"You know, I am not a racist, but..."
As a student in Anthropology and Philosophy who"s not at all Afrophobic, I enjoy working on "African" ideas about politics and justice. Academic philosophy in South Africa is not that loyal to African philosophy though. Because of its rich history of written sources, Western philosophy is still thought to be superior. Language, we think, is thinking. And "I think, therefore I am." Generalising, one could say that African worldviews correspond with the axiom of ubuntu, which roughly means "You are, therefore I am" or "being through other people". I see potentialities; others see a lack of enlightenment. Like in Nijmegen, the Philosophy Faculty"s dialogue takes place during coffee. An open-ended snapshot:
"...they just miss that element of criticism in their culture. Europeans like you fail to understand that. You don"t see how serious it actually is. But we"re in Africa. You know about the invention of the subject. Individualism. It actually took centuries, even for Europe, to get where we are now. Here, there simply is no such thing. In the Netherlands, even in the 16th century you could find this notion of liberalism worked out. Here, again, no such thing. This whole African society, you find it all over Africa, lacks criticism because this is all swept under the table when it does not fit in the so-called communities-point-of-view.
Well, committed ubuntuists [people who think through "ubuntu"] would say that criticism is always integrated in this communities-point-of-view, that there"s no communities-point-of-view without the process of creating one, which happens through dialogue and, exactly, critique... But be fair: practice shows otherwise. Okay, but the notions we"re talking about are kind of ideal, or idealistic ones. True. But the ideal we"re talking about kills the kind of criticism we need for a healthy society. Look what the government is doing now. And this is a common African problem: they cannot handle criticism. This Mbeki, he"s not a leader. He just does not face the problems, he denies them.
I see what you mean: yesterday in Sunday Times, that crime would somehow be a perceptional problem. Mbeki suggested that the high crime rate was nothing but white people's fiction meant to blame black people... [together] Racism! And this attitude towards the whole HIV/AIDS issue... . You see: no criticism. Every critical voice is eliminated. They just can say anything. A few weeks ago, a journalist was fired because of an analysis – which was a legitimate one. But you can"t blame them. You can"t even blame colonialism, or inequality, or whatever... Even if you could, they should not do so. One has to free others to free oneself.
But this is the view of Mandela, exactly! And I don't think it's that much an issue of "us" versus "them". He was an exception. You see that the confrontation with modernity just took place at the wrong time. Look at Rwanda, Burundi. This whole genocide. It"s two groups against each other. This sense of 'belonging". And now they have the weapons, the technology... Africa never had a literate tradition. And criticism comes after literacy, that"s evident. There"s nothing wrong with oral cultures or so, but we"re nothing but a product of history, and so is Africa. The confrontation with Europe was just fatal. The problems are irresolvable. They will always be faithful to their groups, and obey their leaders, whatever these leaders do. They just don't know otherwise, they can't help it."
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