Handbook of Black Studies PDF

Sage Reference Handbook of Black Studies For the most optimal reading experience we recommend using our website. A free-to-view version of this content is available by clicking on this link, which includes an easy-to-navigate-and-sea...

Sage Reference Handbook of Black Studies For the most optimal reading experience we recommend using our website. A free-to-view version of this content is available by clicking on this link, which includes an easy-to-navigate-and-search-entry, and may also include videos, embedded datasets, downloadable datasets, interactive questions, audio content, and downloadable tables and resources. Author: Virgilette Nzingha Gaffin Pub. Date: 2010 Product: Sage Reference DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412982696 Keywords: postcolonialism, Afrocentricity, orientalism, African culture, postcolonial theory, Europeans, Asante Disciplines: Race & Ethnicity, Race, Ethnicity & Migration, Black Studies, Sociology Access Date: July 8, 2024 Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc. City: Thousand Oaks Online ISBN: 9781412982696 © 2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. The Context of Agency: Liberating African Con- sciousness from Postcolonial Discourse Theory Virgilette NzinghaGaffin Although African countries have been independent since the 1960s, criticism. of each country's art and liter- ature continues to be heavily influenced by European literary models. Through Eurocentric analysis, African novels have been critiqued as having little literary merit and are often dismissed as mere journal entries of school-age children. Their dialogues are then labeled awkward and unrealistic, themes are denounced as sit- uational, and plots are deemed either too obsessed with conflict or too biographical (see Chinweizu, Jemie, & Madubuike, 1983). Using this approach, interpretation of the literature falls short of the intended message from the author, and in many respects, the analysis contradicts the worldview and ethos of the culture that produced the work. Although the constraints that the colonial situation placed on the African novel are ob- vious, critics insist on analyzing African literature from the perspective of colonial epistemology Both African and non-Africans within this school of thought deny the autonomy of African literature. They play down the significance because it does not enhance or promote European hegemony. Chinweizu addressed this very issue in 1983: Critics view African literature as an overseas department of European literatures, as a literature with no traditions of its own to build upon, no models of its own to imitate, no audience or constituency separate and apart from the European, and above all, no norms of its own. (p. 3) The main objective of this research is to offer an alternative model of literary analysis based in principles derived from an African worldview and cultural traditions with specific reference to language and aesthetics suggested by Marimba Ani (1994) in Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior. The crux of the analytical thrust will be on the works of a special branch of Eurocentric critics—the so-called postcolonial. This work will begin with an analysis of the three most prominent theorists in the field from its inception: Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri Spivak. They are critical to understanding the effect of Western hegemony and pedagogy that this ideology brings to the discussion. According to Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman (1994) in Colonial Discourse andPost-Colonial Theory, it would be accurate to declare that Said, Bhabha, and Spivak constitute the key interpreters of colonial discourse analysis and are central to the movement. Handbook of Black Studies Page 2 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Postcolonial Literary Theorists Postcolonial theory is an umbrella term levied on all literary criticism applied to works produced from all so-called postcolonial countries. The literature of all 53 countries in Africa, along with Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, and India are included in this cultural vacuum. Although the discourse has yet to agree on when, where, who, or what makes up this theoretical framework (see An Introduction to Post-Colonial Theory; Childs & Williams, 1997), the literature is laden with culturally offensive terminology such as “minority literature,” “standard literary criticism,” “colonial theorists,” and “phases of imperialism”—terminology that points to the controlling consciousness of the West. Writing in Orientalism, Edward Said (1979) made the following observation: The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe, it is also the place of Europe's greatest and richest and oldest colonies: the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other. (p. 2) He went on to say: Anyone who teaches, writes about, or researches about the Orient—and this applies whether the person is an anthropologist, sociologist, historian, or philologist, either in its specific or its general aspects—is an Orientalist, and what he or she does is Orientalism…. Orientalism lives on academi- cally through its doctrine and theses about the Orient and the Oriental. (p. 2) Said defined Orientalism as “knowledge of the Orient that places things Oriental in class, court, prison, or manual for scrutiny, study, judgement, discipline, or governing” (p. 4). The dilemma presented in this paradigm is at least twofold: African cultural production is incorporated in the “Oriental” along with all the other so-called colonized countries; however, the holy trinity does not include one African voice. Therefore, neither African culture nor historical sensibilities are given agency in the analytical process. Postcolonial theory is steeped in the culture set forth in Orientalism. African literature is then analyzed from this political location. The problem here is that Said was entangled in the very Eurocentric colonized discourse he sought to expose. Orientalism had defined the boundaries for the discussion, and by definition, Africa was not included in the original map- ping. In Culture and Imperialism, Said (1993) claimed that Orientalism had been intended to reference only the Middle East. He begins his new analysis by claiming that Handbook of Black Studies Page 3 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. in the non-European world … the coming of the white man brought forth some sort of resistance. What I left out of Orientalism was that response to Western domination which culminated in the great movement of decolonization all across the Third World. (p. xii) He claims that Culture and Imperialism is not just a sequel to Orientalism “but an attempt to do something else.” Yet a few lines in the text, Said informs the reader that “culture” means two things in particular. First of all it means practices, like the arts of description, communication, and representation, that have relative autonomy from the economic, social, and po- litical realms and that often exist in aesthetic forms, one of whose principle aims is pleasure…. Sec- ondly, and most almost imperceptible, culture is a concept that includes a refining and elevating el- ement, each society's reservoir of the best that has been known and thought… a source of identity, and a rather combative one at that, as we shall see in recent “returns” to culture and tradition. These “returns” accompany rigorous codes of intellectual and moral behavior that are opposed to the per- missiveness associated with such relatively liberal philosophies as multiculturalism and hybridity (p. xii) Again, Said imposes his Western worldview on the definition of culture as universal. What is blatantly obvious in this definition is Said's Marxist ideologies; the Marxist methodology does not have the cultural conscious- ness of African at it core. Marimba Ani (Dona Marimba Richards) (1980) has written that “the African universe is conceived as a unified spiritual totality. We speak of the universe as ‘cosmos’ and we mean that all being within it is organically interrelated and interdependent” (p. 5). Postcolonial discourse theory is used as a divi- sive hierarchical tool with regard to African literary analysis. Chinweizu et al. (1983) in Toward the Decoloniza- tion of African Literature addressed the African ideal of the critic when they wrote, “Their proper role is that of helper, not legislator, to writers and audience. Their authority exists only insofar as they remain representa- tive of the society for which the writers produce”(p. 285). Today, working with the benefits from the Afrocentric paradigm and Ani's work, we can see that the culture of the author and critic must be harmonious. Edward Said's philosophy accomplished specifically the same dilemma for African literary analysis as the Hegelian worldview did for the study of African in general. Understanding this concept is critical to understanding the need for this area of research. In Location of Culture, Homi Bhabha (1994) sets out what he feels is the conceptual imperative and political consistency of the postcolonial intellectual project. He explains why the culture of the West must relocate away from the postcolonial perspective. He writes: Handbook of Black Studies Page 4 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Postcolonial criticism bears witness to unequal and uneven forces of cultural representation involved in the contest for political and social authority within the modern world order. Postcolonial perspec- tives emerge from the colonial testimony countries and the discourses of minorities within geopolit- ical divisions of East and West, North and South. They intervene in those ideological discourses of modernity that attempt to give a hegemonic normality to the uneven development and the differen- tial, often disadvantaged histories, nations, races communities, peoples. (p. 171) This excerpt has not given agency to the very colonized masses it purports to speak for. Bhabha's use of terms like I locates him squarely within the ideology of imperialism. The use of a phrase like “hegemonic nor- mality” is typical of Western epistemological confusion that we should not fall victim to. Can anything hege- monic also be normal? Bhabha's analysis is clearly based in the Marxist tradition where materialistic dialectic and globalization are highly rated. Although he does critique Western inconsistencies, his language and philosophy remain ground- ed in European hegemony. Despite initial appearances, rules of the dominating discourse articulate the signs of the imperial power. Yet again, African literature is currently critiqued from this “location.” Gayatri Spivak adds the final dimension to the holy trinity when she writes, It is well known that the notion of the feminine (rather than the subaltern of imperialism) has been used in a similar way within deconstructive criticism. In the former case, a figure if woman is an issue, one whose minimum prediction as indeterminate is already available to the phallocentric tradition…. Subaltern historiography must confront the impossibility of such gestures. The narrow epistemic vi- olence of imperialism gives us an imperfect allegory of the general violence that is the possibility of an episteme…. it is rather, both as object of colonialist historiography and as subject of insurgency, the ideological construction if gender keeps the male dominant. If, in the context of colonial produc- tion, the subaltern has no history, and cannot speak, the subaltern as female is even more deeply in shadow. (quoted in Ashcroft, Griffiths, & Tiffin, 1995, p. 28) Spivak's philosophical location within postcolonial theory is clearly stated here, and several issues should flag Afrocentric sensibilities. First, the Afrocentric paradigm affirms male-female relationships as inspirational and stimulating; any declaration of independence between males and females should be viewed as cultural sui- cide. The feminist perspective clearly works against African solidarity. Second, a feminist reading focuses the readers' attention on the problems of the women only. This results in dividing the community and detracting Handbook of Black Studies Page 5 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. attention away from the real problem, which in the case of African mission literature is the problem of White supremacy against the entire African community—not against women alone. Although Spivak admits that the role of literature in the production of cultural representation should not be ignored, she sets her foundation for the discussion on European ground, addressing half the culturally offended. African postcolonial literature ex- presses the tension between African and European basic culture as a whole. Postcolonial studies are based in the cultural and historical experiences of European colonialism and the diverse effects this phenomenon created. The subject is Europe, the perspective is European, and the analytical tools are European; the holy trinity exposed the problem, but they offered no solution. The Afrocentric worldview rejects this hegemonic approach to scholarship. Through the lenses of the Afrocentric paradigm and existing African philosophical concepts, an alternative model of literary analysis based in principles derived from an Afrocentric worldview and traditions will be constructed. Neither Marxism nor feminism was created with the sensibilities of African culture at heart. So we must begin “with a painful weaning from the very epistemological assumptions that strangle us. This weaning takes patience and commitment, but the liberation of our minds is well worth the struggle” (Ani, 1994, p. 1). The Asilian Core: Imperatives in the Cultural Matrix The concept of asili was introduced by Marimba Ani in Yurugu. Ani emphasized her background in anthropol- ogy, with its implications of European exploitation juxtaposed with the de-emphasizing of ideological function and value of African culture. Anthropologists and missionaries measured and evaluated African culture and traditions during the colonial and postcolonial periods. During this era, simplistic assumptions and negative stereotypes functioned to satisfy the requirements of the European ethos. Ani writes: The strength of the Christian ideological formulation in its function as a tool of European cultural im- perialism is twofold: (1) It subtly justifies two kinds of political activity; that is it appeals to two different layers of the world's population. (2) It unifies the conquerors while simultaneously pacifying the conquered. (Ani, 1994, p. 143) As Africans adopted European forms of literary expression, their evaluative criterion continued to rely on Eu- ropean standards and values; standards with no social-historical connection to African cultural aesthetical Handbook of Black Studies Page 6 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. values. And although Western views are promoted as a universal thought system, this very pseudo-universal or European worldview devalues the cultural other, outside of European reality. We have seen how both the claim to universality and the projection of universality as a value to be emulated by other cultures have functioned historically to facilitate the proselytization and imposition of Christianity. Universality has also been projected as a criterion of worth in art to effectively force non-European artists to reject their own well-spring of culturally creativity…. universality as a norma- tive goal becomes difficult to reject intellectually, given the presupposition of European thought. (Ani, 1994, p. 223) Ani (1994) defines asili as the “developmental germ/seed of a culture. It is the cultural essence, the ideological core, the matrix of cultural entity which must be identified in order to make sense of the collective creations of its members” (p. 12). She goes on to describe the thought that fulfills the asilis as utamawazo: “It is the way in which cognition is determined by the cultural asili” (p. 12). Ani proceeds to explain that each culture (African and European in this research) has its own distinct and individual asili and utamawazo. The European ac- cording to Ani “seeks energy by imposing disorder on the world through racial domination…. it denies spiritu- ality and requires world domination” (p. 12). The Western literary world then uses this Western utamawazian worldview by way of postcolonial discourse theorists to analyze African mission literature. As Molefi Asante (1993) has expressed, Afrocentricity seeks to re-locate the African person as an agent in human history in an effort to elimi- nate the illusion of the fringes…. We contend that human beings cannot divest themselves of culture; they are either participating in their own cultural heritage or that of some other group…. They may, of course, choose to opt out of their historical culture and that of some other people…. Metaphors of location and dislocation are the principle tools of analysis as events, situations, texts, buildings, dreams, authors are seen as displaying various forms of centeredness. To be centered is to be lo- cated as an agent instead of as “the Other.” Such a critical shift in thinking means that the Afrocentric perspective provides new insights and dimensions to the understanding of phenomena. Mongo Beti's writings provide an excellent opportunity to reconceptualize African mission literature free from the constraints of the postcolonial perspective and examine conflicting asilis. Beti was educated in Catholic mission schools in Cameroon. He was a cultural political activist who wrote fiction and essays in literary crit- icism and cultural analyses and devoted considerable time to African politics and economics. His narrative Handbook of Black Studies Page 7 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. voices—individuals who because of their youth and cultural grounding—confront the asilis of both African and European cultures, in the light of community scrutiny. These characters constantly battle, with varying de- grees of success, against cultural, social, and political structures of ancient and recent origins. Each of Beti's central characters is in the process of a colonial education of one sort or another or experiencing the results of that education. The obligatory missionary in Beti's fiction has cultural significance greater than has previ- ously been acknowledged, especially now that we have the advantage of Marimba Ani's input with regard to religion and ideology. She advises her readers that one of the most important ways that missionary education prepared Africans for capitalism and the European techno-social order was by destroying the integrity of lineage organization that formed the basis of the traditional communal structure. Christianity stressed individual salvation and the “Judeo- Christian material culture,” as Awoonor phrases it, and it denounced all communal forms such as polygyny, the traditional educational system, and especially, economic communalism: ie., the com- munal ownership and distribution of resources. Individualism was an implicit value of missionary Christians as it revealed itself among those colonized by the Europeans. (p. 186) One of the key concepts that emerges from Beti's novels is his need to tell the African story. Mission to Kala is narrated by 16-year-old Jean-Marie Medza, who begins to comprehend his mis-education as he begins his journey to Kala: Without being aware of it, I was no more than a sacrifice on the altar of Progress and Civilization. My youth was slipping away, and I was paying a terrible price for—well what? Having been chained to my books when most children of my age were out playing games?… I should never be anything but a point-of-view, a myth, a zero-like abstraction with which my fellow human beings could play with at will, indifferent to my own desires or pleasures. (Beti, 1958, p. 13) Medza had been educated away from his community, missing his male specific age group education, ma- turing in alien circumstances, under a system that functioned only to the advantage of his oppressor. Medza feeds the European asili (starving his African asili) by discarding his cultural past—a prerequisite for the idea of Europe progress. Ani (1994) addresses the progress issue in the following excerpt: The idea of progress has been a potent tool in European hands…. they expand and extend their possessions, never relinquishing territory they claimed. They never migrate, but always conquer and consume…. Conceptually, “progressive” motion consumes all of the past within it, and “progress” is Handbook of Black Studies Page 8 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. not merely “different from,” it “is more than.” (p. 489) When Medza arrives in Kala, he begins the unmasking of the self-serving European rhetoric that obscures the true nature of colonial exploitation. Through Medza, Beti (1958) draws attention to the dehumanizing of all Africans. And by drawing our attention to this disparity between the false images and the dehumanizing consequences of the colonialist presence, Beti is advising readers to renounce European images of self and to recognize the need for revolutionary change. The collective consciousness of both asilis are at work in Mission to Kala as Beti presents the African and European asili to the reader through his carefully drawn char- acters. The European utamawazo is so entrenched in Medza's psychic that initially he treats the villagers of Kala as if he were the colonizer—and the villagers recognize it. African and European asilis can be felt in the following exchange: “Listen to me, my boy,” said the old man, getting to his feet and interspersing his remarks, with pla- catory gestures, as though he were soothing a baby, “Listen: it doesn't matter if we don't understand. Tell us all the same. For you the Whites are the real people, the people who matter, because you know their language. But we don't speak French, and we never went to school. For us you are the white man—you are the only person who can explain these mysteries to us. If you refuse, we've probably lost our chance of ever being able to learn white man's wisdom. Tell us, my son.” He has a point there, I thought. These people were so all so damnably persuasive. (p. 64) The colonial powers set in place an educational system that trained Medza to devalue anything produced by the cultural other, yet he mistakenly assumed that he was included in the European idea of progress and civilization. When Mongo Beti portrays this dehumanizing system, he calls on readers to exercise their critical consciousness to comprehend the mechanisms that enable Europeans to exploit African culture. Beti was calling attention to asilis in tension. By juxtaposing the true historical situation with the self-serving myth that had been fabricated to disguise the true nature of European benevolence, Beti hoped to prod his readers into a social consciousness that would enable them to liberate themselves from European social oppression. The vital aspect of asili in this research is recognizing that as a conceptual tool for cultural investigation, asili is cultural essence—the vital point of departure for an Afrocentric literary analysis of African cultural production, located within the culture of the artist. Most European and many African readers accepted the Western picture of reality because an alternative paradigm was not available When African mission literature is approached from an asilian perspective, we are reminded of the strengths within the culture that created the novel. As a result, the reader and analyst are given the opportunity to judge African literature with cultural integrity. Handbook of Black Studies Page 9 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. The only conclusion possible here is that postcolonial theorists, themselves colonized and educated under the colonial system, have no reference point and no commonness of spirit with which to investigate African novels. Asilian research is akin to the two-cradle theory of Cheikh Anta Diop (1984), where he stated, “That the history of humanity will remain confused as long as we fail to distinguish between the two early cradles in which nature fashioned the instincts, temperament, habits, and ethical concepts of the two subdivisions” (Diop, 1984, p. 111). The asili of the critic should be the same as the author, or at the very least, the critic should be open to literary paradigms other than his or her own. In other words, if the authors' asili values reading protest literature or themes that include cultural clashes, then the asili and utamawazo of the critic must assume that same pos- ture. Reconceptualizing the analytical process must stand on a firm understanding of the asilian perspective. Each asili is valued, but neither has the right to evaluate the other based solely from a foreign aesthetic. Dur- ing this reconceptualization process, the cohesive asili of the African worldview must be fully comprehended. The author and the critic should operate for the good of the community. The focus here has been to explain why literary evaluative criteria steeped in African aesthetical values is im- perative when examining African literature. Knowing the asili of each culture involved in a cultural production and valuing those differences makes all the difference. Cultural concepts uncovered and acknowledged in the midst of an asilian investigation provide the scholar with clear evidence that an admission of cultural distinc- tion is a valuable first step. In the next section, we will examine kugusa mtima—the process of cultural growth and awareness and the effects of this awareness on the critic, author, text, and character development. Kugusa Mtimaic: Reconceptualizing the Process The standards for Western literary theory were established with the landmark 1942 production of Rene Wellek and Austin Warren's Theory of Literature. Here among other issues, literary theory, criticism, and history were discussed as “separate and distinct” topics. As discussed earlier, in Edward Said's Orientalism (1979), written in the same tradition as Theory of Literature, the ground rules for postcolonial literary theory were established. Yet in An Introduction to Post-Colonial Theory (Childs & Williams, 1997), there is still no firm agreement as to what really constitutes the when, where, who, and what of the postcolonial. This bears repeating here be- cause Handbook of Black Studies Page 10 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. the obvious implication of the term post-colonial is that it refers to a period coming after the end of colonialism. Such a commonsense understanding has much to commend it (the term would other- wise risk being completely meaningless), but that sense of ending, of the completion of one period of history and the emergence of another, is as we shall see, hard to maintain in any simple or unprob- lematic fashion. On the face of it, the era of the great European empire is over, and that in itself is a fact of major significance…. Post-colonialism may then refer to part of the period after colonialism, but the questions arise; after whose colonials? after the end of which colonial empire? (p. 1). The dilemma continues with the attempt to establish the “where” of the postcolonial. Difficulties connected with the temporality of post-colonialism also introduce questions of its spatial location. Again, there is “obvious” geography of post-colonialism—those areas formerly under the control of the European colonialist powers—and tracking the immensity of the colonialist acquisitions and control is less of a problem. (p. 10) The “who” of the postcolonial is also problematic. As [a] point of departure, there is an “obvious” postcolonial population—those formerly colonized by the West. From what we have already seen, however, while such grouping may be (obviously) cor- rect, it may offer no more than a partial picture. The unevenness and incompleteness of the process of decolonization is one factor in that: if territories cannot be considered post-colonial (in the sense of being free from colonial control), can their inhabitants? (p. 12) Despite the above ambiguities, African literary productions are critiqued by way of standards established by Western hegemonic discourse theory, which has yet to define itself, yet it is stringently applied to cultural cre- ations that it cannot comprehend. According to Chinweizu et al. (1983), the Western norm of analysis ignores several important factors with re- gard to the novel: 1. The African novel is a hybrid out of the African oral tradition and the imported literary forms of Europe, and it is precisely this hybrid origin which needs most to be considered when determining what tech- nical charges legitimately be made against African novels. 2. The African's novel primary constituency is different from that of European or other regional novels, and it would be foolhardy to try to impose on it expectations from other constituencies. 3. The colonial situation imposes a different set of concerns and constraints on the African novel than Handbook of Black Studies Page 11 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. on novels of the imperialist nations. (p. 8) Molefi Asante also addressed this very issue when he wrote, “Location theory says that the person closest to the center of a culture is better able to utilize all elements of that culture for the presentation of an idea, that is, the creative production of that idea” (Asante, 1990, pp. 12–13). Simply put, postcolonial theory is not located in African consciousness; it does not respect what Africans val- ue. Building on this understanding juxtaposed with an awareness of asili will guide us to kugusa mtima, the second stage in the model, which leads to transformation. Kugusa mtima is defined as a progression through stages of cultural maturation, requiring the development of the whole person, physically, mentally, intellectually, spiritually and ideologically. This process is facilitated by the con- templation and use of symbols, which intensify in complexity requiring progressively more astute powers of comprehension and wisdom. Kugusa Mtima is the process of expanding the African con- sciousness. (Ani, 1994, p. 68) An example of a character going through transcendence can been seen in the personality of Tambu—the nar- rative voice from Tsitsi Dangarembga's (1988) Nervous Conditions. Heretofore, critics have focused mainly on gender issues in this text as if it were some type of feminist manifesto. Yes, Tambu is the narrative voice, and Tambu is female; however, her observations affect everyone. The dialectical tension in the novel is collective and does not afflict only female characters. If analyzed from an Afrocentric perspective, the issue at the crux of Nervous Conditions becomes clashing asilis and their negative effect on the entire African community as observed through Tambu, a female voice. Dangarembga distanced herself from the feminist agenda at the 1991 African Writers Festival at Brown University when she stressed that she had “moved from a somewhat singular consideration of gender politics to an appreciation of the complexities of the politics of postcolonial subjecthood” (George & Scott, 1993, p. 310). The concept of “subjecthood” suggests the community at large rather than one individual or specific entity of a community. During that same interview, Dangarembga cites a problem that Zimbabwean people of her generation share with some of her characters—and that is “we really don't have a tangible history that we can relate to” (George & Scott, 1993, p. 312). The lack of “tangible histo- ry” refers to the fact that Dangarembga attended an African mission school. Kofi Awooner (1976) addresses the effects of mission school education in Africa from personal experience. The school was the most important instrument of Christian missionary work in Africa…. A child who entered the Christian mission school, however, was expected to cut ties with the religious and ritual- Handbook of Black Studies Page 12 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. istic structure of his now-pagan family…. This weaning away process was then intensified, exploiting the legitimate aspirations of the child and his parents, who were told that Christian education was their hope of escape from the torments of hell and from the material degradations of their uncivilized existence. (p. 24) Ngugi Wa Thiong'o (1981) also addresses education and African society with the following reflection: The teaching of only European literature, or even the very fact that of making it the primary study means that our children are daily confronted with Europe's reflection of itself in history. They are forced to look, to analyze and evaluate the world as seen by Europe. Worse still, the images of them- selves that they encounter in this literature reflect the European view of Africa. Views of their own history through Western eyes are often distorted. (p. 30) Europe and European values became central, whereas African students were purposely alienated from their own communities. The cultural continuity in the Shona oral tradition (in the case of Nervous Conditions) was replaced with the Bible and Shakespeare. In Nervous Conditions, Dangarembga (1988) positions Babamuku- ru—a British-educated Shona man—to bring chaos to the community (no European character was needed). He had also been mis-educated to cooperate with the colonizer. He helps the oppressor to stamp out his own culture and supplant it with what Tambu's mother calls “Englishness.” Dangarembga guides her readers through the actions of Babamukuru to witness his qualities of Western benevolence and cultural dislocation. During the first family reunion when Babamukuru and his wife and children return to the homestead, Tambu realizes that her cousins no longer speak Shona, and she ponders: Had I approved of my cousins before they went to England? Most definitely I had; I had loved them. When they visited the homestead we had played long exciting games. Why did I no longer like them? I could not be sure? Did I like anybody? What about Babamukuru? Had the change to do with me or had it to do with them? These were complex, dangerous thoughts and I was stirring up, not the kind that you can ponder safely, but the kind that become autonomous and malignant if you let them. (p. 38) Tambu's young cousins, Nyasha and Chido—also educated in England—now associated their homeland with insecurity and inferiority. These observations marked the beginnings of Tambu's kugusa mtimaic transforma- tion. Dangarembga (1988) masterfully applies the image of the mirror to help Tambu see into the future. At the homestead, she had “wardrobes with mirrors that had once been reliable but had grown so cloudy with Handbook of Black Studies Page 13 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. age that they threatened to show you images of artful and ancient spirits when you looked into them, instead of your own face” (Dangarembga, 1988, p. 76). Later, during Tambu's guided tour of Babamukuru's house in town, she sees “a wardrobe that must have been too big for one person's clothes and a dresser with a full-length mirror so bright and new that it reflected only the present” (p. 76). This full-length mirror was in Nyasha's bedroom, and it was during this visit with Nyasha that Tambu feels the rumblings of distraction and the beginnings of internal chaos. Most of me sought order…. There was something about her that was too intangible for me to be comfortable with, so intangible that I could not decide whether it was intangible good or intangible bad…. Everything about her spoke of alternatives and possibilities that if considered too deeply would wreak havoc with the neat plan I had laid out for my life. (p. 76) Babamukuru and Maiguru's house was filled with distractions; display cabinets filled with fine, Old English Rose teacups and saucers too delicate for daily use and large oval dining tables pushed up against the large windows. Tambu developed a “thinking strategy” to eliminate chaos and prevent seduction. After all, if one had learned to walk on a dung floor, was a tea strainer a necessity of life? Tambu made a conscious effort to accomplish her goals. Marimba Ani (Richards, 1993) speaks to this conscious effort when she writes, Our kugusa mtima… has the power to transform our consciousness. The transformation of our con- sciousness enables us to become unified and increases our understanding and perceptions of our situation. We are thereby able to defeat the threat of chaos. (p. 66) When the culturally correct analytical tool is applied, Dangarembga is showing the reader the value of relying on existing African philosophical concepts through the character of Tambu. If the inappropriate tool is used, Tambu's strategy is considered useless rambling. When a culturally conscious decision is made, it implies de- termination of consciousness. Tambu has activated her collective African consciousness. She is developing through stages of cultural maturity of the whole person—and these stages must be personally experienced because truth must be experienced. This self-imposed cultural growth is only valued by one who values the asili of the author, followed by developmental growth as seen through the lenses of kugusa mtima. Historically, African novels have been critiqued for lacking well-developed themes. Now we see that if the asili of the critic is not in harmony with the author, then the themes chosen by “the cultural other” will be seen as lacking authenticity. Where awkward dialogues have been charged from the Western perspective, what would one expect if the subject is European oppression and the critic operates from a Western asili? Lack of Handbook of Black Studies Page 14 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. character development becomes a mute issue when a kugusa mtimaic lens is applied to the analysis. And finally, labeling a novel as mere protest literature means that the critic does not recognize the asilian right of the author to write for cultural liberation. The objective of this section was to expose the reader to existing African forms of examination and to point out how these forms focused in a new way, will aid in the reconceptualization of novels that up to now have been negatively critiqued by some. With a firm understanding of asili serving as the foundation for a clearer interpretation of cultural literature and an appreciation for kugusa mtimaic development when examining a character or author, we can now move to the third and final stage of the model. The next section will complete the reconceptualization process by discussing why having an agent for change is significant; we now exam- ine the kuntuic. The Kuntuic Factor: Liberating African Agency Earlier, we saw that a particular cultural asili is fulfilled by its particular utamawazo—that cultures' structured thought. Then examples were given to explain that culturally specific utamawazian growth guides the kugusa mtimaic process. In this final stage, we will see how asilian insight and kugusa mtimaic enlightenment leads to kuntuic action—that is, learning to focus our attention on characters, authors, or both acting as agents for change. The concept of kuntu as defined by Marimba Ani refers to “modalities of expression” (Richards, 1993). It is has also been translated as “the force or power to make things happen, the power to move, to be, to do, to affect or to feel. The force of kuntu is activated by nommo—the word, and can be thought of as ‘an agent for change’” (Richards, 1993, p. 69). Dona Richards (also known as Marimba Ani) points out in “The African Aesthetic and National Consciousness” that kuntu, the modality or expression, like conceptual modality, can be limiting or it can be liberating. The kuntu of what is destructive/aggressive,… the kuntu of capitalism is exploitative/accumulative. It acts to mold the consciousness to perceive human relationships in terms of material power-over- the-other. It is a modality of control. (Richards, 1993, p. 69) In other words, as there is an asili for each culture, kuntu is determined by the consciousness of each acti- vator. The reason for this research is to search for an Afrocentric method of analysis that will leave a cultural Handbook of Black Studies Page 15 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. production whole. Writers such as Mongo Beti and Tsitsi Dangarembga have accomplished what Molefi As- ante refers to as “speaking victorious.” That is, their themes, characters, and perspectives were the result of the artists' consciousness from situations that they knew intimately. Asante (1988) elaborated on this issue of intimacy with the subject matter when he wrote, When a writer seeks to write about life … the first thing that should come to his mind is himself, his people, and their motifs. If he writes about his own people, he is writing about a universal experience of people…. isolate, define, and promote those values, symbols, and experiences which affirm you. Only through this type of affirmation can we really and truly find our renewal; this is why I speak of reconstruction instead of redefinition. (p. 41) I have relied heavily on Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's theoretical works Decolonising the Mind and Moving the Centre (Ngugi, 1993) while developing the kugusa mtimaic level of this research. He stressed in Decolonising the Mind (Ngugi, 1986) that its [colonialism's] most important area of domination was the mental universe of the colonised, through culture, of how people perceived themselves and their relationship to the world. Economical and political control can never be complete or effective without mental control. To control a people's culture is to control their tools of self-determination in relationship to others. (p. 16) His essays are closely reasoned arguments about the contested questions of African language, writing and national culture. Ngugi combines scholarship with personal experience in evocative juxtaposition with theory and real life, which makes a strong case for the liberation of African culture. His book titles alone suggest areas for further intellectual debate. He has clearly had education in general and literature specifically, and how it is was presented to colonized Africans, on his mind since his days at Makerere University. In “Standing Our Ground: Literature, Education and Image of Self,” Ngugi (1981) writes “the education system was the first fortress to be stormed by the spiritual army of colonialism, clearing and guarding the way for a perma- nent siege by the entire occupation forces of British imperialism” (p. 28). Ngugi raises four thought-provoking questions with regard to colonial education: 1. What is the philosophy underlying the educational system? 2. What are the premise and guidelines for colonial education? 3. Whose social version is the philosophy serving? 4. What is the sort of literature we should be teaching? Handbook of Black Studies Page 16 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. As discussed earlier, we now know that the European asili seeks energy by imposing disorder through racial and cultural domination. Its utamawazo, under the guise of universalism supports the ideological doctrine of Western superiority. The underlying philosophy of the educational system is unquestionably Western, com- posed to serve the interest of that constituency. The premise and guidelines were designed to suppress African accomplishments and implant European ideology. The social version was again European, which eliminated all references to anything culturally significant concerning Ngugi's Gikuyu culture. And finally, the canonical selections were entirely European, studied in the language of the oppressor. So from the Western perspective, the answer to all four questions is the same—European. The very act of asking such thought- provoking questions is an initial step on the road to being an agent for change. Ngugi (1981) points out that many Africans had the notion that a Kenyan child's route of self-realization must be via Eurocentric heritage, culture and history. The price we pay for these Eurocentric studies of ourselves is often self-mutilation of the mind, the enslave- ment of our being to Western imperialism, and the misplacement of values national and personal liberation. (p. 29) The reason for this research is to build on what Ngugi started and search for an Afrocentric method of analy- ses that would leave a cultural production intact. Ngugi asked the correct question, but African answers won't be found in Marxist theory. Using postcolonial theory as it stands does lead to “self-mutilation of the mind” and “enslavement of our being.” This is how Ngugi's (1964) characters from Weep Not, Child felt throughout the novel. In the pages of Weep Not, Child, Ngugi relays on the character of Njoroge to aid the reader along the path of cultural reconceptualization. “Accumulating rubbish” is used several times during the novel as a metaphor for the years of cultural depletion. Njoroge uses this heap as a vantage point on which to stand and see the damage done to his family, community, and homeland. He witnesses generational dislocation caused by Western domination, which causes him to question his father's connection to land he no longer owns and to older brothers who must live in the forest to realize their objectives. By exposing the internal chaos of each family member, Ngugi is again raising thought-provoking questions. How did this happen? But more impor- tant, what are we going to do about it? With Eurocentric ideology as its crux, postcolonial discourse theory critiques the cultural productions of whole cultures, which they have assigned to the perimeters of the discussion. One is left like Njoroge, standing on a heap of rubbish, devoid of any moral, aesthetics, or ethical value. This emptiness and wondering becomes part of the communities' consciousness. How and why did this happen? Ngugi questions a culture where the Handbook of Black Studies Page 17 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. developmental thought of academic disciplines hides behind a universality that devalues another entire cul- ture. In Ngugi's (1964) novel Weep Not, Child, we have another example of African mission literature that has been critiqued as “a moving story about the effects of the Mau Mau uprisings and its influence on ordinary men and woman” (Conteh-Morgan, 1999, p. 4). Most critics however are grounded in Eurocentric perspectives, so they don't see the Gikuyu culture in the novel. They cannot possibility value the telling of the Gikuyu origin myth if they don't know Gikuyu people exist. The novel is a portrait of a community under duress caused by severe lose and alienation. Western critics treated the Mau Mau revolution in the novel as an isolated incident with no association with European imperialism. In the novel, Ngugi explores and exposes the internal fears and thoughts of his characters against Gikuyu historical events caused by European cultural domination. The de- velopment of several voices creates a layered presentation of this critical period, told from the perspective of the colonized, where so many Africans underwent profound changes during escalating violence and clashing asilis. The narrative voice here is young Njoroge; he is caught in a vortex of events that expose him to the results of racial supremacy and its devastating consequences. Njoroge grew up hearing that an education would be the key for him to help lift his family out of poverty. Njoroge listened to his father. He instinctively knew that an Indefinable demand was being made on him, even though he was so young. He knew that for him education would be the fulfillment of a wider and more significant vision-a vision that embraced the demand made on him, not only by his father, but also his mother, his brothers and even the village. He saw himself destined for something big, and this made his heart glow. (Ngugi, 1964, p. 39) Without an understanding of the Gikuyu culture and its connection to the land, along with the polygamous factor that is a part of it, the following excerpt would be devalued: Ngotho bought four pounds of meat. But they were bound into two bundles each of two pounds. One bundle was for his first wife, Neri, and the other for Nyokabi, his second wife. A husband had to be wise in these affairs otherwise a small flaw or apparent bias would easily generate a civil was in the family. (Ngugi, 1964, p. 10) The feminist perspective would also miss the cultural specificity of the above passage. Marimba Ani (1994) addressed their agenda when she wrote, The feminist critique of European society has its roots in the bowels of the European tradition…. It Handbook of Black Studies Page 18 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. is not a question of which gender dominates nor whether everyone can become “male.” … it is a question of whether our view of existence dictates the necessary cooperation of “female” and “male” principles for the success and continuance of the whole. (p. 242) Njorge's father Ngotho felt self-mutilated each day as he worked for Mr. Howlands—he just didn't articulate his feelings initially. The next generation articulated their dislocation through the Mau Mau revolt, and finally, Njoroge contemplates the “misplacement of the values of national and personal liberation” standing on the shoulders of his predecessors. Ngugi (1981) writes, Literature … reflects the life of a people in two senses of the word reflect: imaging and thinking about society, It embodies a people's consciousness of their twin struggles with nature and with one an- other. The two struggles generate conflicts, tension, fears, hopes, courage, cowardice, love, hate, desires. Literature contains the images people have of themselves in history and in the universe. So the question arises, what are the images presented to Kenyan children through the literature that they read in our schools? (p. 29) I would add another dimension to Ngugi's genuine concern—if those critiquing the work do not value the cul- ture of the author—the message of the author who values “the imaging and thinking” of his own society will be lost to European domination. Ngotho and Howlands could not understand each other because they were products of these diverse asilis. Howlands saw the land as a means of production; Ngotho saw the land as a connection to this ancestry. Jacobo accepted the value system of the West, whereas Ngotho did not. Charac- ters in the novel are caught between cultural steadfastness and the idea of Western progress. In Weep Not, Child, Ngugi (1964) skillfully exposes the reader to the asilis of African and European characters by carefully comparing and contrasting their cultural asili. Ngotho's dedication to the land of his ances- tors plays against Mr. Howlands greed for the production his stolen land can produce. The author exposed Ngotho's love of a peaceful home life juxtaposed with Howland's lack of interest in his own wife. Ngugi fo- cuses the reader by exposing the utamawazo that supports their individual cultural asilis. Njoroge—the nar- rator—matures kugusa mtimaicly as he witnesses the action in the novel. And it is because of Njoroge's ex- posure to generational dealings with White supremacy, that he is able to contemplate his future and that of his people. Although Ngugi operates from within the Marxist tradition, he is also steeped in his Gikuyu cul- ture. Ngugi is kuntuic because his theoretical works and novels permit the reader to experience the colonial situation and see the daily lives of the colonized from the colonized perspective. His utamaroho, born of his African asili is manifest in his need to speak his own cultural truth. Handbook of Black Studies Page 19 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Olukun to Yemoja: Completing the Cycle of Cultural Fideli- ty This research enables the researcher to understand postcolonial theorists' work at the asilian level. Within the Afrocentric literary framework, the asilian level is the starting point for analysis. At this level, as shown through the works of the “holy trinity,” critics rely on foreign utamawazian pedagogy and ideology to critique works outside their cultural grasp. All so-called postcolonial countries' artistic productions are lumped together and then devalued using evaluative measures unrelated to the cultural material. From an Afrocentric perspective, an asilian assessment serves the purpose of drawing attention to a dilemma—but that is only a first step. One level deeper into our framework is the point where one's own cultural consciousness enables the theorist to analyze African productions steeped in the authors' cultural center—the cultural center that produced the work. Here, instead of grappling with European hegemony, we rely on African sensibilities that lead the schol- ar to existing African philosophical concepts. At the level of kugusa mtimaic investigation, the analysis relies on African philosophy as the foundation for inquiry and builds from that worldview. Theorists who rely on fem- inist or Marxist traditions certainly contribute to the cause; however, their entrapment within European hege- mony limits their ability to stand on firm African grounding. Awareness of cultural difference alone will not lead a text or community to victorious action. Finally, theoretical concepts must evolve to the third and deepest level of analysis. If the work or author has developed through mere cultural conflict and progressed beyond cultural identification, the work may reach the kuntuic level. Here, the production carries a purposely developed conscious awareness of African affirma- tion and orientation. The text or author either exposes or eliminates chaos, it may be a transformative circuit and, most important, has become a victorious “agent for change”—kuntuic. The kuntuic character, author, or text can be identified through victorious thought, word, and deed and will function kun-tuicly in the literature. Examining our work from a location of kuntuic spirit, distinctly rooted in African sensibilities, will promote eval- uative with cultural integrity. This is not only an additional step toward African autonomy and cultural repair; it is also laying the foundation for our own functioning literary theory (see Gaffin 2002). Handbook of Black Studies Page 20 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Glossary of Terms African mission literature—Genre of African literature that seeks to examine Christian missionary involvement in colonial and postcolonial Africa and the impact of Western culture on the African community as a whole (Gaffin, 2002). Asili (Kiswahili)—The logos of a culture, within which its various aspects cohere. It is the developmental germ. Seed of a culture—It is the cultural essence, the ideological core, the matrix of a cultural entity that must be identified to make sense of the collective creations of its members (Ani, 1994). Kugusa mtima (Kiswahili)—The African experience of being touched, moved, or affected by a self-consciously created phenomenon. It is the process of expanding the African consciousness (Ani, 1994). Kuntu—A category of African philosophy that is a modality of expression. Power to move, to do, to effect, to feel. The power to make things happen, an agent for change (Richards, 1993). Utamawazo (Kiswahili)—Culturally structured thought. It is the way in which cognition is determined by a cul- tural asili. It is the way in which the thought of the members of a culture must be patterned of the asili is to be fulfilled (Ani, 1994). Utamaroho—(Kiswahili) The vital force of culture set in motion by the asili. It is the thrust or energy source of a culture that gives it emotional tone and motivates the collective behavior. Both the utamawazo and uta- maroho are born of the asili and in turn affirm it. They should not be thought of as distinct from the asili but as manifestations of it (Ani, 1994). Yemoja/Olukun—From the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria and Benin. The orisia (force or energy). Yemoja repre- sents the feminine component and Olukun represents the masculine. Not a contradiction, this is an affirmation of the Yoruba view of the universe, where all things contain both male and female energy. Associated with large bodies of water, Yemoja on the surface, suggests light, maturity, and calm, whereas Olukun is located at the deepest level, suggesting darkness, immaturity, and confusion. This concept is employed to suggest top and bottom, light and dark, male and female, beginning and end, or completing a circle (Neimark, 1993). Handbook of Black Studies Page 21 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. References Ani, M. (1994). Yurugu: An African centered critique of European thought and behavior. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Asante, M. K. (1988). Afrocentricity. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Asante, M. K. (1990). Kemet, Afrocentricity, and knowledge. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Asante, M. K. (1993, December). Afrocentricity: The theory of social change. Speech delivered at the General Conference of UNESCO. Available from http://www.asante.net/articles/guadalupe-asante.html Ashcroft, B., ffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (Eds.). (1995). The post colonial studies reader. London: Routledge. Awooner, K. (1976). The breast of the earth. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press. Beti, M. (1958). Mission to Kala. London: Heinemann International. Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge. Childs, P., & Williams, P. (1997). An introduction to post-colonial theory. London: Prentice Hall. Chinweizu, Jemie, O., & Madubuike, I. (1983). Toward the decolonization of African literature. Washington, DC: Howard University Press. Conteh-Morgan, J. D. (1999). The post colonial condition of African literature. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Dangarembga, T. (1988). Nervous condition. London: Seal Press. Diop, C. A. (1984). The African origin of civilization: Myth or reality. Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill. Gaffin, V. N. (2002). African aesthetics and African literature. In S. Asumah, I. Anumonwo, J. K. Marah, & I. Johnston-Anumonwo (Eds.), The Africana human condition and global dimensions. Binghamton, NY: Global Academic. George, R. M., & Scott, H. (1993, Spring). An interview with Tsitsi Dangarembga. Novel, pp. 309–319. Neimark, P. J. (1993). The way of Orisa: Empowering your life through the ancient African religion of Ifa. San Francisco: HarperCollins. Handbook of Black Studies Page 22 of 23 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Ngugiwa Thiong'o (1964). Weep not, child. London: Heinemann. Ngugiwa Thiong'o (1981). Standing our ground: Literature, education and image of self. Writers in politics: Essays. Exeter, NH: Heinemann. Ngugiwa Thiong'o (1986). Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Ngugiwa Thiong'o (1993). Moving the centre: The struggle for cultural freedoms. Portsmouth, NH: Heine- mann. Richards, D. M. (1980). Let the circle be unbroken. Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press. Richards, D. M. (1993). The African aesthetic and national consciousness. In K. Welsh-Asante (Ed.), The African aesthetic: Keeper of the traditions (pp. 63–84). Westport, CT: Praeger. Said, E. W. (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage. Said, E. W. (1993). Culture and imperialism. New York: Vintage. Wellek, R., & Warren, A. (1942). Theory of literature. San Diego, CA: Harvest/HBJ. Williams, P., & Chrisman, L. (Eds.). (1994). Colonial discourse and post-colonial theory. New York: Columbia University Press. postcolonialism Afrocentricity orientalism African culture postcolonial theory Europeans Asante https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412982696 Handbook of Black Studies Page 23 of 23