African Intelligence and Philosophy, Part 3
By Dr. Josef Ben Levi
Presented by Omni-U Virtual University
“I am because we are, and since we are. therefore I am.” John S. Mbiti “African Religions and Philosophy,”
Most ethnographers deny that abstract thought exists among "tribal" peoples. To properly address this concern, it will be necessary for me to clarify the notion of “tribes was initiated within the Western academy. From whence does the idea that Africans belonged to “tribal” societies come? Africans are always referred to as “tribal,” but that term never seems to be applied to European clan organizations- ancient or modern. This term was created by colonial administrators that often mixed up the words "race" and "tribe" in their legal documents (Ebenezer, 1982). Interestingly, the concept of “tribes” does not exist in any African language.
When it came to European nations, no person was more instrumental in establishing the notion of “tribes” for the so-called "primitive peoples" than Lewis Henry Morgan, the father of cultural anthropology, along with Albert Gallatin, who headed the New York Historical Society. Gallatin spent his life inventing the identities of pre-Columbian Americans by claiming that they were of Asiatic or Siberian origin. Those are academic ideas which suggest that the so-called “Native Americans” crossed an imaginary land bridge from Siberia into the “Americas” before settling in their “primitive” homelands.
This is the current theme in cultural anthropology studies and Morgan was trying to show the same theory through a comparative study of kinship or family structures based on his examination of the Iroquois Confederacy (Glumaz, 2004; Morgan, 1877/1971). This led to a common hypothesis about the trek from savagery, to barbarism, and, finally, to civilization, also known as the evolutionary or cultural-epoch theory, which established the hierarchical structure of non-Western societies as they are defined to this day (Jardin, 2006; Kliebard, 2004; Kant, 1787/2007).
Since these non-European societies were considered to be at the stage of savagery or neo-barbarism, they were portrayed as incapable of reasoned discourse. This was especially true of Africans since, "providing them with education through the normal means, and by normal we presume to mean European education, was viewed as a useless endeavor;" then why would it be assumed that they were capable of thinking? (Blyden, 1995, p. 18).
In many North American and European universities, there are courses in continental European, Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern philosophy, but there are virtually no courses in African philosophy. Most White American and European philosophers are unwilling to associate philosophy with the modifier "African." This is in spite of the fact that ancient Egypt, an ancient African civilization, is included as a part of many discussions on philosophical concepts by the ancient Greek writers from Thales to Pythagoras, the rest of the Ionian pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle and others (Bernal, 1992).
The ancient Greek writer ,Diogenes Laertius from the third century B.C., provides a litany of ancient Greeks who studied in ancient Egypt and the names of their Egyptian priest teachers (Laertius, 1999). Plato is quite clear on this subject when he quotes an ancient Egyptian priest speaking to Solon, one of the seven sages of Greece. The Egyptian priest declared that the Greeks were all "children and there is no such thing as an old Greek" (Plato, 1965, p.34). Solon acknowledges- that compared to the Egyptians- "... he and all his countrymen were entirely ignorant about antiquity" (Plato, 1965, p.34).
Fundamental to this academic denial is the way historiography was constructed in the Western academy. At its foundations was George Wilhelm Frederick Hegel's thinking about the place of Egypt in world historiography- whose accomplishments he places outside of the African sphere. He stated that “Africa had no history.” For Hegel, Egypt was of Asiatic or European origin or what he called “Hither Asia.” He argued that Africa's northern coast, "was to be and must be attached to Europe." It seems at this point that the notion of the Middle East was forming since that concept did not come into existence until the 1900s (Lewis, 1998). Hegel goes on to say, "At this point we leave Africa, not to mention it again. For it is no historical part of the world; it has no movement or development to exhibit" (Hegel, 1899/2004, p.99). Hegel, essentially, relegates Africa and her people to what amounts to a footnote in his introduction. Hegel detaches Egypt from Africa and consequently, the Africans from Egypt.
He went on to argue that the Greeks got rid of all of the “foreign nature of philosophy” so well that it was essentially of Greek origin (Hegel, 1899/2004, p.225).Hegel's line of thinking has influenced popular Western European and American pedagogical concepts of Africa and the Western academy's view of African philosophy since the two main criteria Hegel used to define philosophical thought were reasoned discourse and written records.For Hegel; Africa was in an “unhistorical,” :underdeveloped” spirit, in a “state of nature” and only on the threshold of the world's history. Yet, there were a great many written records in Africa before the advent of colonialism. Several African peoples- besides the ancient Egyptians- had their own written languages long before European colonialism (Welch, 1965).
One notable example was at Timbuktu in the old Kingdom of Mali where the masjid/mosque of the University of Sankore stood for many centuries as one of the premier places of learning long before some of the major cathedral schools were developed in Europe. But, most of the information about them was hidden from the public in order to perpetuate assumptions of African ignorance and the justification for the African slave trade (De Villier & Hirtle, 207; Dubois, 1896/1996; Hunwick & Boye, 2008; Jeppie & Diagne, 2008; Welch, 1965, 1939/1966; Wise, 2011).
In spite of the situation of Herodotus that most of Greek culture was copied from Egypt (Barnes, 1978; Herodotus, 1972); racist’s historians introduced a new form of geographical localization with the division of Africa into North Africa- which was Arab and White- and Africa south of the Sahara which was Black Africa. Today, this geographical area is abbreviated M.E.N.A. (Middle East North Africa). Therefore, any monumental accomplishments in Africa were claimed to be either those of a mysterious “Caucasian” or "dynastic race" (Emery, 1967) invading Semites, or ancient Europeans (Gordon & Rendsburg, 1977).
While castigating Africa, Hegel later acknowledges that the fact that Egyptian civilization received its culture from what the Greeks called “Ethiopia,” mainly the Kushite capital at Meroe which is at the fourth cataract of the Nile valley in what is called the Sudan today. This apparent contradiction in his thinking was the consensus view of the ancient Greeks from Herodotus to Diodorus -as well as later European scholars- and it is a fact that is gaining significant endorsement today (Hegel, 1899/2004; Verharen, 1977). With these and the previously ptovided data points, established in Parts One and Two of “ African Philosophy and Intelligence,“ the question of whether or not Africa and Africans were/ are capable of philosophical speculation becomes a moot point.
Recommended Viewing:
”European Philosophy: From Theoray to Practice” , Featuring Dr. Josef Ben Levi
“The African Philosophy of Maat,” Featuring; Prof..Hunter Havlin Adams III and Mystic Wayne Sebamurti Gentry “
“African Philosophy: From Theory to Practice,” Featuring: Baba Tyehimba Mtu
References:
Al-Khalili, J. (2011). The house of wisdom: How Arabic science saved ancient knowledge and gave us the renaissance. New York: Penguin Books.
Allen, J. (2001). Middle Egyptian: An introduction to the language and culture of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barnes, J. (1978). Early Greek philosophers. London: Penguin Classics Books.
Bell, R.H. (2002). Understanding African philosophy: A cross-cultural approach to classical and contemporary issues. New York: Rutledge.
Ben Jochannan, Y. (1970). The African origin of the major western religions. Baltimore: Black Classics Press.
Bernal, M. (1992). Animas versions of the origins of Western science. Isis, 83 (4), 596-607.
Berry, G.R. (1992). Interlinear Greek-English new testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Books House.
Blyden, E.W. (1995). The call of providence to the descendants of Africa in America. In Fred Lee Hord & Jonathan Scott Lee (1995). I am because we are: Readings in black philosophy. Amherst: University of Massachusetts.
Brown, P. (1969). Augustine of Hippo: A biography. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Budge, E.A.W. (1926/1977). The dwellers on the Nile: The life, history, religion and literature of the ancient Egyptians. New York: Dover Publications.
Bury, J.B. (1909/2006). The ancient Greek historians. New York: Barnes & Noble.
DeGraft-Johnson, J.C. (1954/1978). African glory: The story of vanished Negro civilizations. Baltimore: Black Classics Press.
de Leon-Jones, K.S. (1997).
Giordano Bruno & the kabbalah: Prophets, magicians, and rabbis. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
De Villiers, M., & Hirtle, S. (2007). Timbuktu; The Sahara's fabled city of gold. New York: Walker & Company.
Dillard, J.L. (1973). Black English: Its history and usage in the United States. New York: Vintage Books.
Dubois, F. (1896/1996). Timbuctoo the mysterious. New York: Negro Universities Press.
Ebenezer, E.K. (1982). Races, tribes, dialects: Key words of the vocabulary of the colonial era. Afrique Histoire, 1 (2), 43-45.
Emery, W. B. (1961). Archaic Egypt. London: Penguin Books.
Finley, M.I. (1985). Ancient history: Evidence and models. London: Pimlico.
Forsdyke, J. (1964). Greece before Homer: Ancient chronology and mythology. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge and the discourse on language. New York: Vintage Books.
Freely, J. (2009). Aladdin's lamp: How Greek science came to Europe through the Islamic world. New York: Alfred A. Knorpf.
Freke, T., & Gandy, P. (1999). The hermetica: The lost wisdom of the pharaohs. London: Tarcher/Penguin
Glumaz, P. (2004). Lewis Henry Morgan and the racist roots of anthropology, 21st Century, Spring, 16-23.
Gordon, C.H., & Rendsburg, G.A. (1977). The bible and the ancient near east. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Guthrie, K.S. (1987). The Pythagorean sourcebook and library. Grand Rapids: Phanes Press.
Handford, S.A. (1986). Fables of Aesop. London: Penguin Classics.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1899/2004). The philosophy of history. Mineola: Dover Philosophical Classics.
Herodotus (1972). The histories. London: Penguin Classics.
Hodges, B.D; & Kuper, A; & Reeves, S. (2008). Qualitative research: Discourse analysis. British Medical Journal, 337 (7669), 570-572.
Hornung, E. (2001). The secret lore of Egypt: its impact on the west. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Hunwick, J.O., & Boye, A.J. (2008). The hidden treasures of Timbuktu. London: Thames & Hudson.
Hutchins, R.M. (1952). Plotinus: The six enneads. In Robert Maynard Hutchins, ed. (1952). Great books of the western world. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica.
Ikuenobe, P. (1977). The parochial universalist conception of philosophy and African philosophy. Philosophy East and West, 47 (2), 189-210.
James, G.G.M. (1954). Stolen legacy: The Greeks were not the authors of Greek philosophy, but the people of north Africa commonly called the Egyptians. Baltimore: Black Classics Press.
Jardin, D.W. & Friesen, S., & Clifford, P. (2006). Curriculum in abundance. London: Lawrence
Jeppie, S. & Diagne, S.B. Ed. The meanings of Timbuktu. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Kant, I. (1787/2007). Critique of pure reason. London: Penguin Classics.
Kliebard, H.M. (2004). The struggle for the American curriculum 1893-1958. New York" RoutledgeFalmer.
Leiter, B., & Rosen, M. Ed. (2007). The Oxford handbook of continental philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lewis, B. (1998). The multiple identities of the middle east. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Macfarquhar, C.F. (1966). Early Greek travelers in Egypt. Greece & Rome, 13 (1), 108-116.
McGinnis, J., & Reisman, D.C. (2007). Classical Arabic philosophy: An anthology of sources. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Morgan, H.L. (1877/1971) Ancient society or researches in the lines of human progress from savagery, through barbarism to civilization. New York: New York Labor News.
Mosley, A.G. (1995). African philosophy: Selected readings. Englewood Cliffs: Prentiss-Hall.
Obenga, T. (2004). African philosophy: The pharaonic period: 2780-330 BC. Paris: Per Ankh.
O'Brien, E. (1964). The essential Plotinus: Representative treatise form the Enneads. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Onyewuenyi, I.C. (2005). The African origin of
Greek philosophy: An exercise in Afrocentrism. Nsukka: University of Nigeria Press.
Pagels, E. (2012). Revelations: Visions, prophecy, & politics in the book of revelation. New York: Viking.
Plato. (1965). Timaeus and Critias. London: Penguin Classics.
Pollard, J., & Reid, H. (2006). The rise and fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the modern mind. New York: Viking.
Smitherman, G. (1977). Talkin and testiyin: The language of Black America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Stoller, P. Ed. (1975). Black American English: Its background and its usage in the schools and in literature. New York: Dell Publishing House
Trainer, C. (2008). The merits of the Milesians. Philosophy Now, September/October, (69), 29-31. Thucydides. (1972). History of the Peloponnesian war. London: Penguin Classics.
Verharen, C.C. (197). "The new world and the dreams to which it may give rise:":An African and American response to Hegel's challenge. Journal of Black Studies, 27 (4), 456-493.
Volney, C.F. (1890/1950). The ruins or meditations on the revolutions of empire and the laws of nature. New York: Truth Seekers Company.
Welch, G. (1965). African before they came: The continent, north, south, east, and west, preceding the colonial powers. New York: William Morrow & Company.
Welch, G. (1939/1966). The unveiling of Timbuctoo. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers.
Wise, C. Ed. (2011). Tarikh al Fattash: The Timbuktu Chronicles 1493-1599. Trenton: Africa World Press.
Comments