There are two dimensions to the issue of development. These are the structural and the foundational dimensions. Every structure has a foundation and the texture of this foundation determines how rugged the structure would be. Now, the structural dimension to development deals with the sum total well being of the members of a society. The foundational dimension to development refers to the mental capability or power and the ambition of the members of a society to stabilize society and transform nature to suit their needs. This essay places preference on the second meaning of development. Our decision is informed by the fact that the second approach captures the essence of development. Development is more about the mental power to plan, the rigour and discipline to bring our plan into fruition. On a second note, the foundational dimension to development immediately brings to our notice, the link between science, culture and development. The three are systems of thought, which have their roots in the human consciousness. Given that development deals with the measure of the mental capability of the members of a society, science and culture have the responsibility of training the members of that society to acquire high mental power. Culture aims at the enlightenment and empowerment of members of the society. Science on the other hand, helps to sharpen the mental capacity of these individuals by imbuing in them rigour and strict discipline. This profound system of education should equip members of the society with the powers of transcendence, which include: prudence, will power, forethought, intuitive insight, beatific vision and powerful imagination for creativity and invention, required for socio-political wizardry and economic magistracy. Having analyzed and shown how the three key terms that form the backgrounders to our essay are interconnected, our next task is to examine how virile traditional African value system is in meeting up with the challenges of development in the contemporary period.
General Assumptions about Traditional African Value System
In contemporary times development is seen purely as a secular and intellectual enterprise targeted at the realization of the self, and the exploitation and actualization of the powers of this self to reform the individual and transform society. The term self, refers to the human power of transcendence. Transcendence itself depicts the metaphysical and epistemological prowess of the human mind. Metaphysically speaking, transcendence refers to the human mental power of beyondness. It depicts the ability to raise questions about the nature of things, to transit beyond the ordinary meaning of things into the transcendental world of abstraction and imaginative visioning, it is at this level that the world is recreated and repackaged anew for onward application to crass human experience. From the point of view of epistemology, transcendence refers to the human curiosity to cast doubt upon things, it also depicts the capacity of the human mind to query itself or investigate its own very capacity to gather valid and true knowledge about the things of the world. Thus, whereas metaphysics establishes the nature of things (i.e. reality), epistemology helps to determine the methodology by which we gather valid knowledge about things. Consequently any genuine theory on development should enumerate among other things, a theory of man, a theory of mind, a theory of knowledge, a theory of reality, a theory of society or state etc, all of which combine to provide orientation for development.
Going by the above, it would be seen that upon evaluation, traditional African value system lacks the essential sparks required to meet up with the challenges of development in the contemporary era. Whereas the metaphysical and epistemological foundations of development in the contemporary era are purely secular, scientific and intellectual, the worldview of traditional Africans is religious and spiritual. Metaphysically, traditional Africans see the world as elemental, it is one that involves the play of forces, and it is one in which spirit has primacy over matter. This explains why the epistemological worldview of traditional Africans is also elemental. The essential method of understanding the spiritual nature of the world is that of complete “involvement”. The traditional African is imaginatively and intuitively immersed (i.e. involved) in the understanding of how elements interact and in the essence or nature of these elements so that through the appropriate incantations, things and events are magically altered. The point to note is that there is nothing wrong with this manner of looking at the world. In fact, this manner of looking at the world is original, potent and still very much relevant (and shall continue to be relevant) to the contemporary man. However, the danger is that if this traditional system of thought is left in its raw essence, the way it was invented and established by our forebears some millennia ago, it is bound to become primitive and obsolete with time. This is the essential problem with traditional African system. Nevertheless, it is expedient to warn that the words primitive and obsolete as used in this context are not intended to denigrate African culture. Rather, the words as used contextually, demonstrate the fact that we contemporary Africans are not doing enough for ourselves. We waste our time if we think that development will come our way when we foolishly strive to abandon and abolish our culture. In practical terms, development means improvement on the ways in which our forebears went about the transaction of their daily endeavours. Only that which is primitive can undergo further refinement or purification as that which is already over processed cannot be further refined. That which is over processed can only be recycled. This is the advantage Africa has over the so-called advanced world.
Beside the accusations that traditional African value system is primitive and obsolete, other aspersions cast upon African culture include the following: that the African epistemic worldview does not dissect object from subject and for this reason, lacks the rigour and objectivity required for a thorough, unbiased investigation of an issue; that due to the fact that African notion of causality is oracular, agentive and otherworldly, it allows for the easy thriving of superstition; that the methodology of operation (i.e. as it pertains to the understanding of the world) cannot be subjected to experimental explanation; for these reasons, African culture is said to be unscientific and anti-developmental. The point to not is that culture does not need to be scientific but definitely needs to be dynamic. In the same way, culture can never be anti-developmental, but it can become outdated and this happens when the custodians of culture in a particular epoch refuse to obey the dynamic nature of culture. In essence, now is the time for contemporary Africans to get wise and launch themselves into the era of cultural renewal or cultural renaissance. This is the high point of this essay. What Africa needs most urgently is cultural refinement or purification not cultural revival. For try as we may, we can never relive the experiences of our forebears exactly the way they did some millennia ago. The expression cultural revival shows the plight of a people who are bitterly battling with the loss of culture. This explains why Africans exist at the crass level of mimicking even their own culture. Africans need to get wise and learn from the injunction, which states that: “the best form of defence is attack”. We must go beyond this seemingly endless redress of cultural survival and revival, we must demonstrate wisdom, get practical, and turn our disadvantage into advantage. The way to go about this is cultural renewal or the refinement of culture to meet up with the challenges of the contemporary world.
Towards a Cultural Rebirth: The Harmonization of The Values of Science And African Culture
The harmonization theory as used in this context refers to the attempt to synthesize or unify two different systems of thought, which on the surface look absolutely unbridgeable. The expression “two different systems of thought” refers to the theory of demarcation in philosophy of science. The demarcation theory as enunciated by Karl Popper seeks to know “when a theory should be ranked as scientific” (Popper, 1969, 33). In essence, the theory seeks to differentiate science from non-science. But why do we say that on the surface demarcation theory tends to present systems of thought as absolutely unrelated and unbridgeable? A system of thought is said to be scientific if it is rigorous, critical, rational, empirical, and through the rules of strict measurement and experimentation produces exact results. This is another way of saying that science aims at proving whether a given situation is true or false which is why Karl Popper says that any work of science that worth’s its salt must be falsifiable.
Now, when this demarcation theory is used to evaluate science and traditional African thought system, it would seem that both are unrelated and for this reason cannot be synthesized. Since the operational procedure of traditional African thought system does not meet up with the criteria laid down by science, the tendency is to dismiss African thought pattern as basically unscientific. But as earlier stated, the polarity created between African system of thought and science is unnecessary, because, both systems of thought have their roots in a common foundation, which is the human mind. Both are perspectives which explore dimensions which though different but are related. Both systems of thought seek to understand the dynamics of the forces of nature. But whereas traditional African thought system explores the spiritual nature of the universe, science investigates the physical dimension to nature. In the same way, whereas African thought system explores the capability of the human spirituality to master, control and explain the spiritual forces of nature, science investigates the ability of the human intellect to master, control and explain the physical forces of nature. The examination of the following items; the structure of the human personality, the notion of causality, the system of education and documentation, and methodology of operation will further show the difference and relatedness between African thought system and science.
The human personality also known as the human consciousness is the ultimate basis of all developmental processes in the world. It is for this reason that a people’s conception of the human personality determines the rapidity or otherwise of their material development. Ancient African elders were not so much concerned with the material development of individuals and society. Emphasis was placed on humanistic, moralistic and spiritual balance of both the human person and the society. For this reason, ancient African elders saw the human spirit (i.e. Benin ehi, Igbo chi, and Yoruba emi/ori) as the most fundamental part of the human entity. They saw the human spirit as the essence of the creator in man. It is quite the contrary with the Western civilization. Beginning with the Greeks, at least, emphasis was on how the human intellect could master and control the forces and resources in the universe for the rapid and physical transformation of the society. This drive towards the material transformation of society gathered greater momentum in the modern period during which time the basic concern of Europe was science. Great efforts were made to discuss the structure of the human intellect and how it proceeds to form concepts and ideas for world transformation. The philosopher known as Rene Descartes opened the eyes of Europeans to the fact that the ultimate basis of knowledge and truth in general is the cogito or the “intellectual I”. Immanuel Kant went ahead to let Europeans know that this “intellectual I” which Kant prefers to refer to as “the transcendental self” is the designer or fashioner of all systems and institutions within the human world. In fact, it was Kant that drew the pattern that European colonization of the world followed. He challenged Europeans to realize the powers of their intellect and to proceed to impose and transpose their thought systems upon the rest of the world. After Kant, it became the norm for German philosophers to harness philosophy for the development of the Western world and to the detriment of the rest of the world. This zeal by Western philosophers to propagate Western norms over and above the rest of the world is variously known as the doctrine of “Eurocentrism” (Serequeberhan, 1997, 142), “religious patriotism” or “national philosophism” (Momoh, 1997, xvi). We can now see how a people’s conception of the human personality can either promote humanistic or materialistic notion of development. Thus, “whereas Western philosophy aims at the winning of arguments, the contriving of linguistic and conceptual analysis in order to throw up individual prodigies and intellectual giants, the aim of African philosophy and ancient elders was to understand, co-operate, empathize with nature, environment and creation and mould a moralistic, humane and communal universe” (Momoh, 2000, xviii). The fact that materialistic pursuit has thrown the world into turbulence such that humanity now craves to return to the path of humanism, empathy and communalistic existence, makes the African and ancient conception of the human personality and development most original. However, the task of re-enacting this ancient order has become most herculean due to the fact that the challenges on ground have transcended both the ancient and modern conceptions of the human personality and development. The task before us today is to move towards a holistic conception of both the human personality and development to include the striking of a balance between spiritualism and materialism.
Again, a people’s notion of the principle of causality also affects how they conceive the world and determines the rate of their physical growth. A people with idealist and spiritualist conceptions of causality are likely to make less material progress than those other people who conceive of causality from a materialist or dualistic perspective. The idealist and spiritualist conceptions of causality are severely limited bases of physical development for two reasons. First, idealism can easily derail into the world of “transcendental illusion” in which the dreamer finds the lures of the transcendental or spiritual realm too attractive and refuses to return back to reality. Before long, the transcendental traveler begins to see the material world as evil. Second, spiritual conception of causality though anthropocentric, is basically religious and for this reason, promotes an “agentive” notion of causality. The laws of cause, effect, chance, and design are attributed to other agents (such as witches and wizards, gods and goddesses, demonic forces or the almighty God) other than normal human beings. Agentive notion of causality easily derails into an otherworldly point of view; it encourages the abandonment of self and the veneration and deifications of the very forces (of nature) which man should strive to master and control. In essence, agentive causation puts man under servitude of the forces of nature and other presumed higher forces or agents from which man seeks for both solutions and solitude. This manner of conceiving the principles of cause and effect cannot and does not aid rapid physical development. On the contrary, the intellectual notion of causality aims at empowering the human mind to overcome fear, device ways of understanding and controlling the forces of nature, and then proceed to domesticate the forces of nature to suit human material development. The point to note is that agentive and intellectual notions of causality have their uses and can be made to complement societal development. Nonetheless, since the pressing challenge before contemporary Africans is to transform their environment in terms of material growth and development, Africans of this era have the urgent task of toeing the path of intellectual notion of causation. This latter point has been sufficiently made in another paper titled: “On Causality and Science: Towards a Deconstruction of African Theory of Forces”. Our concern for now is to show that the spiritual and material notions of causality as they relate to the issue of development are co-ordinate perspectives. Scientific research into the theory of waves or electromagnetic principle reveals that energy is the same as spirit, and that the electromagnetic field is the same as the spiritual universe. Electromagnetism and spiritualism agree on the common point that forces populate the universe and that these forces are either indestructible or immortal respectively. The major difference is that whereas “the principle of the indestructibility (i.e. conservation) of energy is constructed solely on the doctrines of empiricism and materialism, the principle of the immortality of the soul is formulated upon the doctrines of idealism and spiritualism alone” (See Unah, 1997, 57). Both perspectives can be harmonized for a humanistic development. Thus, the harmonization of the principles of idealism and realism (materialism) constitutes the ultimate goal of Confucian philosophy. Little wonder, China pioneered the merger of science and traditional thought system.
Next is how systems of education and documentation relate to development. Traditional African education system is functional and practical, while the system of documentation is communal. The essence of traditional African system of education is to train a cultured, enlightened [i.e. the Hausa Mutumin Kirki (Kirk-Greene, 2000, 246 — 259), or the Yoruba Omoluwabi (Awoniyi, T. A. 1975, 357 — 384)] individuals whose duty is to uphold communal norms. As it concerns the personality of the individual, traditional African system of education sharpened the intuition and imagination of initiates to attain the level of mental alertness required for intuitive and imaginative apprehension the of “act” or “craft” of functions. However, this system of education bothered less about explaining the theory underlying the act. Kwame Gyekye makes this point when he states that “traditional African technologists knew the ‘act’ but not the ‘idea’, or ‘form’ or ‘theory’ behind the act” (1997, 34; see also the paper On Causality and Science for details). The point to note is that traditional system of education did not bother much about developing the logic of sophism by which process one gets curious and casts doubt upon views, opinions and submissions. It is the logic of sophism or skepticism in the West that gave rise to a wide range of epistemic systems of thought such as empiricism, realism, rationalism, transcendental epistemology etc, which aim at a thorough and unbiased discussion of an issue. The end of such rigorous systems of enquiry is that they go beyond practice and actions to unearth the theoretical basis behind every act and function. In the same way, the traditional African system of documentation, no doubt, promoted harmony and humanism in the community, it nevertheless, slowed down the rapid development of both the individual and the community. The point is that the communalistic way of documentation encouraged the culture of secrecy. Knowledge was considered a communal repository of which only the initiates were priviledged to know about this abstract communal property. Besides, this corpus of communal knowledge was passed to the initiates through a long tedious process of learning to further instill discipline and secrecy. This manner of education and documentation has negatively impacted upon Africa. It has led to the huge loss of both intellectual property and human intellects who in contemporary terms could pass for professors. This was how Africa lost most of its intellects to the then new world and Europe, and most of her intellectual property (such as “written documents” in coded symbols) were either stolen or completely lost. The lesson to gather from this is that absolute secrecy in matters of education to the extent of excluding majority of the populace is detrimental to societal development. Thus, contemporary Africa must restrategize her traditional systems of education and documentation to assume a more dynamic dimension. This dynamic attitude should promote the tenets of practical, functional and formal education. While maintaining the symbolism of secrecy, a way of opening up these symbolic state secrets to the general populace in a subtle manner without divulging the essence of such coded secrets should be devised. The intellectuals and intelligentsias of the society graduate into the higher levels of the nations mysteries (i.e. the coded wisdom corpuses that sustain the state) as they attain higher levels of discipline and steadfastness in their various professions/academic disciplines. It is this method of education and documentation that has kept the West and the Oriental world at the peak of contemporary world civilization.
The forth issue on the list is that of methodology and how it relates to development. This issue of methodology encompasses the first three in that it (methodology) captures the operational procedure by which traditional Africans conceived of the human personality, the principle of causality, and the systems of education and documentation. Since for the African the universe is essentially spiritual, it follows that spirit is the one entity or force that pervades and permeates the entire cosmos. Spirit ensures harmony in the universe, in the human society and among the individual members of the society. Hence, spirit ensures the intercorrelation of entities. This explains why the Purist school in African philosophy describes spirit as the principle of “interpenetrability”. Now, the essential benefit of the interpenetrability principle is that it allows for social cohesion and control in the society. But this cohesion is limited within the family, clan, village or ethnic (tribal) enclave. Thus, what in the traditional setting was an advantage has in the contemporary urban civilization become a disadvantage. The bane of most contemporary African States is the problem of tribalism technically known as “ethniclassicism” (Fishman, 1989, 7). To outgrow this quagmire of ethniclassicism, contemporary Africans have to refine the methodology of interpenetrability of soul entities. One way of doing this is by comprehensively radicalizing the theory of interpenetrability to meet up with rational and empirical discourse, which forms the bases of contemporary discourse. This way the theory of intersubjectivity will acquire the rigour required of contemporary discourse. The new approach to the principle of intersubjectivity will help open Africans up to the realization that societal relationship transcends blood and tribe. The new sense of humanism is global. It is not one based on feeling but rational discourse intended to dissect and disclose without prejudice, the truth about ones neighbour. This new method of intersubjectivity allows for a smooth and rapid transformation of society in contemporary terms. Thus, while interpenetrability explores the human spiritual capacity, intersubjectivity explores the human rational capacity. We can transcend this divide by moving to the level of transcendentalism. At this level, the human spiritual and rational capacities are harnessed for a true national and global development.
A second major blemish of the principle of interpenetrability is that it allows for the attitude of syncretism. This attitude of mind has become injurious to the existence of contemporary Africans. In the traditional setting, syncretism allowed for the blossoming of a genuine pluralistic world outlook. Members of each African community had the freedom to participate in the worship of as many deities as possible among the collection of the pantheon of gods and goddesses. There was also no harm in consulting as many deities as possible to gather clear understanding of a particular ailment or problem. But this was purely within the purview of African thought process. In the contemporary era, alien intrusion into African thought system has brought about other serious challenges that border on the question of African identity. Unfortunately, Africans suffer from the trauma of dissociated psyches and are in no position to squarely deal with the problem of loss of identity. Consequently, syncretism, which allowed for pluralism and humanism to blossom in the ancient African communities, has in the contemporary era, become a major problem. Africans now lead the life of self-abandonment as we pursue separate religio-cultural and ideological routes (Mecca, Jerusalem, Rome, Moscow, London, Washington, Beijing, Tokyo, etc) “as if to make a separate peace with chaos” (Anyanwu, 1981, 373). Incapable of turning our misfortune around, we (Africans) seem to have accepted our decadent situation as God ordained. With the erosion of self-esteem and confidence, we now live a life of self-recrimination or at best sing praises of our glorious past. From the foregoing, it is evident that the departure from syncretism is absolutely necessary. Africans have to first master a particular system from which we can then proceed to integrate other systems. We must be prudent and wise on how we easily open up and gullibly swallow the doctrines from other cultures without scrutiny. The mastery of African thought system should inevitably be the point from which we embark upon the project of integrating the values of other thought systems.
