African
indigenous knowledge system expressed in proverbs, names and songs
etc.are conscious reflections on specific situations, events and
experiences in the lives of the people. For the African, observation and
experience are sources of knowledge that
have immediate practical results in such areas as agriculture,
medicine, crime prevention and remedy among others. It is no longer
fiction that,...our ancestors, whose main occupation wasfarming, knew of
the system of rotation of crops; they knew when to allow a piece of
land tolie fallow for a while; they had some knowledge of the technology
of food processing and preservation; and there is a great deal of
evidence about their knowledge of the medicinal potentialities of herbs
and plants – the main sources of their health care delivery system long
before the introduction of Western Medicine. (Even today there are
countless testimonies of people who have received cures from
‘traditional’ healers where the application of western therapeutics
could not cope) (Gyekye, 1997:26-27).
Although western scientific thought similarly acknowledge observation andexperience as sources of objective knowledge. It depends on the adoption of a linear monisticconception of reality, which goal is analysis and demonstrative procedures. Here understood,western civilization lacks the principle of self-limitation in terms of size, speed and violenceand has in the process killed more than healed humanity and the environment.The work argues that any civilization that claims immunity from error and confers onitself authority over other cultures is to say the least no civilization. Every culture has its basic assumptions about nature and the method of arriving at trustworthy knowledge of reality. It is posited further that a value system that aims at having more instead of beingmore dominates man and empties his being.The work argues in conclusion for a new vision of reality, a worldview that isholistic; ‘functional and humane, a value system which restores meaning and wholeness, not just in the African human community, but in the entire cosmos. Such is the corpus of Africanhumanistic value system, the oral corpus of African indigenous knowledge system thatensues concern, care, co-operation and co-existence and ensures sustainable development.(ii)
African Culture:
Culture, like every other word in common use, can be variously defined. It entails a people’s integrative conceptual framework of reality. It is the totality of indigenousknowledge and behaviour, ideas and objects, that constitutes the common heritage of a people. This understanding of culture so described means a people’s world-view or outlook,a conceptual model of reality that enables a people to develop a strong sense of belonging toa community of shared beliefs i.e. religion, politics, economics arts, morals, science and philosophy etc.Understood as such, African indigenous knowledge system is the outlook of an African on the created world. It is the African conception of reality in its totality and fromwhich every other life index find its bearing. It is a product of the African experience in theworld as distinguished from the experiences of other peoples. Such distinction, properlydefined, constitute what is described as the African mindset, which, its modes of perception,its normative theories and social organizations contra-distinguish the western modes of thought.The African reality has a unitary view, so, man is man because of other men, and lifeis only life with others.
Unlike the western civilization of analysis, mathematics andmechanics which translates to the individualistic conception of man, the African treasuresmoral and spiritual well being which quality of human life find self fulfilment in thecommunity. In what appears to be a summation of the corpus of African cultural identity asdistinguished from the west, Ezekiel Mphahlele writes: Africans gravitate toward people, not toward things as Europeans do… External nature exists as a symbol of the deeper meaning of life. It is not thereto be tamed or be looked at for any lofty purpose, but to yield what it can for man’s subsistence (Mphahlele, 1972:112).This understandable element of African culture most obviously defines in very positive way how the African relates with and uses nature. Man and nature are important to each other although, nature exists for the good of man and remains so. When therefore man construes his leadership of nature as a manipulator who dominates nature, he destroys himself and the entire earth. This is not in the character of African culture, under guarded by the philosophy is holism; man is what he is because he lives in the company of others and in harmony with nature. In this characteristic African thinking, any conception of our environment that perceives only ourselves, and our dispositions is necessarily flawed from the point of view of essential human nature. This position suggests that reality is culture bound. This is what K. C. Anyanwu calls Cultural Standpoints.
Generally, he says:there have been cultures that developed the religious or the spiritual aspect of life, or the material aspect of it. But no culture seems to have developed the spiritual and material aspects of life all at the same time (Anyanwu, 1983:55)The reason here is that, the manner in which each culture consciously or unconsciously approaches the contradictory factors of human experience would determine its mode of thought and normative theories. So it is that the western, Eastern, Asian, and African culture differ from each other according to how each of them approach the duality of experience i.e. the contradiction between the self and the world, the contradictions we experience in life, the contradiction between freedom and determinism, reason and sentiment, the one and the many, individuality and universality arise from self-contradiction. This duality of human experience more readily find expression in the thought of the westerner whose cultural assumption posits that the subject and object are two separate entities, hence the self and the world body and mind are two separate entities. K. C. Anyanwu further posits that: The west reduces the duality of experience to a dualism, that is, to two incompatible realities. The world is said to exist independent of the ego and theego to exist independent of the world. Man is separated from nature on the one hand and subordinated to material process on the other (Ibid, 58).This typical expression of the western mind-set promotes and protects an ideology of either/or theory of reality which today is found in the subjective and objective divisions of reality prevalent in the western culture. Thus, reality for the west is subjective or objective, mental or material, empirical or rational, and scientific or metaphysical.
The African mind-set, for which culture is holistic makes no such clear-cut distinction between the ego and the world, and assumes that man is inseparable from nature. Like Protagoras of Abdera, the self for the African is the centre of the world, it animates the world, and the spirit or mind becomes in some way the spirit or mind of the world. Reality in here said to depend on personal experience, and the world has meaning, order and unity by virtue of the living experience of the ego.It must be restated here that human experience is the determinant of our standpoints. That is why the European or western mindset approaches and promotes reality in a way thatis diametrically opposed to the African mindset. Thus, science, that is, material science is nothing but the manner which the European culture intellectually perceives the world, and that the materialistic and rationalistic assumptions governing it did not originate in all cultures. Science in this context is a religion. But for the non-western cultures (African) whose assumptions are not that, the real is the material process in space and time, science is not a religion, not a spiritual necessity, but a tool borrowed from the west. This tool can be learned, but the materialistic spirit governing the scientific impulse still remains the prerogative of the western culture. This is precisely the point at which a distinction can be made in favour of the African spirit which is developmental in content as against the western spirit which is individualistic, materialistic, and hence dehumanizing. For the African, natural events and human actions affect human experience. Argued as existentialism in western philosophical tradition, the Africans identify such literary goal as that of humanism, i.e. an orientation to improve the conditions of man. Obviously the difference between western, scientific thought and African culture, is clear.
It thus amount to naked ignorance to assume knowledge of a culture from without. One thing that comes out clearly is the direction of each of these two cultural worlds in respect of development. The western scientific thought no doubt promotes growth but excludes development while the African cultural heritage is essentially developmental. This is, however, not to define culture as specific mode of thought in the sense in which this is synonymous with a biologically determined epistemological stance. The point at issue is that, man as a thinker, everywhere in the world, seeks an understanding of nature and the events of experience. While one particular group may wish to understand nature as it physically functions, another may seek an understanding of how such natural functions and human actions relate to and affect human existence. So, while not slipping back into the conceptual errors of the likes of Anyanwu and Senghor in arguing that African metaphysics and epistemology are unique because they result from a peculiar biological species of a racially distinct mind-set, it suffices to say here that, what truly defines African intellectual culture is communal justice, which relates experience to human existence, (not necessarily a religious one), to nature. Its goal is the search for interpretations meant to show how natural events and human action affect human existence; to improve the conditions of man.
It is thus argued here that scientific alternative is neither superior nor inferior to African humanism. Rather, they are two distinct cultural endeavors, and each is valid and inevitable for human development. But this is only to the extent that the two spheres interplay, which activity, thescientific endeavour is subordinated to serve the human sphere. Such is perhaps why Oluwole states unequivocally that: interest and existence, a vast and thorough knowledge of the nature of man and our experience are imperative while the terms in which factual knowledge and their understanding are expressed are not determined in any apriority fashion, no interpreter should feel safe threading on undefined, unanalyzed, or unknown ground (Oluwole, 1996: 121).It may be argued here that, the western pursuit of science has yielded results that no nation in the world can dismiss or ignore if that nation truly wants development. So also the African pursuit of humanism as a concern for human behavior and existence is its greatest cultural heritage to the whole world. If it is underplayed and ignored because it does not follow the fashion of science, then we misunderstand it and so miss the important better half of what it makes human existence meaningful. The two are necessary for human development. African Humanistic Heritage Africa, it must be said, has bestowed to the world a humanistic heritage, which the entire world order could only ignore to its peril. It is sensitive to human feeling, proceeding from a mind-set unique to Africans, and largely existent in literary works such as oral traditions; proverbs, names, folklore and songs among others, but without identical beliefs about every aspect of human life and experience. This humanistic spirit is foundational to everything African: whether it is politics, religion, economics or social relationship, there is an acknowledgement of the unique personality of the Africans whose family and kinship values, along with their cosmology andhistorical evolution should be taken into consideration
Although western scientific thought similarly acknowledge observation andexperience as sources of objective knowledge. It depends on the adoption of a linear monisticconception of reality, which goal is analysis and demonstrative procedures. Here understood,western civilization lacks the principle of self-limitation in terms of size, speed and violenceand has in the process killed more than healed humanity and the environment.The work argues that any civilization that claims immunity from error and confers onitself authority over other cultures is to say the least no civilization. Every culture has its basic assumptions about nature and the method of arriving at trustworthy knowledge of reality. It is posited further that a value system that aims at having more instead of beingmore dominates man and empties his being.The work argues in conclusion for a new vision of reality, a worldview that isholistic; ‘functional and humane, a value system which restores meaning and wholeness, not just in the African human community, but in the entire cosmos. Such is the corpus of Africanhumanistic value system, the oral corpus of African indigenous knowledge system thatensues concern, care, co-operation and co-existence and ensures sustainable development.(ii)
African Culture:
Culture, like every other word in common use, can be variously defined. It entails a people’s integrative conceptual framework of reality. It is the totality of indigenousknowledge and behaviour, ideas and objects, that constitutes the common heritage of a people. This understanding of culture so described means a people’s world-view or outlook,a conceptual model of reality that enables a people to develop a strong sense of belonging toa community of shared beliefs i.e. religion, politics, economics arts, morals, science and philosophy etc.Understood as such, African indigenous knowledge system is the outlook of an African on the created world. It is the African conception of reality in its totality and fromwhich every other life index find its bearing. It is a product of the African experience in theworld as distinguished from the experiences of other peoples. Such distinction, properlydefined, constitute what is described as the African mindset, which, its modes of perception,its normative theories and social organizations contra-distinguish the western modes of thought.The African reality has a unitary view, so, man is man because of other men, and lifeis only life with others.
Unlike the western civilization of analysis, mathematics andmechanics which translates to the individualistic conception of man, the African treasuresmoral and spiritual well being which quality of human life find self fulfilment in thecommunity. In what appears to be a summation of the corpus of African cultural identity asdistinguished from the west, Ezekiel Mphahlele writes: Africans gravitate toward people, not toward things as Europeans do… External nature exists as a symbol of the deeper meaning of life. It is not thereto be tamed or be looked at for any lofty purpose, but to yield what it can for man’s subsistence (Mphahlele, 1972:112).This understandable element of African culture most obviously defines in very positive way how the African relates with and uses nature. Man and nature are important to each other although, nature exists for the good of man and remains so. When therefore man construes his leadership of nature as a manipulator who dominates nature, he destroys himself and the entire earth. This is not in the character of African culture, under guarded by the philosophy is holism; man is what he is because he lives in the company of others and in harmony with nature. In this characteristic African thinking, any conception of our environment that perceives only ourselves, and our dispositions is necessarily flawed from the point of view of essential human nature. This position suggests that reality is culture bound. This is what K. C. Anyanwu calls Cultural Standpoints.
Generally, he says:there have been cultures that developed the religious or the spiritual aspect of life, or the material aspect of it. But no culture seems to have developed the spiritual and material aspects of life all at the same time (Anyanwu, 1983:55)The reason here is that, the manner in which each culture consciously or unconsciously approaches the contradictory factors of human experience would determine its mode of thought and normative theories. So it is that the western, Eastern, Asian, and African culture differ from each other according to how each of them approach the duality of experience i.e. the contradiction between the self and the world, the contradictions we experience in life, the contradiction between freedom and determinism, reason and sentiment, the one and the many, individuality and universality arise from self-contradiction. This duality of human experience more readily find expression in the thought of the westerner whose cultural assumption posits that the subject and object are two separate entities, hence the self and the world body and mind are two separate entities. K. C. Anyanwu further posits that: The west reduces the duality of experience to a dualism, that is, to two incompatible realities. The world is said to exist independent of the ego and theego to exist independent of the world. Man is separated from nature on the one hand and subordinated to material process on the other (Ibid, 58).This typical expression of the western mind-set promotes and protects an ideology of either/or theory of reality which today is found in the subjective and objective divisions of reality prevalent in the western culture. Thus, reality for the west is subjective or objective, mental or material, empirical or rational, and scientific or metaphysical.
The African mind-set, for which culture is holistic makes no such clear-cut distinction between the ego and the world, and assumes that man is inseparable from nature. Like Protagoras of Abdera, the self for the African is the centre of the world, it animates the world, and the spirit or mind becomes in some way the spirit or mind of the world. Reality in here said to depend on personal experience, and the world has meaning, order and unity by virtue of the living experience of the ego.It must be restated here that human experience is the determinant of our standpoints. That is why the European or western mindset approaches and promotes reality in a way thatis diametrically opposed to the African mindset. Thus, science, that is, material science is nothing but the manner which the European culture intellectually perceives the world, and that the materialistic and rationalistic assumptions governing it did not originate in all cultures. Science in this context is a religion. But for the non-western cultures (African) whose assumptions are not that, the real is the material process in space and time, science is not a religion, not a spiritual necessity, but a tool borrowed from the west. This tool can be learned, but the materialistic spirit governing the scientific impulse still remains the prerogative of the western culture. This is precisely the point at which a distinction can be made in favour of the African spirit which is developmental in content as against the western spirit which is individualistic, materialistic, and hence dehumanizing. For the African, natural events and human actions affect human experience. Argued as existentialism in western philosophical tradition, the Africans identify such literary goal as that of humanism, i.e. an orientation to improve the conditions of man. Obviously the difference between western, scientific thought and African culture, is clear.
It thus amount to naked ignorance to assume knowledge of a culture from without. One thing that comes out clearly is the direction of each of these two cultural worlds in respect of development. The western scientific thought no doubt promotes growth but excludes development while the African cultural heritage is essentially developmental. This is, however, not to define culture as specific mode of thought in the sense in which this is synonymous with a biologically determined epistemological stance. The point at issue is that, man as a thinker, everywhere in the world, seeks an understanding of nature and the events of experience. While one particular group may wish to understand nature as it physically functions, another may seek an understanding of how such natural functions and human actions relate to and affect human existence. So, while not slipping back into the conceptual errors of the likes of Anyanwu and Senghor in arguing that African metaphysics and epistemology are unique because they result from a peculiar biological species of a racially distinct mind-set, it suffices to say here that, what truly defines African intellectual culture is communal justice, which relates experience to human existence, (not necessarily a religious one), to nature. Its goal is the search for interpretations meant to show how natural events and human action affect human existence; to improve the conditions of man.
It is thus argued here that scientific alternative is neither superior nor inferior to African humanism. Rather, they are two distinct cultural endeavors, and each is valid and inevitable for human development. But this is only to the extent that the two spheres interplay, which activity, thescientific endeavour is subordinated to serve the human sphere. Such is perhaps why Oluwole states unequivocally that: interest and existence, a vast and thorough knowledge of the nature of man and our experience are imperative while the terms in which factual knowledge and their understanding are expressed are not determined in any apriority fashion, no interpreter should feel safe threading on undefined, unanalyzed, or unknown ground (Oluwole, 1996: 121).It may be argued here that, the western pursuit of science has yielded results that no nation in the world can dismiss or ignore if that nation truly wants development. So also the African pursuit of humanism as a concern for human behavior and existence is its greatest cultural heritage to the whole world. If it is underplayed and ignored because it does not follow the fashion of science, then we misunderstand it and so miss the important better half of what it makes human existence meaningful. The two are necessary for human development. African Humanistic Heritage Africa, it must be said, has bestowed to the world a humanistic heritage, which the entire world order could only ignore to its peril. It is sensitive to human feeling, proceeding from a mind-set unique to Africans, and largely existent in literary works such as oral traditions; proverbs, names, folklore and songs among others, but without identical beliefs about every aspect of human life and experience. This humanistic spirit is foundational to everything African: whether it is politics, religion, economics or social relationship, there is an acknowledgement of the unique personality of the Africans whose family and kinship values, along with their cosmology andhistorical evolution should be taken into consideration
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