Praising Bantu ontology masks the destruction of Bantu society by segregation.
Evidence
I apologize for this long quotation, but it permits me to bring out some possibilities of black men’s mistakes. Alioune Diop, for example, in his introduction to La philosophic bantoue, remarks that Bantu ontology knows nothing of the metaphysical misery of Europe. The inference that he draws from this is none the less dangerous: … Be careful! It is not a matter of finding Being in Bantu thought, when Bantu existence subsists on the level of nonbeing, of the imponderable. It is quite true that Bantu philosophy is not going to open itself to understanding through a revolutionary will: But it is precisely in that degree in which Bantu society, being a closed society, does not contain that substitution of the exploiter for the ontological relations of Forces. Now we know that Bantu society no longer exists. And there is nothing ontological about segregation. Enough of this rubbish. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 652
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to chapter material on the two education paths and how locally educated vs externally educated intellectuals produce differing narratives about African culture. — connects to: Claiming force equals being makes the Bantu ontology a mere tautology; The Bantu’s deepest desire was recognition, not material improvement, under colonialism.; Bantu ontology is holistic and unified through vital force, transcending Western dualisms — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 812 (+4 more)
- SEED: Angle: how celebration of a destroyed culture’s ontology functions as a conservative, anti-revolutionary move that legitimizes the present impasse.
Broader Connections
- Bantu Philosophy challenged the colonial paternalism underpinning mission methods
#responds-to(0.70) - Unwritten oral traditions can be destroyed more totally than literate cultures
#qualifies(0.40) — , The Rod and the Child, 1479