CHAPTER 6

PHILOSOPHY AND THE POSTCOLONIAL AFRICAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

George Ogbonna Mbarah, PhD

Introduction

This chapter examines the role of history and the historian in the interpretation and analysis of past events. History is the study of the past in all its forms. Philosophy of history examines the theoretical foundations of the practice, application, and social consequences of history and historiography”.1 Philosophy is the fountain of all reflections, no matter what language the human family speaks or the geo-political space inhabited by human beings, and it is from this that the other theoretical, practical and applied intellectual disciplines take their origins, …2 Philosophy, and for the sake of this chapter, is a systematic, critical, speculative, reflective, introspective, retrospective, conscious and intuitive(s) to explain experiences, events and issues confronted in the process of living. Since philosophy of history utilizes the best theories in the core areas of philosophy like metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics to address questions about the nature of the past and how we come to know it: whether the past proceeds in some objective principles, or how best to explain the events and objectives of the past with little prejudices.

This chapter interrogates the historiography of the postcolonial African historian with the view to identifying the seemingly existing gap in the objectivity of the colonial and postcolonial African historians.

Eurocentrism at the Expense of those of Other Cultures

Eurocentrism is the practice, conscious or otherwise of placing emphasis on European (and, generally, Western) concerns, culture and values. Eurocentrism often involved claiming cultures that were not white or European as being such, or denying their existence at all. Here are some examples of Eurocentric views.

First of all, world history taught in European and American schools frequently teaches only the history of Europe and the United States in detail, with only a brief mention of events in Asia, Africa. The African pre-colonization period is usually not mentioned in the timeline until colonization by Europeans.

Secondly, the history of science and technology is often taught as having begun with the Greeks, then moving on with the Romans, then stopping during the Dark Ages, before continuing with the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. Less mention is made in European and American schools of the various achievements of Ancient Egypt, Moorish or other Muslim thinkers”3.

Again, and most importantly is that the European and Western account of African history which is considered as being objective, do not acknowledge major contributions of pre-colonial and even, postcolonial African socio-political values. The situation of Eurocentrism has propelled historians of African origin to embark on historical reflection aimed at reconstructing its own history in the postcolonial period.

Distortion of Historical Reality

Assumptions of European superiority arose during the period of European imperialism, which started slowly in the 16th century, accelerated in the 17th and 18th centuries and reached its zenith in the 19th century. After discussing some aspects of colonial structural constructs which had painful effects on the colonized peoples as seen by some post-colonial critics, I will touch upon the need of recovery of the colonized peoples. Such aspects of painful effects and experiences are largely treated from different perspectives by a range of intellectuals such as Fanon, Achebe, and Ekwuru. Both spoke about a distortion of reality made by the colonizing culture, a culture that used its military dominance accompanied by cultural knowledge to exert its hegemony over the colonized peoples.

Historical reality has been distorted to the benefit of the colonizing powers ever since imperialism existed. People who were colonized seem to be struggling with reality about who they are and of what identity they belonged. The natives were painted in a negative way by the settlers and their place was from the outset the target of the colonial grabbers. According to Fanon, this is why the native’s dreams are of action and oppression. What he cannot do during the day he dreams of doing at night. These dreams start then to burst out in various forms. First of all, the native reacts violently against his fellow beings: The native is an oppressed person whose permanent dream is to become the persecutor. The impulse to take the settler’s place implies a tonicity to muscles the whole time. This muscular tension leads to bloodthirsty explosions of different forms-tribal wars, religious feuds, terrorist attacks, and fights between individuals”4. Similarly, Ekwuru, says that, the British colonial conquest took the Igbo by surprise, which was why, more than any other tribe in Nigeria, it destroyed the Igbo traditional socio-political set-up, and left the Igbo culture in a moribund state”5. Colonialism melted serious dehumanizing experience on the colonized, such that the colonized ways of life were forcefully replaced with western “civilization”. According to Ekwuru, thus, being primarily motivated by a certain economic philosophy of progress, the West, with her new revolutionary discoveries in science and technology was poised for a notable aggressive territorial expansion. This was directed against the rear-guard of the so-called primitive societies”6. He further says, obviously, their primary intention was to conquer, dominate and exploit every bit of the available human and material resources of the technologically underdeveloped societies for the benefit of the so-called “developed” or civilized” nations. Thus, armed with this basic utilitarian philosophy of imperial domination, in their time and age the western world launched a world-wide search for territorial acquisition”7.

Here, we may differentiate two types of colonial dominance-a violent colonialism that dealt effectively with the physical conquest of territories and which took place chronologically, and a more insidious one, a cultural colonialism pioneered by rationalists, modernists and liberals who occupied the minds, selves and cultures of the colonizes”8. The former type of colonialism is supported by the amalgamation and the conquest of the Southern and Northern protectorates in Nigeria that has kept the Nigerian political, social, and religious spheres in a commatic situation. No matter how good and praiseworthy we may consider the 1914 amalgamation by the colonial masters, the exercise has rested on a monistic vision, where all differences of race, value, culture, culture, religion and gender that have been eclipsed into one entity that has given undue advantaged to a particular ethnic people. The lesson here is that no vision of social order is absolute. The argument presented here is that ethical values, cultural practices and vision of the world are never to be imposed on any people by leadership even when they have the capacity to do so. The amalgamation of the different ethnic communities by the colonial people, to favor a particular ethnicity, has the Nigeria State underdeveloped and her authentic history and identity distorted.

The point here is that, the African writer, without doubts, better placed than anyone else, to discuss African issues from direct, lived experience, and to present African viewpoints authoritatively, comprehensively, and with the greatest understands. The African writer has it largely in his or her power to demonstrate the higher possibilities and capabilities of his or her people. Obviously, the African will not be properly known until he or she portrays himself or herself to the world. In his book Black Priest: White, Church Lawrence Lucas laments the fact that until fairly recently, the black man’s understanding of himself was basically an echo of the white man’s portrayal of him”9.

The later part of colonial conquest can be described as the rationalist or modernists approaches in occupying and enslave of the minds of the colonized. Colonialism, like any form of imperial political system, imposed and sustained itself largely through the propagation of false ideologies, which asserted the superiority of the colonizer and the inferiority of the colonized. This process was meant to foreground the falsehood of the colonial exploitative ideology under a justifiable framework of benevolent paternalism. For this to work according to their design and vision, says Ekwuru, the masters first of all applied the ideology of condemnation as a prelude to the process of disassemblage.”10

The waging of colonial invasion and conquest and the consequent programme of forced acculturation needed an adequate ideological framework of moral justification. This was exactly what the colonialists achieved through the ideology of condemnation. There was that need to show that the traditional people in their utter state of primitivity needed the help of the “civil nations”11 in order to develop. In this regard, a concerted campaign was mounted by the colonizing nations to justify the crass immorality of colonialism. Accordingly, in order to bolster the condemnation of the traditional man and his cultural features, the white man and the Western culture were projected as the standards for every cultural civilization. Anything therefore outside this ideal form of cultural development was calumnised as an extant form of primitivity. According to Ekwuru, from this perspective, the white man, identified as belonging to the Caucasian race, was represented as the possessor of a “high”and “superior” culture, while the black man, identified with the Negroid race, was represented as the victim of a low”and inferior” culture which has kept the virile human nature in a perpetual prison of deformity”12. The point is that every colonial ideology was framed with a dominant racial overtone, which would always associate everything “good”to be white and anything bad”to be black. The idea is that since most Africans are dark in complexion, dark hair, and since black colour connotes not transparent, they seem to describe the natural make-up of an African personality from a superficial and condemnable perspective.

In effect, the mind of the traditional man was said to be characterized by a “dead”and “blank” uniformity, and his cultural features were said to be” invariable”and “expressionless”. Speaking about this colonial destructive condemnation for cultural dominion, Davidson cites the case of Dean Farrar, one of the British colonial officers, who depicted the traditional African condition as worse than any possible imagination of a primitive people without a culture. According to him:

Dean Farrar was quite sure that he understood what manner of creatures these Africans were. Their features, he was able to report in 1865, were invariable and expressionless, their minds characterized by a dead and blank uniformity … not promulgated a single thought, not established a single institution … not hit upon a single invention. Generation hands on no torch to generation, left to themselves, they were beyond salvation13.

Obviously, being the product of a different cultural civilization, the colonial masters had a different view of a cultural pattern of development and civilization, and naturally, their indictment of the traditional man and their cultural features would follow from this perspective. In this way, they posited their own Western culture as the ideal standard of cultural civilization. Thus, screening the traditional culture side by side with that of the West, they took the simplicity of the traditional African (Igbo) culture (s) as a clear sign of cultural inferiority.

Viewed critically, however, traditional African literature/philosophy could be seen as an attempt by African indigenes to show the differences between pre-colonial African identity and understanding of reality and post colonial African personality. According to George Ekwuru, “the post-colonial Igbo has been characterized by a lot of debilitating conditions that impede progress and development”14. It is a known historical fact that no nation colonized has ever had its colonial experience funny. Most African writers and scholars would agree to this fact. This is because what was introduced doing the period of colony would drastically contradict what was on board. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrowof God are clear evidence on the negative effects of a colonized nation.

What is very conspicuous in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is the confusion of values created between Okonkwo, Ikemefula, and the Western missionaries. What Achebe narrated was an experience that supposedly started the beginning of a turn-around point in the beliefs and understanding of the Igbo, which was also same in most African states where colonization took place. In fact, right from the first day of colonial invasion and conquest up to the present day, the history and contents of an African literature/philosophy wore the Western interpretations. This has affected every aspect of the traditional African man. For instance, the traditional African religion allows parents to give to their children names that capture and describes their understanding of reality. Today, because of Western religion, naming of children do not depict reality if it has no Christian or western background. According to Abiola Irele, “to judge the language of Wole Soyinka or J.P. Clark in their plays without regard for the tradition of speech behind them, is to miss an original dimension of their work”.15

While African literature discusses in critical terms the character of experience about how Africans understood, behaved, interpreted, and communicated to each other about what reality is, African philosophy moves to consistently interrogate these views in the bid of deciphering which ideas, identities, and beliefs are true of Africa.

At this point, there are critical questions that require answers. First and most importantly is, whether there is need for cultural comparison: And if there is, who has the parameter of measuring which is developmental, superior, and friendly with nature? Again, who has the capacity for assumptions about the authenticity of an African (Igbo, Yoruba, Asante) culture and who, objectively is a better position to tell and evaluate their story?

The challenge of the post-colonial African historian

The most fundamental feature of the pre-colonial African communities was the respect for human values and socio-cultural order which was sustained by the spirit of communalism and love for one another. An important consequence of this socio-political structure was a gradual growth in economy and tolerance among brothers and sisters, merchants, and those charged with the leadership of various clans.

However, the problem surrounding the true and authentic nature of the traditional African settings is not that of fashioning an authentic narration of who Africans are before colonialism, rather, the problem is that of the extent to which African scholars (historians) have been able to put their intellects in the service of the aspirations and struggles of African peoples. According to Ahumibe, “… that in the sense of philosophy being a guiding principle or thought or world-view, (the philosophy) of the African, European, Indian etc, and by this mean the different ways these peoples look at life, man, religion, their conception of man and his world”16. In other words, world-views change with peoples and environments, so the world-view of the Indian may be different from that of the Americans, and so on. It is unphilosophic to look down on a peoples’ world-view because of ideological differences. According to Ahumibe,

every knowledge –claim we make in philosophy is the therefore speculative, so is disputable, and can only be arrived at through argument. Thus an argument is an essential part of philosophical activity. It is a major part of the task of the philosopher that he/she should be able to argue rationally. … rationally because there are a number of other things an argument could be: emotional, persuasive, intimidating, eloquent, and so on, without being rational. And surely a number of people use these devices to bring an argument to their favour17.

Our argument is that the traditional African personality and values were forcefully acculturated with the European culture and by the European colonialists. Here, Ekwuru says, the colonial programme of condemnation and disassemblage was designed to be followed concurrently by the process of reassemblage. Invariably, in the unified structure of forced acculturation, the process of reassemblage was nothing but the re-constitution of the Igbo cultural world in accordance with the colonial vision and design”18. Thus, the pattern of condemnation and divestment of cultural features prepared the European colonists for the reconstruction and imposition of their cultural values over the colonized. According to Elochukwu,

the colonial and missionary ideology had as their ultimate aim the changing of the identity of the “colonized” and “evangelized”. In those situations, where nationalistic and evangelical interests were consciously merged, the deep-seated exploitative colonial program along with the then European prejudice against Africans failed to be lucidly examined by the missionaries. Consequently, the African was treated as having neither culture nor religion nor social, economic, or political values worth preserving. The change of the identity of the African person meant, in practice, the abandonment of the indigenous culture, values, and religion in order to embrace those of the West19.

For instance, in pre-colonial Igbo socio-political arrangements, the famous adage of Igbo enwe eze expresses the Igbo spirit of republicanism. The Igbo dislike any form of cultural or political absolutism that could strangulate the Igbo sense of freedom, since it would equally impede their spirit of self-achievement and self-actualization as well. In this regard, Ekwuru says,

it is clear that within the traditional Igbo cultural structure, the clan or the village group represented the centre of the universe. Everything outside the circle village or clan universe was shadowy and lacked an authentic existence. This formed the axial cosmological horizon within which the Igbo traditional world focused and operated. Consequently, the traditional Igbo socio-political, economic, religious and moral expressions were limited within the radius of this village or clan units. However, with the events of colonialism, the socio-cultural boundaries were gradually opened up. People were forced by the structure of colonial administration to overstep the bounds of their village or clan socio-political units. The emergent colonial political units, which gave the Igbo a partial expression of the sense of pan-Igboism, have not yet received a true spirit of acceptance20.

The quality and texture of the traditional Igbo socio-political structure can be likened with the idea of the Minial State as defined by Robert Nozick. An objective analysis of the texture of the relationship existed in traditional Igbo societies would agree with the fact that since colonial encounter, Things have fallen apart. The Minial State, according to Nozick,” is a state of justice, legal, distributive, communicative and above all vindictive justice: a form of government that is morally justifiable because it is a state that would not violate any one’s natural rights of life, liberty, and property”21. These features of the minial sate were the characteristics of the traditional Igbo republican form of government. However, what is found among the post-colonial Igbo people is a superficial and lukewarm relationship. The present sense of pan-Igboism still pictures the atomized clan and village sovereign entities estranged from each other, but tied together by one language and common geographical area. This is why the new political thread of unity is characterized by the posture of conflict and opposition, triggered by selfish interests and desires. The same was the effect of the Yoruba culture and some other cultures were colonialism took place. With regard to the Yoruba experience with colonialism, Ayoade says,” the Yoruba in Dahomey were referred to by European writers variously as anago, Nago, Inago or Nagot while those of Togo were called Anan. … the Yoruba-speakers in Dahomey or Togo never called themselves Anago or Anan respectively”22.

Just like other nations of the world, such as Brazil, India, Pakistan, and South Korea that underwent the same inhuman experience of colonial conquest and cultural destruction, but which today, through a healthy process of acculturation, are counted among the nations whose names have entered into the world economic record of the 20th century as possessing notably flourishing economics with a rapid rate of scientific and technological development, in a similar way, with one mind and one vision, certainly, the Igbo, like every other nation that experienced colonialism , can evolve a healthy process of acculturation with a steady progress.

However, one may ask, how and what do we need to get to this economic level where the Igbo nation and Nigeria at large belong? How do we reactivate and reinvigorate back into our world (Igbo culture) those values that saw the pre-colonial Igbo nation successful?

The most important thing to do is to return and reinvigorate our pre-colonial values. Values such as sincere love for one another, respect for natural ordinances and individual’s right to live. Over and above all, is the promotion of Nigerian languages (Igbo language in perspective) above English language? The modern Igbo must therefore take stock of the great changes that have taken place in their cultural life since the colonial regime, and must equally recognize the fact that the sole solution to the enormous cultural problems created by these changes can only be corrected through mutual dialogue of synthesis rather than extreme acts of mutual exclusions. From this perspective of Kwame Nkrumah, as quoted by Ekwuru,

it is clear that any futile attempt to recapture the past is no longer there would be as stupid and unrealistic as that of trying to photocopy every aspect of the Western culture. It is now a fact that both the evils and blessings that came with the colonial conquest and subjugation of the Igbo are historical facts that cannot be denied23

Another important value and considerations we ought to make is toinclude and teach history of pre-colonial Nigeria (Igbo) to primary pupils, and secondary students. This is necessary because values are inculcated into peoples’ ways of life, and so that the idea of the Igbo personality of today of total self-centered and individualistic spirit would not overshadow the Igbo pre-colonial personality of reciprocity, mutual love for one another, respect to elders and natural ordinances, and the spirit of communalism. According to Chinweizu,

we need to bear in mind that the authentic versions of the things that make us Igbo are to be found in pre-British, pre-19th century Igbo culture. We can’t have a Renaissance of Ndigbo without utilizing the still valuable and potent traits of that authentic, pre-British-incursion Igbo culture, and without adapting and grafting onto that cultural tree trunk other cultural traits-some imported and some to be invented- that will give Igbo society the strength and resilience to survive in the world of the 21th century24.

Conclusion

We need to start our journey of re-telling our story of Alaigbo by adhering to the principle of hard-work and reciprocity. In order to become relevant to the modern world, we must revisit our past to re-enact the valuable things that we left behind. That is, the revival of cultural wisdom and continuity. Our emphases should focus on the authentic characteristics of the true Igbo culture and history. With regard to teaching authentic history about Alaigbo, Omokri says, why does Nigeria still allow that colonial historical lie that Mungo Park discovered the source of the River Niger to be taught in schools? How can Nigeria continue to brainwash her own children with a colonial lie”.25 For him, therefore, the saying and teaching that Mungo Park discovered the source of River Niger is a historical lie and the continuous teaching of such knowledge in schools is a deliberate attempt to re-colonize our ideology.

However, both literary critics, philosophers of history, and historians have recognized cross-culturality as the possible ending point of an apparent endless human history of conquest and occupations. They recognize that the myth of purity or essence; the Eurocentric viewpoint must be challenged. They advocate for cultural syncretization that is, medium of negotiating cultural antagonisms, has to be created. Cultural difference has to be acknowledged. Culture does imply difference, but the differences now are no longer taronomical, they are interactive and refractive. Rorty’s idea of Contingency supports our hope that reality has its root from people’s understanding, usage of language, and which constitutes their perception of reality. The essence of contingency theory is that best practices depend on the contingencies of the situation. Contingency theory is often called the “it all depends” theory, because when you ask a contingency theorist for an answer, the typical response is that it all depends. The term Contingency of language is considered conditional since its meaning is dependent on the context applied.

Rorty insists that this view of his new philosophy is expected to show central elements in the vocabulary and remove the inconsistence in their own terms. And be ready or take up the willingness to face up to the contingency of the language one use. According to him,

I have no criterion of individuation for distinct language or vocabularies to offer, but I am not sure that we need one. Philosophers have used phrases like in the language ‘L’ for a long time without worrying much about how one can tell where one natural language ends and another begins, nor about when the scientific vocabulary of the sixteenth century ends and the vocabulary of the new science begins. Roughly, a break of this sort occurs when we start using “translation” rather “explanation” in talking about geographical or chronological differences. This will happen whenever we find it handy to start mentioning words rather using them to highlight the difference between two sets of human practices by putting quotation marks around elements of those practices26.

We have advocated for cultural synthesis, that is, bo- rrowing and sharing cultural values. To demonstrate how beyond fixed cultural values are, cultures should enable other positions to emerge. For instance, Ndigbo will remain at a severe disadvantage as they engage in the game of life without also bringing into play their communal brain- their intelligentsia. They have to give their intelligentsia their rightful place and support in Igbo society. This is a vital cultural value we need to learn from the Jews: The Jews in business or politics know that they could support their intelligentsia- from the beginning, and they have continued to do so by supporting their best minds that do their collective thinking. They have a system of identifying the brightest minds among their young people, growing and sponsoring their educational pursuit and enabling them to contribute to their development in all aspects of life. According to Gandhi, if you want to plan for a year, sow a seed, if you want to plan for a decade, plant a tree, if you want to plan for the future, develop the minds of citizens. Ndigbo, should as a matter of urgency imbibe this kind of cultural value where the future of our younger brothers and sisters are systematically guaranteed.

Endnotes

1. https//www.iep.utm.edu.hit

2. John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji (2016) African Philosophy and the Quest for Social Order in Africa, in, Ethics, Governance and Social Order in Africa. Essays in Honour of Godwin S. Sogolo (Eds) Olatunji Oyeshile& Francis Offor. Ibadan: Zenith BookHouse Ltd, p. 252

3. See, From Eurocentrism to Hibridity or From Singularity to Plurality, by Titus Pop of Partium Christian University, Oradea, Romania

4. Fanon Frantz (1967) Black Skin, White masks. New York: Grove, p, 22

5. George Ekwuru (1999) The Pangs of an African Culture in Travail (Uwa ndigbo Yaghara Ayagha) Owerri: Totan Publishers Limited, p, 14.

6. George Ekwuru. The Pangs of an African Culture in Travail, 12.

7. George Ekwuru. The Pangs of an African Culture in Travail, 12

8. See, From Eurocentrism to Hibridity or From Singularity To Plurality, by Titus Pop of Partium Christian University, Oradea, Romania

9. Lawrence Lucas (1970) Black Priest, White Church. New York: Random House, p,13

10. George Ekwuru. The Pangs of an African Culture in Travail, 32

11. George Ekwuru. The Pangs of an African Culture in Travail, 32

12. George Ekwuru. The Pangs of an African Culture in Travail, 34

13. Davidson Basil (1969) The African Genius: An Introduction to Social and Cultural History. Boston: An Atlantica Monthly Press Book, p,45

14. George Ekwuru. The Pangs of an African Culture in Travail, 34

15. Dipo Irele (1993) The violated Universe: Fanon and Gandhi on Violence. University of Ibadan: P, 11

16. Chukwuma Ahumibe (2015) Talking About Philosophy. Nigeria:” Kwikpros Resources Nig. Limited, p,19-20

17. Chukwuma Ahumibe Talking About Philosophy, 20.

18. George Ekwuru. The Pangs of an African Culture in Travail, 41-42

19. Uzochukwu Elochukwu (1996) A Listening Church: Autonomy and Communion in African Churches. New York: Orbis Books, p, 4

20. George Ekwuru. The Pangs of an African Culture in Travail, 137-138.

21. Robert Nozick

22. John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji. African Philosophy and the Quest for Social Order in Africa, in, Ethics, Governance and Social Order in Africa. Essays in Honour of Godwin S. Sogolo, p, 252

23. Nkrumah Kwame (1981) The Struggle Continues. London: Panaf Books, p, 82.

24. Chinewizu Chinewizu (2015) Ikenga Run Amok- Towards a Diagnosis and Healing of the Ndigbo Crisi, in, Igbo Nation: History & Challenges of Rebirth and Development. Vol One (Eds) Uzodinma Nwala, Nath Aniekwu, & Chinyere Ohiri-Aniche. Ibadan: Kraft Books Limited, p,47

25. //Tableshaker.Free Leahsharibu

26. Richard Rorty (1989) Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Cambrigde: Cambridge University Press, p, 117