AFRICAN INTELLECTUALISM - A MERE FARCE

AFRICAN INTELLECTUALISM

By: Mihlali Gqada


GLOSSRY

Intelligence
Is a most complex practical property of mind, integrating numerous mental abilities, such as the capacities to reason, plan and solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language and learn. Wikipedia, Encyclopedia

Intellectualism

Is the quittance of human life, identity, culture, expression, appearance and idiom, it is not a farce or a charade of written text or well read speeches, it is not confined to encrypted notes or poetic gestures.

An intellectual
Is a person who uses his or her intelect to study, reflect, speculate on, or ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas.
There are, broadly, three modern definitions at work in discussions about intellectuals. Firstly, 'intellectuals' as those deeply involved in ideas, books, the life of the mind. Secondly, and here largely arising from Marxist 'intellectuals' as that recognisable occupational class consisting of lecturers, teachers, lawyers, journalists, and suchlike. Thirdly, cultural "intellectuals", being those of notable expertise in culture and the arts, expertise which allows them some cultural authority, and who then use that authority to speak in public on other matters. (Noam, Chomsky. 1967)
Intellectuals have been viewed as a distinct social class often significantly contributing to the formation and phrasing of ideas, they are both creators and critics of ideology. (Furedi, Frank. 2004)

THE AFRICAN INTELLETUAL

The elementary flaw in the beckoning of African Intellectualism is undue glorification awarded to castigatory academics, which provide relic manifestations of theoretic explanations and preponderances of intellectualism. Sono, T (1994) writes in his thesis, “Dilemmas of African intellectuals in Africa. Political and cultural constraints”, that to even talk about African intellectuals and intellectualism is to grant such a non existing appendage a favour, he bases his argument on a framework of Western rationalism which in his phobic view is the epitome of ranking intellectualism. Odera Oruka, (1991) however dismisses such mislead utterances as ignorant and fixated on formative formulations of intellectualism in Africa. He points out that African intellectualism on its own is netted on ethonophilosophy profoundly found in Africa, he also insist that intellectualism in not prescribed by written text alone but that oral culture is also a form of critical philosophy.

The issue at hand then becomes the need to reclaim and redefine African intellectualism at the ideological level, creating protuberance of twined notions of the real African basis of intellectualism therefore an inauguration of African combat at an ideological and philosophical level.

It is a known fact that much of the insecurities and lack of clarity about the status and agenda of African intellectuals relates to the lack of dialogue between themselves and the lack of connectedness. African intellectuals spend most of their time trying to earn points and approval from white intellectuals. There are few forums exclusively for African intellectuals to encourage thought and exchange of ideas. The other issue facing African intellectuals is the ‘linchpin …academic legitimation and placement, the individual certification and positioning take priority over content, orientation and quality intellectual output. There is a lack of questioning of the intellectual paradigms; this has proven to be an inescapable dilemma for most African intellectuals. Most if not all black intellectual have to pass through white bourgeois academy or its black imitators before capturing any intellectual grounds. There is however visible negritude towards African formulated concepts celebrated world wide, but these alone do not solidify or connote intellect.

The absence of African voices in academy also put to question the role of African intellectualism, Africans are physically absent from institutions of Higher Learning in the country and continent and in the literature that recommends and prescribes academic programmes. The greatest deficit is that African languages like African culture have been confined to the periphery of the academy. Epistemologies have however lead to post colonial knowledge production, wherein factories of Africans are producing African identities and cultures beyond colonial subjugation, these are transformative realms which challenge Western rationalism and dismiss it as further colonialisation of minds and thoughts of African intellectuals. The late Claude Ake noted that most African intellectuals are a replica and carbon copy of faint western intellectualism with no imputes on Africa.

Simply put African intellectualism still has to conquer the space to be noted as an existing surfeit of mental power, based on African notions, philosophy and ideology. Let us not be afraid to challenge western intellectualism and create our own. Form this early stage, as students let us lead by example by writing papers and formulating ideologies to take Africa forward. I consider my self well read with a capacity to write and be heard, this I will take forward and be a panacea of African intellectualism

NOTE: intellectualism does not belong to a soul or group of people, it is shaped according to time, space, available tools of analysis and ideological prescriptions amongst others.