The Study of Africa Flashcards
What are the geopolitics of knowledge production of Africa?
- Major African Journals published in the global North. Knowledge published and legitimated in the global North is seen as universal/scientifically objective
- Gender (white male) bias in publishing on Africa.
- Eurocentrism “perpetuated intellectual dependence on a restricted group of prestigious Western academic institutions that determine the subject matter and methods of research“
- Colonial legacy persists in the geopolitics of knowledge production
- African contexts are marginalised; people do not look to Africa to understand global problems e.g. austerity experienced in 1990s. Instead they apply European experience to Africa.
What is the difference between Africanists and African diaspora scholars?
Distinction between Africanists (White global North scholars who study Africa) and African/ African-diaspora scholars;
Differences in Approaches and themes:
Africanist: ‘Africa as an object’ of study; empirical, place-based research
African/African Diaspora: Africa as an cultural and existential experience
Describe coloniality.
Coloniality refers to long-standing patterns of power that began with the unfolding of modernity itself, resulting in what became known as ‘voyages of discovery’ which opened up other parts of the world to Europe’s rising hegemonic aspirations.
The extermination of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the enslavement of black people from Africa, the indenturing of Chinese and Indians, the eventual colonization of non-European worlds, the redefinition and re-invention of human cultures and intersubjective relations from a racial perspective, as well as theft and appropriations of history and knowledge for colonial purposes form part of materialization of coloniality.
Coloniality survived the struggles against juridical colonialism and extended into the postcolony.
Racism is a product of coloniality.
(Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Tafira 2018)
How is knowledge production colonial?
‘Africa was consistently represented as the most unknown and unknowable region of the World’ (Barnett, 1998).
Colonial and imperial centres of knowledge production in Euro-American Universities (Anthropology, Geography departments, African Studies Centres etc.) dominate the production of knowledge on Africa.
Colonialism required the production of knowledge. e.g. the setting up of SOAS university. Knowledge production required knowledge of people, languages and territory.
How did a racial ideology become part of colonialism?
Colonialism necessitated racial assumptions. Experimentation around eugenics e.g. German genocide of Hereros in Namibia.
Racist ideology justified the idea that knowledge transfer was uni-directional from Europe to Africa.
Cultural racism argues people and their culture are a problem to their own development.
What is cultural racism?
Cultural racism substitutes the cultural category “European” for the racial category “white.” We no longer have a superior race; we have, instead, a superior culture.
Cultural racism argues people and their culture are a problem to their own development.
X - The idea that a people or their culture and social institutions can be an obstacle to their development is one of [the] most expensive errors [of the development project]. (Charles Ake, 1991
What are the 3 different traditions in the study of Africa?
1) The liberal tradition (knowledge produced for colonial and imperial agendas)
2) The critical tradition (including Marxism, neo-Marxism & Postcolonial studies) Knowledge produced with a ethical and radical agenda – one that is socially and ethically responsible.
3) The Black Radical Tradition: Negritude, Pan-Africanism, Afrocentricism, Decolonial
Describe the liberal tradition.
Assumptions:
Value-free and neutral
Scientific objectivity
Modernization (Eurocentric) theories
Racialized knowledges (focus on tribalism & dysfunctionality)
Promotion of capitalist free-market liberal democracies (corruption, privatization, ethnicity, and the resource curse
The material projects of development are not necessarily problematic but the ideas that accompany them are
Describe the critical tradition.
Influenced by classical Marxism and neo-Marxism (focuses on the impact of capitalism in terms of class formation, peasants and labour mobilization and organization, gender relations. e.g. Walter Rodney’s (1972) 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'
Postcolonial Studies recognize imperial reason and scientific racism were actively deployed in the invention of the geographical imaginaries of Africa. Postcolonial critique of discourses: give emphasis to local knowledges and place-based practices, e.g. the varied experience of modernity; grassroots transnationalism.
Describe the Radical African Challenge.
African Academy and Neo-liberalism: experience of de-skilling and dis-empowerment (1980s-2000s); outmigration of African academics mainly to North America (brain drain). Consequently, the research agenda on Africa is largely defined by the global North.
Reliance on external paradigms (donor-driven applied research); unequal collaborative partnerships.
Pan-Africanism began in the Late 19th Century.
Pan-Africanism is against all forms of oppression and the domination of African people and to assert the common humanity of African peoples.
Afrocentrism is a cultural ideology or worldview that focuses on the history of black Africans. It is a response to global (Eurocentric/Orientalist) attitudes about African people and their historical contributions; it revisits their history with an African cultural and ideological focus.
X- critiqued for not challenging radicalisation -> empowering?
Example of developing African Independent Research Institution?
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Dakar-based; main beacon in contemporary Africa for the promotion of scholarship/research by Africans.
