011) compellingly challenged Robert Farris Thompson's dominant "cool" aesthetic that for decades served as the primary code for understanding Yoruba Aesthetic; and I suspect that his research on Ogboni, based on years of understudying leading members of the Ogboni Society--from the little I have seen--will vigorously trouble current scholarly on the subject.Chika
On Friday, June 19, 2020 at 1:11:31 PM UTC-4, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju wrote:
Classics in Ogboni StudiesBabatunde LawalPhilosopher of Ogboni
Babatunde Lawal surrounded by great works of Yoruba art, his field of study
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Abstract
An exploration of the insights of the work of art historian, art critic and art theorist Babatunde Lawal on the Yoruba origin Ogboni esoteric order in relation to developing a comprehensive grasp of its philosophy, as intrinsic to the order and in its integration within Yoruba thought.
Philosopher of Ogboni
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