Curiosity is the Bedrock that transcends Boundaries and foments African Conceptualization of Critical Categories

African Conceptualization of Critical Categories

Authors

  • Michael Okyerefo University of Ghana

Keywords:

Curisity, African critical categories, Knowledge production, Bakpεle, Ghana

Abstract

The dominant pattern of knowledge production continues to reflect a very stratified global division of intellectual labour. The paper draws on the thought processes of the Bakpεle of Ghana to underscore the premise that curiosity and its resultant knowledge production is an eternally human art, making it imperative to rethink how global knowledge is produced. Drawing on fieldwork, deploying participant observation and discussions with knowledgeable individuals as part of the community studies, the paper demonstrates the process of elaboration of conceptual categories such as citizenship, leadership, race, engagement, deliberation and restoration emanating from Bakpεle people’s curiosity and critical discourse to inform social arrangement and order.

 

Ikisiri – Swahili 

Muundo uliopo wa uzalishaji wa maarifa unaendelea kutoa tafakari kuhusu mgawanyiko wa kidunia wa wafanyakazi wa kitaaluma. Makala hii inaangazia michakato ya mawazo ya Bakpεle nchini Ghana ili kusisitiza kwamba udadisi na uzalishaji wa maarifa ni sanaa ya kibinadamu inayofanya iwe muhimu kutafakari tena jinsi maarifa ya ulimwengu yanavyozalishwa. Kwa kutumia data kutoka uwandani, uchunguzi shirikishi, na majadiliano na watu wenye ujuzi kama sehemu ya masomo ya jamii, makala hii inaonyesha mchakato wa ufafanuzi wa kategoria za dhana kama vile uraia, uongozi, rangi, ushiriki, mazungumzo, na maongozi yanayotokana na udadisi wa watu wa Bakpεle pamoja na semi muhimu zinazotoa taswira ya  mpangilio wa utaratibu wa kijamii.

Author Biography

Michael Okyerefo, University of Ghana

Michael Okyerefo is Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ghana and Professor of Sociology. He is also a visiting professor at Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He has published numerous articles on religious movements in Ghana, identity issues in Ghanaian immigration to Europe, and alternative epistemologies. He has received several awards including the Religion and Public Culture Fellowship offered by the University of Cambridge.

References

Abraham, William. E. (2019/1962), The mind of Africa, Accra, Sub-Saharan Publishers.

Assimeng, Max (1997), Foundations of African social thought, Accra, Ghana Universities Press.

Bernal, Martin (1987) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic roots of classical civilization, Vol. 1, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press.

Comaroff, Jean & John L. Comaroff (2012), Theory from the South or how Euro-America is evolving toward Africa, London, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Diop, Cheik Anta (1974), The African origin of civilization: Myth or reality, (Translated from the French by M. Cook). Chicago, Lawrence Hill Books.

Gueye, Abdoulaye (2002), Les intellectuels africains en France, Paris, L’Harmattan.

Horkheimer, Max (1982), Critical theory selected essays, New York, Continuum Publishers.

Hountondji, Paulin J. (1983), African philosophy: Myth and reality, (Translated by Henri Evans with the collaboration of Jonathan Rée. Introduction by Abiola Irele). Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press.

Kagamé, Alexis (1956), La philosophie bantu-rwandaise de l'être, Brussels, Académie Royale des Sciences Coloniales.

Lefkowitz, Mary (1996), Not out of Africa: How Afrocentrism became an excuse to teach myth as history, New York, Basic Books.

Likpe Traditional Area. 2014. Lekoryi Festival Brochure.

Mbembe, Achille (2017), Critique of Black reason, (Translated by L. Dubois). Durham, Duke University Press.

Mudimbe, V.Y. (1988), The invention of Africa: Gnosis, philosophy, and the order of knowledge, Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press.

Nyamnjoh, Francis B. (2004), « A relevant education for African development – some epistemological considerations », Africa Development/Afrique et Développement, Special issue on ‘Philosophy and Development.’, vol. 29, n°1 , p. 161-184.

Okyerefo, Edmund Kwame, (2013), Shots from the fragments: A diary, Legon-Accra, Adwinsa Publications.

Okyerefo, M.P.K. (July 11, 2019), Feminine wisdom as an axis to traditional knowledge in Africa http://openair.africa/2019/07/11/feminine-wisdom-as-an-axis-to-traditional-knowledge-in-africa/

Okyerefo, Michael Perry Kweku (2018), Deconstructing and reconstructing. Embracing alternative ways of producing, classifying and disseminating knowledge: An African perspective.” A Discussion on P. Levitt & M. Crul. Deconstructing and reconstructing – embracing alternative ways of producing, classifying and disseminating knowledge Etnološka tribina: Journal of Croatian Ethnological Society 48 (41): 27-35. https://doi.org/10.15378/1848-9540.2018.41.01

Okyerefo, Michael Perry Kweku (2001), The cultural crisis of Sub-Saharan Africa as depicted in he African Writers’ Series: A sociological perspective, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Otite, Onigu., ed. (2002), Themes in African social and political thought, Enugu, Fourth

Dimension Publishers.

Oruka, Henry Odera, ed. (1991), Sage Philosophy: Indigenous thinkers and modern debate on African philosophy, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990. Nairobi: ACTS Press.

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre (2008), The phenomenon of man, (Translated by B. Wall). New York, Harper Perennial Modern Thought.

Temples, Placide (1959), Bantu philosophy, Paris, Presence Africaine.

Vitalis, Robert (2015), White world order, Black power politics: The birth of American international relations, Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

Published

2021-05-22