Western Africanist scholarship inherited a Hegelian grid of interpretation that denied African rationality

Evidence

In modern scholarship, Africa has been largely studied, understood and explained according to Western grids of interpretation. This is widely known as “Eurocentric paradigm.” It is a colonial and neo-colonial view of the world with a tinge of Darwinian racial hierarchy. I have termed this a “Hegelian paradigm” insofar as Hegel provided a systematic articulation of the Eurocentric idea of Africa in his philosophy of world history. It is the ultimate expression of “manufactured barbarism.” Africa, according to Hegel, is an unhistorical part of the world – black, primitive, savage, bereft of logic, rationality and morality since the dawn of humanity. By contrast, Tempels attempted a different reading of Africa inspired by his study of Kiluba language and the African culture of the people among whom he lived for many years. This way of looking at the world from the point of view of African people is what I refer to as the “Bumuntu Paradigm.” — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 647

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the Eurocentric/Hegelian paradigm vs. Bumuntu paradigm dichotomy that structures the whole essay.
• XREF: Connects to the wider African philosophy critique of ethnophilosophy and Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of History; also links to Tempels scholarship context. — connects to: Hegelian thought framed Africa as outside history to justify colonial supremacy. — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists:…, 37; Hegel’s philosophy constructed Africa as historyless to justify European conquest — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists:…, 39