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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Colonialism and African Political Thought
Author:Osaghae, Eghosa E.ISNI
Year:1991
Periodical:Ufahamu
Volume:19
Issue:2-3
Pages:22-38
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:political philosophy
colonialism
History and Exploration
Politics and Government
Abstract:Most Africanists who point to original African initiatives and autochthony of thought in precolonial, colonial and postcolonial times glorify the African past and pretend that the roots of modern African thought are to be found in the glorious past. The present author argues that the body of ideas which is collectively labelled African political thought is essentially a product of the colonial process and the anticolonial reactions to it by the first-order African elite who have today become African political 'thinkers'. In examining the role of colonialism in African political thought, the author first deals with the question of whether colonialism was an episode or an epoch. After having concluded that colonialism in Africa was an epoch, he examines more closely the colonial imprint on African political thought. Most of the ideas of African political thought are anticolonial and possess a 'replacement syndrome', a tendency to replace, as it were, European ideas with 'authentic' African ideas. This is done, first, with a view to capturing and justifying the anticolonial mood, and, secondly, in order to justify the claims of the first-order African rulers to come to power. The postcolonial freedom of thought has resulted in a new breed of African thinkers: African Marxists. To a large extent, however, African Marxism has not been able to move beyond the replacement syndrome. Notes, ref. (Also published in: Journal of Asian and African Studies / Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, no. 45 (1993), p. 1-16.)
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