What do you think of Marimba Ani's critique of European philosophy
she essentially says that European philosophy is dominated by concepts of control and separation compared to the holistic/monistic systems of African thought
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marimba_Ani
"Ani's 1994 work, Yurugu: An Afrikan-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior, examined the influence of European culture on the formation of modern institutional frameworks, through colonialism and imperialism, from an African perspective.[6][7][8] Described by the author as an "intentionally aggressive polemic", the book derives its title from a Dogon legend of an incomplete and destructive being rejected by its creator.[9][10]
Examining the causes of global white supremacy, Ani argued that European thought implicitly believes in its own superiority, stating: "European culture is unique in the assertion of political interest".[6]
In Yurugu, Ani proposed a tripartite conceptualization of culture, based on the concepts of
Asili, the central seed or "germinating matrix" of a culture,
Utamawazo, "culturally structured thought" or worldview, "the way in which the thought of members of a culture must be patterned if the asili is to be fulfilled", and
Utamaroho, a culture's "vital force" or "energy source", which "gives it its emotional tone and motivates the collective behavior of its members".[8][9][11]
The terms Ani uses in this framework are based on Swahili. Asili is a common Swahili word meaning "origin" or "essence"; utamawazo and utamaroho are neologisms created by Ani, based on the Swahili words utamaduni ("civilisation"), wazo ("thought") and roho ("spirit life").[9][12][13] The utamawazo and utamaroho are not viewed as separate from the asili, but as its manifestations, which are "born out of the asili and, in turn, affirm it."[11]
[b]Ani characterised the asili of European culture as dominated by the concepts of separation and control, with separation establishing dichotomies like "man" and "nature", "the European" and "the other", "thought" and "emotion" – separations that in effect end up negating the existence of "the other", who or which becomes subservient to the needs of (European) man.[8] Control is disguised in universalism as in reality "the use of abstract 'universal' formulations in the European experience has been to control people, to impress them, and to intimidate them."[14]
According to Ani's model, the utamawazo of European culture "is structured by ideology and bio-cultural experience", and its utamaroho or vital force is domination, reflected in all European-based structures and the imposition of Western values and civilisation on peoples around the world, destroying cultures and languages in the name of progress.[8][15][/b]
The book also addresses the use of the term Maafa, based on a Swahili word meaning "great disaster", to describe slavery. African-centered thinkers have subsequently popularized and expanded on Ani's conceptualization.[16] Citing both the centuries-long history of slavery and more recent examples like the Tuskegee study, Ani argued that Europeans and white Americans have an "enormous capacity for the perpetration of physical violence against other cultures" that had resulted in "antihuman, genocidal" treatment of blacks.[16][17]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marimba_Ani
"Ani's 1994 work, Yurugu: An Afrikan-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior, examined the influence of European culture on the formation of modern institutional frameworks, through colonialism and imperialism, from an African perspective.[6][7][8] Described by the author as an "intentionally aggressive polemic", the book derives its title from a Dogon legend of an incomplete and destructive being rejected by its creator.[9][10]
Examining the causes of global white supremacy, Ani argued that European thought implicitly believes in its own superiority, stating: "European culture is unique in the assertion of political interest".[6]
In Yurugu, Ani proposed a tripartite conceptualization of culture, based on the concepts of
Asili, the central seed or "germinating matrix" of a culture,
Utamawazo, "culturally structured thought" or worldview, "the way in which the thought of members of a culture must be patterned if the asili is to be fulfilled", and
Utamaroho, a culture's "vital force" or "energy source", which "gives it its emotional tone and motivates the collective behavior of its members".[8][9][11]
The terms Ani uses in this framework are based on Swahili. Asili is a common Swahili word meaning "origin" or "essence"; utamawazo and utamaroho are neologisms created by Ani, based on the Swahili words utamaduni ("civilisation"), wazo ("thought") and roho ("spirit life").[9][12][13] The utamawazo and utamaroho are not viewed as separate from the asili, but as its manifestations, which are "born out of the asili and, in turn, affirm it."[11]
[b]Ani characterised the asili of European culture as dominated by the concepts of separation and control, with separation establishing dichotomies like "man" and "nature", "the European" and "the other", "thought" and "emotion" – separations that in effect end up negating the existence of "the other", who or which becomes subservient to the needs of (European) man.[8] Control is disguised in universalism as in reality "the use of abstract 'universal' formulations in the European experience has been to control people, to impress them, and to intimidate them."[14]
According to Ani's model, the utamawazo of European culture "is structured by ideology and bio-cultural experience", and its utamaroho or vital force is domination, reflected in all European-based structures and the imposition of Western values and civilisation on peoples around the world, destroying cultures and languages in the name of progress.[8][15][/b]
The book also addresses the use of the term Maafa, based on a Swahili word meaning "great disaster", to describe slavery. African-centered thinkers have subsequently popularized and expanded on Ani's conceptualization.[16] Citing both the centuries-long history of slavery and more recent examples like the Tuskegee study, Ani argued that Europeans and white Americans have an "enormous capacity for the perpetration of physical violence against other cultures" that had resulted in "antihuman, genocidal" treatment of blacks.[16][17]
Comments (10)
I'm ignorant about her, but this sounds extremely similar to a lot of 20th century European philosophy. It's de Beauvoir, no, applied to the west-east boundary. That doesn't make it wrong, just seems like a continuation of European thinking.
Was it that European culture was especially unique in that regard, or that European culture just happened to be more technologically advanced at the time inter-continental assertion of political interest became possible?
Wars, domination and population displacement seem rather commonplace for most cultures in history. For instance genomics seem to indicate that Africa was much more diverse before Bantu swept across the continent and displaced a lot of the other African groups. Assertion of political interest at least doesn't seem entirely alien to Africans, or to other cultures in general, either.
To be clear, I'm not saying the claim is false, I just wonder to what extend it was European Culture in particular that was the driver behind what happened historically. I could buy that a kind of universalism born out of Christianity had something to do with it, that seemed to be relatively unique to Europe at least.
And what does she have to say about China and Japan?
The colonized trying to reconstruct a precolonial idealised past is often just using the conceptual tools of the colonizer and turning those tools back onto the colonizer. In this case it's the scapegoat tool: let us sent the white man away in the desert, loaded with the sins of the community, to help rebuild our lost pride.
But,Hindu,abrahamic and in fact all cultures around the world including African cultures work on similiar lines of control and subjection.
A system of divine Kings who ruled by subjugation was established in Egypt,which is African,the Egyptian pharaonic system has influenced all of European culture.
The most famous of western philosophers,plato,took a lot of inspiration and knowledge from Egypt as did Paul of tarsus.
If one analyses religious language and especially "enlightenment" values they are full of authoritarian concepts and dualisms.
The "enlightenment" was just Rome and Egypt by another method and name.