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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:'Development' in African Cosmology
Author:Van Niekerk, A.S.
Year:1994
Periodical:Africanus
Volume:24
Issue:2
Pages:12-19
Language:English
Geographic terms:Subsaharan Africa
Africa
Subjects:cosmology
African identity
development
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Religion and Witchcraft
Development and Technology
Abstract:The author gives his perspective - a white, Western perspective - of the African conception of development as formulated by African writers and as he has experienced it in daily life. He first addresses the question of whether such concepts as 'development' and 'progress' are culturally relative. In this context he deals with two approaches: the enlightenment approach and the romanticist or relativist view. Then he turns to Western and African views of development. He analyses the content of African identity, paying attention to a number of characteristic features: the inclusive approach; the search for unity, harmony and balance; the cyclical pattern of time; and the lack of a clear distinction between subject and object. Bibliogr.
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