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INDIGENOUS AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE
We deem it essential to preserve a difference between us, an elite no matter how small, who see the world as it really is, and them, who see it only through a glass, darkly. (MacGaffey, 1978, p. 110)
A distinction between western and indigenous African ways of knowing is central to the relevance debate in psychology. Authors such as Awanbor (1985), Bakare (1975), Bloom (1976), Bodibe (1992, 1993), Brownell et al. (1987), Gobodo (1990), Holdstock (1981b), and Nsamenang (1993) assume the existence of a distinctive African cosmology and system of knowledge which preceded colonisation. There is wide agreement that many aspects of pre-colonial African knowledge are not only historical curiosities but have managed to survive intact to this day (Abraham, 1962; Edgerton, 1980; Elliot, 1984; Erinosho, 1979; Jackson & Sears, 1992; Kamalu, 1990; Mbiti, 1971; Ruch & Anyanwu, 1981). Others (Hountondji, 1983; Nell, 1990; Swartz & Foster, 1984) warn that a concern with indigenous African knowledge may mask oppressive power relations in the present.
The purpose of this chapter is not to assume an ethnophilosophical or ethnopsychological stance towards present knowledge but to arrive at a description of the functioning of indigenous African knowledge, as this forms the first layer of knowledge from the archaeological point of view assumed in the present study. This description will serve as a background to the subsequent historical layers of knowledge, which all embody different relations to the first. These relations are central to the state of African knowledge in the present and will be explored in the following chapters.
The chapter takes as point of departure an introductory consideration of the discursive context surrounding the study of early African knowledge. This is followed by a brief explication of the relation between knowledge, culture, and cosmology, which underlies this discursive context. A synopsis of indigenous African cosmology follows, as this serves as the context surrounding African epistemology, specialised « psychological » knowledge, and the relation between African knowledge and power, as explored in the subsequent sections.
1 INTRODUCTION
The Relevance of Psychology in Africa
The Psychology of Oppression and the Oppression of Psychology
Frame of Reference of the Study
Knowledge
Knowledge and Power
The Archaeological Approach
Objectives and Overview of the Study
Note on Gender Terminology
2 INDIGENOUS AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE
The Mirage, the Mute, and the Myth
Knowledge, Culture, and Cosmology
African Cosmology
Holism
The Integration of Opposites
Religiosity
The Ontological Hierarchy
The Life Force
Anthropocentrism
Communalism
Concepts of the Person
Time
Space and Time
African Epistemology
The Idea of Knowledge
The Origins and Limits of Knowledge
Causation and Chance
Ways of Knowing
The Transmission of Knowledge
Specialised Knowledge
Kinds of Specialists
Training
Functions
Explanations of Misfortune
The Process of Healing
Cults of Affliction
African Knowledge and Power
Mystical Power
Power and Secrecy
Objects as Power
Language and Thought as Power
The Circulation of Power/knowledge
Conclusion
3 ISLAM IN AFRICA
Religion, Knowledge, and Power
Historical Background
The Universal Power of Islam
Islam and African Cosmology
Islamic Knowledge
Conversion to Islam
Islam as Local Power/knowledge
African Islamic Movements
Islamic Revivalism
Conclusion
4 CHRISTIANITY IN AFRICA
Historical Background
Christianity, African Cosmology, and Knowledge
The Missionary Enterprise
Early European Images of Africans
Missionary Discourse
Conversion to Christianity
The Missionary Domestication of the Congo
Conversion and Conversation in Bechuanaland
Christianity as Local Power/knowledge
African Theology
The Independent Churches
Conclusion
5 AFRICA ENLIGHTENED
Knowledges of Enlightenment
Epistemes ofEnlightenment
Scientific versus Narrative Knowledge
Metanarratives of Legitimation
The Grand Narrative of Progress
Psychology and Modernism
Powers of Enlightenment
From Pastoral to Individualising Power
From Sovereign to Disciplinary Power
The Panopticon
Practices of Exclusion
The Swarming of Disciplinary Mechanisms
Bio-power
Power and the Human Sciences
Normalisation and Rehabilitation
Psychology as Technology of Power
The Enlightenment, Africa, and Psychology
Colonialism and Forms of Power/knowledge
Colonial Discourse
Africa as Other
The Other and Umeason
Psychology and the Other
Psychology and Racism
Ethnopsychology
Cross-cultural Psychology
Psychology in South Africa
Conclusion
6 KNOWLEDGES OF RESISTANCE
African Responses to Western Knowledge
Responses in Writing
Other Responses
The Question ofldentity
Of Africans and Africa
African Philosophies
African Literature
The Reclamation of Africanness
The Context 169
Cesaire’s Negritude
Senghor’s Negritude
The Psychology of Negritude
The Legacy of Negritude
Oppression and Liberation
The Context
Memmi’s Psychology of Colonialism
Fanon’s Manichean Psychology
Conclusion
7 TOWARDS A LffiERATED PSYCHOLOGY IN AFRICA
The Gods of Africa
Narratives of Relevance
Power/knowledge and Liberation
Postmodern Journeys of Exploration
An Ecological Holodigm
Constructivist Alternatives
Open-ended Analogies
Rediscovering Narrative
Subjugated Knowledges and Untold Stories
Empowerment and Legitimation
Multiple Perspectives
A New Critical Stance
Living with Otherness
