Feature Article of Saturday, 15 February 2014

Columnist: Kwarteng, Francis

Well, what we know is not what they tell us; were not ignorant, I meant itWe refuse to be what you wanted us to be. We are what we are. Thats the way its going to be, if you dont know. You cant educate I (Bob Marley, Babylon System).

Among some of the autobiographical details we have so far revealed about Dr. Ama Mazama includes the fact she is a well-respected student, well-rounded researcher, as well as a distinguished professor of comparative (African) linguistics (continental and diasporic), religion, politics, literature, history, and cultural criticism, among others. Also, like Asante, Maulana, Diop, or Obenga, she is grounded in political economy. In addition, her intellectual rootedness in political economy and depth of appreciation of the African world put her squarely in the creative empire of activist scholarship and of intellectual prolificacy, making her one of the most formidable and leading theoreticians of Afrocentricity in Western academia, particularly in the American academy.

Afrocentric theory is not merely a theory dealing with history, epistemology, language, economics, culture, politics, and the like. And as we have eloquently and consistently shown, its a creative embodiment of a constellation of progressive ideas, of social and political activism, with a particular focus on the African world in which she prioritizes her interests above others. Namely, Afrocentricity represents the body and soul of Africas cultural psychology and humanity. Yet again, its a concept with heavy intellectual and research investment in theory and praxis. We may even push the analytic button further and say on authority that praxis probably represents one of the transformative instruments which distinguishes one society from the other. That is, relatively successful societies from relatively unsuccessful ones, or, more qualitatively, one thinker from the other.

Technically, we are arguing that analytic verbiage or fustian posturing, a methodological style devoid of activist and intellectual substance, is not a character trait of the process of Afrocentric theorizing. Importantly, one of Mazamas and Asantes remarkable contributions to knowledge production on the African world appears in the form of their edited volume The Encyclopedia of African Religion. The Library Journal says of the Encyclopedia: Numerous titles focusing on particular beliefs in Africa exist, including Marcel Griaules conversation with Ogotemmeli, but this one presents an unparalleled exploration of a multiple of cultures and experiences. Its both a gateway to deeper and a penetrating resource on its own. This is bound to become the definitive scholarly resource on African Religions. Indeed this is a landmark contribution to cultural scholarship on the African world!

In fact, the Encyclopedia beats every single academic work on African Religion before or after by its unparalleled breadth and sheer weight of cultural, historical, epistemological, and cosmogonic analyses. However, its overriding achievement is seen in its epistemological success when Afrocentricity jilts Eurocentric interpretation of African culture at the altar of cultural fairness. On the other hand, Kwame Anthony Appiah has taken issue with Marcel Griaules methodological dialogue with Ogotemmeli, a respected and knowledgeable storehouse of Dogon Religion (See Griaules Conversations with Ogotemmeli and The Pale Fox). On another philosophical plane, we have not yet fathomed a suitable justification for Appiahs overweening orientation, whether he actually sees himself a better anthropologist or ethnologist than the acclaimed and meticulous Marcel Griaule and his student Germaine Dieterlen, whether he actually thinks he knows more than Ogotemmeli, or whether he has philosophical problems with Griaules and Germaines methodological approach.

But that is beside the point. Lets attempt an evaluation of the influence of the Encyclopedia from another critical angle. Still, before we do so, lets remind ourselves as we have consistently and controversially argued elsewhere, that our newly-proposed educational institutions, to wit, Afrocentric education, need to explore the question of spirituality, African spirituality, in the main, as part of the new pedagogy of moral conscientization. Admittedly, this must, however, be done within a larger contextual framework of religious tolerance. Again, this is why Asantes and Mazamas edited volume The Encyclopedia of African Religion is such a significant work. This creative work also ushers in the academization of African Religion as a formidable area of academic research and study in the fields of cultural studies, moral philosophy, and comparative religion.

Meanwhile, elements of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, properly called Book of Coming Forth by Day, Maulana Karengas Maat, The Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt: A Study in Classical African Ethics, as well as other issues raised by him through Odu Ifa: The Ethical Teachings, Afolabi Epegas The Sacred Ifa Oracle, etc., and several important religious ideas from ancient Africa made it to the Encyclopedia. The African roots of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as the cultural spread of African religion outside Africa to the Western Hemisphere see the light of day in the Encyclopedia. Its proper at this juncture to revisit one of the monumental episodes in the history of human civilization, when Molefi Kete Asante reminded participants at the Decolonizing Our Universities international conference, held in 2011, Malaysia, and attended by researchers, scientists, policy makers, authors, academics, and educators from around the world, that Asia, very much like the West, looked down upon African Religion.

Apparently, Asantes indicting rhetoric had come against the backdrop of Asias flagrant exclusion of African Religion from brochures advertizing worlds religions, as he toured a few places in Asia. We should add that this Asian intellectual contradiction shares an ironic confluence with Western abnegation of Hindu as a religion at the height of colonialism. The Nineteenth century was the era of European imperialism, writes David Frawley, adding: Many Europeans did in fact believe that they belonged to a superior race and that their religion, Christianity, was a superior religion and all other religions were barbaric, particularly a religion like Hinduism which uses many idols (See The Aryan-Dravidian Controversy). Yes, the polytheistic pigmentation of Hinduism compelled Europe to discard it as a religion in the classic Eurocentric sense of religion. Alternatively, many European scholars did not consider Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism religions either, believing that Buddhism lacked a centralized deity as the Yahweh and Christ of Judaism and Christianity, respectively.

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