African search for identity: Myth and Reality

Abstract

The gist of this study revolves round the question of the existence of African identity. The controversy and debate over the existence of African identity was generated by the manifestations of the whiteman's profound disbelief in any race but his own, this, as indicated by among others, Levy¬Bruhl's description of the African mentality as primitive and pre-logical. In many ranks and files, there was a radical and irreducible distinction between the category of the rational and scientific, on the one hand, and that of the irrational and mythical on the other. The Westerners it was claimed, belonged to the former category while Africans the latter. The existence of philosophy, history and civilization, thus the identity of the African, was, therefore, as a logical move, denied, as seen in the European conventional conception of Africa. It is against this background that Africanist and some non-Africanist scholars have for many decades now engaged themselves in the discussion of the African identity, among such discussions is the hot debate on the existence and nature of African philosophy. This work has analyzed and critically assessed the European conventional conception, and found out that the basis of the claims of the Hegelian school were not founded on rationality and logic, but on racial prejudice. Levy-Bruhl, who himself was an anthropologist and a subscriber to this school, faced

v challenge from his fellow colleagues, such as Melville Herskovits, who argue that, while non-literate peoples (Africans) may begin from different premises (unlike the whites), they reason with as much consistency as literate peoples (see Herskovits' Man and His Works, New York: Knopf, 1956, P.73). The aftermaths of the European conventional conception have been explicated and analyzed, seen here as the myth of African Identity, from which it follows from the work, the establishment of the reality of the African identity. The climax of the study is reached when the African identity manifests itself by participating in the issues of development. Cardinal here is the aspect of positive apemanship for the black as well as the whiteman. Through this positive apemanship, there is a cobweb network, since through it, it is established here, the whites acquired their philosophy and civilization, from Greece, still through this network, Greece and Africa (Egypt) were known for either stealing or borrowing ideas, from one another . •. The conclusion therefore is the undoubtable affirmation of the existence of African identity, and this identity is not in anyway inferior to the Western or any other, given its uniqueness in the physical universe. This work is a new phase of the just pioneered work in the comparative study of the thoughts (identity) of the indigenous Africans and Western thought (identity). It is therefore part of the on-going "talking" and "doing" of African Philosophy.