AFRICISM
A Response to Semantic Racism
by
Aloysius M. Lugira
PREFATORY NOTE
Experience in
Moenchengladbach
In 1959 I traveled from Fribourg in Switzerland to
Moenchengladbach near Duesseldorf in Germany.
There I stopped to pay a courtesy visit to a schoolmate and a director
of a Kindergarten in that town. As I
arrived, by taxi, at the school, the kids were joyously playing in the court
yard. As the taxi stopped the kids became
curiously attentive to know what was going on.
I stepped out of the car. The
kids had a shock of their life. They
had never seen in person, a person who looked like me. Terrified they run away into the school
building where they hid in every nook and corner. Embarrassed, my schoolmate and now director of this kindergarten approached
and greeted me with all sorts of apologies.
As we chatted one of the little girls approached from the hiding. As if she was affected by Rudolf Otto’s element of the tremendousness [1950:12-40] in
combination with a state of being fascinated,
the little girl stood hiding behind the director. In comforting the director out of embarrassment, I told her about
my experience when a little boy in our village back in Africa: “A European missionary would arrive. His appearance with a very long beard,
riding a motorcycle we came to know as pikipiki
because of the sound it
made, would get us into excitement similar to what
has affected the children.” Meanwhile I
caught sight of the little girl behind the director. I gently stretched out my hand to her. She grabbed it and snappily pulled her hand out of my hand,
looked at her hand and exclaimed in German that “Der mann ist schwarz aber nicht schmutzig, = the man is black, but
he is not filthy”. With this
exclamation the ice was broken. All the
kids came out of hiding. They all shook
my hand and we became friends.
Africism: A Response to Semantic Racism
By daring to sense, to judge and to act with regard
to the stranger, the children were encountering for the first time, they gained
knowledge that enabled them gainfully to feel comfortable with the
situation. Africism: A Response to
Semantic Racism, is the topic of this presentation. Africism:
A Response to Semantic Racism is not a topic one is accustomed to. Dare to face it, sense it, judge it, act on
it, the expected result will be additional knowledge towards the appropriate
sensitization regarding human diversity
in general, and religious diversity
in particular.
It is the intention of this presentation to approach
the topic of our concern in an interdisciplinary way. By definitional description, while semantics is involved in meaning, racism implies a belief in the
inherent superiority of one’s own breed and its presumed right to domination
over others. Africism may be broadly
defined as the system of African religious beliefs, ritual practices, and
thought concerning superhuman beings and the world. The semantic intricacies remedially involved in Africism as they
are statically embedded in racism, call for some reflection intended to generate
some healing knowledge.
For that reason let us now proceed with the
following five points.
These will include:
1. The Premise of Inequality
2. The Religious Genesis of Semantic Racism
3. The Need for a Consolidated Name for African Autochthonal Religion
4. Africism
5. Appreciation and Recommendations
I. THE
PREMISE OF INEQUALITY
After an extensive research and teaching in the
African Great Lakes region, Professor Jacques J. Maquet wrote an
Anthropological classic titled The Premise of Inequality in Ruanda: A
Study of Political Relations in a Central African Kingdom. By hindsight one would say that Prof.
Maquet in 1961 had hit the real nail of
the underlying cause of the predicament which is currently bedeviling the
Central African region.
Conclusion out of Maquet’s observations lead to the
identification of the premise of Inequality as being at the root of the racist
human condition in Ruanda and
Burundi. Maquet, identifies the concept
of the premise in terms of “a
principle in the logical order from which a set of conclusions may be
deduced”. [1961:160]. Consequently the premise of inequality
reflects the configuration of the superior
and of the inferior.
In terms of human existence, what is behind premises
of inequality are considerations which entertain situations of superiority complex versus inferiority complex. The substantiation of this is what may be
observed from some geographical exemplification. For the case of Europe, Edward B. Tylor in his Primitive Culture [1874] advances the
example of the Aryan race the
contemporarization of which lands in ideas of Herrenvolk which culminates
into Aryanism in the sense, according to Oxford English Dictionary, of “a theory
asserting the cultural and racial superiority of those of Aryan descent.” By an Indo-European connection one
encounters the case of India involved in the caste grading, into, first, the
Brahmins, the nobles and highly regarded priests, second, the Kshatriyas, the
chieftains and their warriors considered to be near the apex of the
society; third, the Vaishyas,
considered to be the commoners and merchants, regarded as the subservient to
the two upper classes; fourth, the
Shudras, not considered to be full members of the society and generally held
the position of slaves or servants.
In Africa, the effects of the premise of inequality
are reflected in the inherently and semantically racist terminology of
Tutsi-Hutu-Twa. In the case of Rwanda,
Maquet highlights the formulations of the inequality premise. The Tutsi are at the top by birth as the
Hutu and the Twa are regarded, by birth, as respectively, second and third
class members of Rwandese society, who are supposed to be at the service of the
Tutsi. And as Maquet summarized the
eight theorems in which he expounds the Rwandese situation, he states: “Thus a dependent attitude in hierarchical
relationship favours the extension to all social relations of utilitarian usage
of language.” [1961:170].
Colonialism
and Evolutionism
In Africa, beside the case of Rwanda, and long
before it, the premise of inequality became exacerbated by the Roman influence
and the influence of evolutionism.
Round about the 3rd century B.C.E., Hannibal (247-183 B.C.E.) an
African general and military strategist of high repute crossed the Alps with a
herd of elephants used as Armored Personnel Carriers. He showed the City State of Rome the threat of its life. This evokes some of the instances about
Africa which Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) proverbially refers to [1991:VIII, 28,
7] in a way that Pliny the Elder (B.C.E. 23-79), picks up in forming the
Greco-Roman adage: “Semper aliquid novi Africam offere =
There is always something new out of Africa”.
[1940:VIII, 17]. By inverse
invasion, under the promptings of Cato’s (234-149 B.C.E.) vituperative
utterances, as reported by Plutarch that Delenda
est Carthago = Carthage must be destroyed [1914:II, 27] the City of
Carthage, Hannibal’s home base was invaded by Scipio Africanus the Younger
(185-129 B.C.E.). This Scipio Africanus
the Younger, besieged and destroyed Carthage.
This tragedy saw, as factually reported, the real inception of
colonialism to which Africa was subjected, now, for about 2000 years.
Colonialism is a system by which a nation enforces
its authority over other people. Colonialism
is cognate to racism in the sense that its promoters are geared to maintaining
superiority over the nations and peoples they colonialize under the
characterization of tribal entities. In
bolstering semantic racism colonialism finds itself in association with
evolutionism. In a variety of ways
evolutionism, turns out to be a base of the religious genesis of rhetorically
semantic racism.
II. THE
RELIGIOUS GENESIS OF SEMANTIC RACISM
At the root of the religious genesis of semantic
racism is evolutionism. Evolutionism
being addressed here is not necessarily the theological evolutionism as
expounded by the Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin [1971]. The evolution of the present concern, to use the British term of
origination, is Social Anthropology. It
is the evolutionism, as is aptly summarized by James Waller and Mary Edwardsen
[1987] which is steeped in the pioneering efforts of Charles Robert Darwin’s (1809-1882) On the
Origin of Species, [1993] in general, and elements of The Natural Selection [1975] in particular. It is the evolutionism as conspicuously
influenced by Herbert Spencer (1802-1903) in his Principles of Sociology [1877] and in his First Principles [1890].
Briefly described, evolutionism is a term employed
to designate anthropological theories that attempt to account for the genesis
and development of religion. Operating
on the basis of Darwin and Spencer who viewed the development of the natural
and social world as a movement from
lower to higher forms and from the simple to complex, Edward Burnett Tylor,
in his anthropological endeavors as an armchair
scholar distinguished himself as the champion of evolutionism. He has so much influenced the scene of
religious studies to the extent of poisoning it with rhetorical and semantic
racism. In his influential two volumed Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy,
Religion, Language, Art and Custom,Tylor borrowed the term animism from a German physician by the
name of Stahl [1718] and turned it into a center piece of his studies on
religion.
At one time Tylor refers to animism as being the rudimentary definition of religion. At other time, he considers it as the
philosophy of religion And in chapter
eleven of his cited work, volume one he repeatedly rubs it in by referring to animism as being the religion of lower races. [1874: passim]. From this, it becomes evident that none of the many names that
disparage African religions has not been somewhat affected by the misguided
concept of animism.
III. THE
NEED OF A CONSOLIDATED NAME FOR AFRICAN AUTOCHTONAL RELIGIONS
The
Multiplicity of Names
From what has been touched upon so far one is made
conscious of the influence of evolutionism in establishing the multiplicity of
names for religions of the land of Africa.
For many years religions of Africa have become victims of name
calling. While some names were geared
to marginalizing African Autochthonal Religions, others in a racist way, were
intended to accentuate the differences presupposed to exist among human beings
concomitantly going hand in hand with paradoxes which regard the human race to
be one. While some names are
terminologically coined to promote the status
quo, others are phraseologically framed to bear significations that make
the situation look more confused than before.
A Ugandan proverb has it, that, “Sserinnya bbi lissa nnyini lyo = a bad
name disadvantages its bearer.” Calling
African religions by bad names does not affect only religions, it does also in
a racist way affect the people who practice those religions. Such names, terminologically, include: Kafir, Fetishism, Juju, Grigri, Animism,
etc.
Depreciatory
Terminology
Kafir,
Fetishism, Juju, Grigri
Kafir, is a term which was introduced to Africa by
Arabic speaking first outsiders to reach the Eastern African coast. This was used to say that the Autochthonal
inhabitants of that region were infidels, with all pejorative meanings behind
such a characterization. Europeans who
arrived later, picked this designation up, popularized it to themselves and as
Godfrey Callaway [1905 ] has indicated,
as well as has been pointed out by Lugira [1981:18] localized it to the extent of naming a good chunk of that region
by the name of Kaffraria to mean what they considered to be the land of people
without faith. This in addition to
colonialism and slave trade, set the pace of the racist stereotyping
designations resulting into many disparaging names of African religions.
In the world of scholarship Fetishism was introduce
as the name by which to designate the religions both of ancient Egypt and the
religions of Africa south of the Sahara with special reference to West African
religions. To fulfill his scholarly
ambitions, drawing on reports of early travelers, Charles de Brosses in 1760
wrote what may be regarded as one of the first academic books to be written on
the religions of Africa south of the Sahara.
In his On the Worship of Fetish
Gods [1760], de Brosses concludes that the religion of Africa is
Fetishism. Fetish a derivation from the
Portuguese language stands for a ritual object. However, ritual objects are not gods, as de Brosses wishes to
understand them. In promoting fetishism
as a religion, de Brosses owes much of his inspiration to Hume’s Natural History of Religion. And as he claims that fetishism was a
universal stage of human religion, he contributes some assistance to Auguste
Comte’s formulation of the idea that the earliest of the three states of man,
regarding religion, is the theological state, which could further be subdivided
into the fetishist, the polytheist and the monotheist stages. [1875].
Consequently, as we shall note later, fetishism is made to substantiate
what Edward B. Tylor repetitively refers to as being the religion of lower
races [1874: passim].
Meanwhile, what Noel Q. King observes about
witchcraft, fetish, and juju can be said about many other frivolously coined
terms including grigri, for African religion.
He suggests that: “I have placed
fellowship with the divine, sacrifice, and the descent of the spirit at the
heart of African religion. What of
witchcraft, fetish, and juju? Silly use
and emphasis of words is offensive to many Africans, but to many Westerners
they are central to African religion. Juju was a pidgin word used in some
parts of the west coast to refer to the whole of ‘native superstitions’. It can be dismissed at once.”
[1986:70]. As these previously used
names were identified as being misnomers, Edward B. Tylor hastened, in the name
of scholarship, to replace those names with Animism a coinage he
unceremoniously borrowed from Georg Ernest Stahl [1737].
Animism
To fathom the influence of the concept of Animism as
proposed by Tylor, particularly both within and without the academia, one can
easily conjecture its impact in light of the means of its primary
propagation. The major propaganda
machinery of this idea is Tylor’s Primitive
Culture [1874] a publication which has already been referred to above. Viewed in connection with one of the most
influential academic institutions, the influence of Primitive Culture is
reflected in its presence within the conglomeration of the College Library of
Harvard University.
In Widener, the flagship library of Harvard
University, there are ten copies of Primitive
Culture. While Tozzer Library of
Anthropology, Francis Countway Library of Medicine, Hilles Radcliffe Library
and Lamont Library have two copies of the book each; Andover Harvard Theological Library, the Law School Library,
Biblioteca Bevenson Library, Robbins Philosophy Library hold one copy of the
book each. There are two microfilms of
this book in this library system. In
all there are 24 copies of Primitive
Culture in the Harvard University library system.
The influence of Primitive Culture emanating from this
institution is not reflected only in the holdings of the book found in the
variety of libraries mentioned above.
The intensity of its presence may also be noticed through the presence
in a variety of editions. These
editions extend from the first edition of 1871 to the edition of 1970. There is one copy of the first edition (1871) and a copy of the second edition
(1873) at Harvard University. While the
third edition (1874) is represented by 2 copies of the book, the fourth (1877),
the fifth (1883), the sixth (1889) and the seventh (1920) editions are
represented by one copy each. The
University library system holds two copies of the eighth (1924) and ninth
(1958) editions. The latest edition
(1970) of Primitive Culture held by
Harvard is in a single copy. [Hollis: Harvard’s
Online Catalog]
With regard to the
religiously and semantically racist subtleties, the encompassing influence of
Animism was this year demonstrated in a report which appeared in the Boston
Globe on the Sudan. Writing on the
current political situation, among other things, Colum Lynch reported
that: “A new rebel alliance comprising
of Muslim, Christian and animist insurgents spent the past week seizing key
towns along Sudan’s eastern border.” [January 19, 1997 on page A2]. Trying to be constructive, the writer of
this presentation sent a letter to the Editor of the Boston Globe pointing out
the semantically racist intricacies in the report. To this day the letter has not appeared in the Boston Globe; nor has the writer been graced with an acknowledgement
of receipt of the letter. Here the
semantic issue is on the phrase “Muslim, Christian, and animist”. Note the initial capital “M” in Muslim and
the initial capital “C” in Christian.
Compare the first and the second word of the phrase and their initial
capital letters with the initial small letter “a” in animist. Base the comparison of the three terms on
grammatical, rhetorical, semantic and logical principles. By the comparative process of this
presentation, the conclusion clearly tallies with what Edward B. Tylor
profusely indoctrinates that Animism is the religion of “lower races”.
Animism as propounded by
Tylor is a pre-conceptionally perceptive name which is entangled in a variety
of semantic ensnarements. Tylor in one
way suggests that Animism stands for a minimum definition of Religion which he
amplifies as being “the belief in Spiritual Beings” [1874: I, 426].
This being the case, he makes it clear, in a way, that would today be
regarded as trying to be politically correct.
He indicates that he has deliberately avoided the use of the term
“Spiritualism” [1874: I, 426] which if modified into Spiritism would have
better been in consonance with the African situation. In between Tylor declares that
“I propose here, under the name of Animism, to investigate the
deep-lying doctrine of Spiritual Beings, which embodies the very essence of
Spiritualistic as opposed to Materialistic philosophy [1874: I, 426].
As if he is drawing a conclusion, Tylor asserts that “Animism is, in
fact, the ground work of the philosophy of religion, from that of savages up to
that of civilized men.” [1874: I,
426]. Landing himself into semantic
racism Tylor declares that “Animism characterizes tribes very low in the scale
of humanity.” [1874: I, 426]. He then unabashed and repetitively in his
book, proceeds to accentuate and punctuate that Animism is the religion of
lower races [1874: passim] For that reason
this presentation wonders whether Animism is an expression of semantic racism par excellence! Isn’t it time to erase it out of meaningful
seasoned and serious religious discourse?
However, the influence of
Tylor’s perception of Animism is so perversive, as unwittingly to involve
written statements, in 1994, like the one, salva
reverentia, found in Crossing the
Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul II.
It is stated that:
“At this point it would be
helpful to recall all the primitive
religions, the animistic religions
which stress ancestor worship. It seems
that those who practice them are particularly close to Christianity, and among
them, the Church’s missionaries also find it easier to speak a common
language. Is there, perhaps, in this
veneration of ancestors a kind of preparation for the Christian faith in the
Communion of Saints, in which all believers-whether living or dead-form a
single community, a single body? And
faith in the Communion of Saints is, ultimately, faith in Christ, who alone is
the source of life and of holiness for all.
There is nothing strange, then, that the African and Asian animists
would become believers in Christ more easily than followers of the great religions of the Far East. [1994:82]
Despite its apparent
perversiveness Animism is a loaded characterization of African Religions which
ought to be discarded.
Ambivalent Phraseology
Among designations of
African Religions are names which have been coined in forms of phrases. Most familiar of such names include: Primitive Religions, African Tribal Religions,
African Native Religions, African Primal Religions, Religions of Pre-Literary
Societies. These names have variously
been popularized either by missionaries or by anthropologist or by colonialist
administrators, followed by their African counterparts. Given the colonialist condition under which
these names have been framed, these names share one thing in common. And this is their qualificative objectives
which bear the meaning of being less than.
Such a situation evokes premises of inequality which are concomitant to
semantic racism. Hence the inadequacy
born by those phraseological names of the religions of the land of Africa calls
for a rethinking.
The depreciatory terminology
as well as the ambivalent phraseology in naming the religions of Africa have
come about as a result of the fact that Africa has suffered more than other
continents. For centuries Africa has
been considered as a quarry for slaves.
From a religious consideration, Africans as cited in Lugira’s From Fetishism to Africism, were
regarded as incompetent of conceiving the idea of God. [1996: 6]. In some case constitutionally semantic
racism would consider an ancestrally African person to be only three-fifths of
a human being. Such a situation was
even aggravated by a Judeo-Christian doctrine which, without theological
foundation regarded Africans as the accursed sons of Ham. Walbert Buehlmann notes that: “At Vatican Council I, a group of missionary
bishops proposed to compose a prayer for black Africa, beseeching God to free
that continent at last from the curse of Ham.”
[1976: 150-151] Signs of such prayers being heard seem to
have vigorously started appearing on the horizon in 1953, as projected in the
Papal Encyclicals edited by Claudia Carlen [1981].
In 1953 Pope Pius XII, by an
Encyclical letter Evangelii Praecones
called for the Africanization of Christianity.
With this development a new disposition evolved into steps that led to
the Vatican Council II, the English version documents of which were edited by
Walter M. Abbott, S.J. and Joseph Gallagher [1966: 656-671]. By the
Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, known
as the Nostra Aetate, the Catholic
Church exhibited a change to a new leaf with regard to African autochthonal
religions. Having mentioned by name
religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, Nostra Aetate makes reference to African
autochthonal religions in terms like:
“Likewise, other religions to be found everywhere strive variously to
answer the restless searchings of the human heart by proposing ‘ways’, which
consist of teachings, rules of life and sacred ceremonies.” [1966:
662].
“The Catholic Church rejects
nothing which is true and holy in these religions. She looks with sincere respect upon those ways of conduct and of
life, those rules and teaching which, though differing in many particulars from
what she holds and sets forth, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that trust
which enlightens all men.” [1966:662].
In preparation of this declaration, Bishops from Africa, and scholars of
religion like Franziskus, Cardinal Koenig, Archbishop of Vienna, asked that
mention be made of a number of religions in Africa. Given the multiplicity of the manifestations of autochthonal
religions in Africa, the impossibility of enumerating and mentioning names of all
autochthonal religions of Africa posed a difficulty that could not be easily
and appropriately surmounted.
In search of an appropriate
name for African religions, Frances Cardinal Arinze, a Nigerian born, President
of the Vatican Secretariat for religions other than Christianity, in a letter he
wrote to all bishops of Africa has acted as if he was officializing the phrase
African Traditional Religion as the name by which to call African autochthonal
religions. However, he did not do this
without reservation when he says that, “There is no agreement as to what name
to call this religion. Some have
suggested animism. Others use the
plural and say African Traditional Religions.
In this paper I keep the singular and say African Traditional Religion.
(ATR),” [1990:221]
Representing the position of
the World Council of Churches, John Taylor [1976:3-4] enumerates what he
characterizes as unacceptable terms in naming African autochthonal
religions. He includes terms like: pre-literate, primitive, pagan, animistic,
primordial, native, ethnic, tribal and traditional. Representatives of the WCC have promoted the phraseology of
African Primal Religion as an interim name for African Religions. John Taylor explains the basis of this
choice in the following way: “ ‘Primal’
is therefore intended to avoid objectionable or inaccurate alternatives, or
judgemental words (whether derogatory or laudatory), and to suggest both the
possession of basic religious forms and factual historical relations to other
religious systems. While we may not yet
have discovered an ideal term and while there must be a continuing search for
improved terminology, this word seems less objectionable than others, is coming
into more common usage, and is capable of assuming the meanings for which we
require a comprehensive term.” [Taylor 1976:4].
What has just been reflected
on above depicts Francis Cardinal Arinze on one side and John Taylor on the
other, as religiously groping for a comprehensive and a consolidating name with
which to address the autochthonal religions of Africa. Reading the signs of time Pope Pius XII in
1953 in his Evangelii Praecones,
proactively advocated for the localization of Christianity in Africa. This advocacy did not get confined only to
the religious affair. It ignited an
enlivening fire whose glow and warmth carried the process of Africanization
both politically and religious into irreversible African
self-determination. Maulana Karenga has
it opportune when he describes the second of Nguzo Saba (the Seven Principles)
of Kwanzaa. He refers to it in Kiswahili
as Kujichagulia, that is to say Self-Determination. By this, meaning: “To
define ourselves, and speak for ourselves instead of being defined, named,
created for and spoken for by others.” [1988:52]. With this in mind African Religions have to be given a real name
for what it is, and not according to how it is, and/or how one wishes it to
be. To that end the position of this
paper is to propose a name by way and means of a geo-ontological approach. Herein after for the purpose of
agglutinational fluidity the version of geontological
will be applied instead of geo-ontological.
The Geontological Approach of Identification
So far the designations applied in naming the autochthonal religions of Africa
are a result of evolutionistic approach of identification. As this approach appears to have failed to
produce a comprehensive and consolidated identification of African religions,
which is free from semantic racism, it is the position of this presentation to
consider African Religions in a new key by proposing a geontological approach
as a way and means of coining a name for the aboriginal religions of Africa.
One speaks about geopolitics in regard to the
‘relationship’ of political affairs seen and considered in the light of
geographical circumstances. One can
also speak about geontology in connection with ‘being’ as seen in the light of
geographical circumstances. It is
hereby proposed that the religions of the land of Africa, that is the religions
which originate in the continent of Africa may in descriptive phraseology,
accurately and geontologically be designated as African Autochthonal
Religions. One could also be of the
opinion that a shorter phrase like African Religions is a better designation. It should be noted that while ‘African’ in
the latter designation accentuates pertainance to Africa, ‘Autochthonal’, in
the former designation, emphasizes being of Africa. The following lines will summarize the significance of the
adjective ‘autochthonal’ in the phrase African Autochthonal Religion.
African
Autochthonal Religion
Basically, African Autochthonal Religions forms a
geontological phraseology whose thrust is geared to playing the role of an
antecedent to a terminologically consolidated designation of the religions of
Africa with amplifications of a religious unity in diversity. Etymologically the adjective ‘autochthonal’
is derived from the Greek prefix auto-,
and a Greek root word -chthon- as
well as the Latin suffix -alis as
Anglicized into -al. Auto- has the meaning of self, one’s own,
independently by oneself, self-motivating, self-contained; -chthon- means the earth, land, soil,
ground; -al modifies the root word to signify characteristics. In short something autochthonal refers to
something whose being of what it is, is formed in the place where it is found
and/or in place where aboriginally it may be traced. African autochthonal religion, therefore, means a religion which
originates in Africa independently of any other continent.
Geontologically descriptive, African Autochthonal
religions can be applied both essentially and existentially. While the first mode of application allows
the usage of the phraseological name in singular form, the second application
allows it in the plural form. The
singular expresses the unity in essence, of the religion, of Africans in
Africa. The plural indicates the
plurality, in manifestation, of the religions of Africans in Africa. While there are many names expressive of the
manifestations of African Autochthonal Religions in Africa, it is the name
expressive of the essence of African Autochthonal Religions that we are in
need. After one has phraseologically
checked on the geontological existence of the religions of Africans, one can
terminologically propose a name for those religions. The name proposed is AFRICISM.
AFRICISM
AFRICA AND
AFRICISM
The specific concerns of this presentation are
misnomers that have disadvantageously affected the religions of Africa. But before addressing Africism as the
appropriate name of the discovery it is important to be clear about its
antecedent which is Africa. Africa is
the name of a continent. What is the
origin of the name Africa?
In the first century CE, Flavius Jospehus, a Jewish
historian advances an opinion that it was the descendants of Abraham, Japhras
and Apheras, by his wife Katura, their names to the city of Aphra and the
country of Africa. [1930: I, 239-242].
This assertion seems to be no where clearly and specifically supported
in the book of Genesis. Leo Africanus
suggests that “Festus has the name
Africa to be derived from the Greek word phrike
which means horror or cold and the prefix a-
as a privative particle indicating negation or absence and agglutinantly
forming the word aphrike, meaning
that Africa is a place free from horror and extremities of cold because it lies
open to the heavens and is sandy, dry and desert”. [1660: 13]. On page 121
of the same book, Leo Africanus also suggests that Africa in Arabic is called Iphrichia with the sense of
dividing. That this part of the world
is divided from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, and that it is divided from
Asia by the Nile and the Red Sea.
Prior to opinions so far enunciated about the
origins of the name Africa, to the opinion of this presentation, the name by
the Roman derivation seems to be the most plausible. This may be traced back to the Punic Wars (264-146 B.C.E.). During this period one is made aware of the
existence of a people known as Afri inhabiting the southern Mediterranean
shores around the city of Carthage. The
Punic Wars end by the destruction of Carthage and the annexation of its
territory by Rome. The region becomes a
Roman province. Latin becomes the
official language of the province.
Africa, as it were, is proactively and geontologically coined to designate
the province. The procedure of coining
this name takes the name Afer,
singular, and Afri, plural, by which
the autochthons of this region were known, agglutinates it with the suffix -ca to make a qualificatory
adjective. Africa which is brought together
with the word for land and forms an intelligible phraseology of Africa terra, to mean the land of the
Afri. In his Latin-German Dictionary
under the word Africa, Dr. William Freund notes that “the Romans received this
name from the Carthaginians as designating their country (1850). While the silenced terra in the phrase
Africa terra helps to emphasize the existence of the totality of the continent,
terra incognita, draws attention to
the fact that there is part of the totality of the land which was unknown. But the semantically racist translation
ended by creating what is called the “Dark Continent.” The restricted sense of Africa means the
ancient Roman province. In an extended
sense, by metonymy the name Africa covers the whole quarter of the globe south
of the Mediterranean Sea. The coverage
however, is not only terrestrial, it can also be noted as spiritual. Africa is also understood in the form of
Africus. As such according to a note by
Dr. William Freund in the dictionary mentioned above, the classical world has
known Africus as the god in manifestation of the south west wind. So connected the root of Africus i.e. Afric-
appropriately contributes to the generation of the name Africism.
AFRICISM
The task of this endeavor is to come up with a name
which comprehensively, consolidatively and inclusively names and appropriately
projects the image of Africa’s autochthonal religions. The name Africism is arrived at by an
agglutinative process which is seriously mindful of the semantic implications
of the component parts. Africism
results from agglutinating the suffix -ism
to the root Afric. While the latter component part
geontologically stands for Africa and the people thereof, the suffix -ism in
this case stands for the system of the religions and the world views of
Africa. Grammatically, linguistically,
rhetorically and semantically the suffix -ism connotes some ideas. For the purpose of this presentation, the Oxford English Dictionary expresses the
vital ingredient regarding the suffix -ism in the process of creating a
neologism. About how and when the
suffix is applied OED states that:
“Forming the name of a system of theory or practice, religions, ecclesiastical,
philosophical, political , social, etc., sometimes founded on the name of its
subject or object, sometimes on that of its founder.” Given this premise, Africism, as a Terminology, means: The system of African religious beliefs,
ritual practices and thought concerning superhuman beings and the world. Africism stands for the essence and unity of
African Religions. It helps to
elucidate the unity and diversity of the autochthonal religions of
Africans. It contributes to saving the
African religious condition from the perpetuation of semantic racism.
APPRECIATIONS
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Before these remarks are concluded, it is
appropriate to express some appreciation and recommendations. Let me address these concluding notes to
Boston College.
AHANA
Long before one meditated on a geontological
approach of identification, as this presentation has tried to do, Boston
College did not only meditate or speculate, but did actually put this approach
in action through the inventively imaginative concern of two of its
students. Ten years ago, aiming at
eradicating semantic racism, two Boston College took it upon themselves and did
what Maulama Karenga has rendered in Kiswahili as Kujichagulia. That is, “to define, to name and speak for
ourselves instead of being spoken for by others.” [1988:52]. Creatively Valerie Lewis and Alfred Salesiano
rejected the semantically racist identification. They succeeded in having changed what had been labeled as “Office
of Minority Student Programs” to a geontological acronym of AHANA that stands
for African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American as has been put on record by Donald Brown
[April 13, 1981: 20]. This is an
example of a geontologically objective approach of identification for which
Boston College should be commended.
AFRICAN
STUDIES AT BOSTON COLLEGE
With regard to African Studies at Boston College,
the nineteen thirties stand out to have engendered greater prominence than the
situation is today. Father Joseph John
Williams, S.J. had set a pace which did not only put Boston College in the lime
light of African Studies. The products
of that pace have inspired many African scholars and writers, particularly in
the field of Religious Studies.
As Dunigan has chronicled [1947:269-270], during the
thirties Father Williams was the Directors of the Department of Anthropology at
Boston College, whose work on African Religion caught the attention of his
Africanist peers. As a result he was
appointed to be one of the three representatives of the American
Anthropological Association and the American Council of Learned Societies to
attend the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences
in London during the summer of 1934.
His literary contribution both in Religious Studies and Ethnology to the
congress, did hit headlines. As a
result both the Royal and the American Geographical Societies as well as the
Royal Society of Arts bestowed on him the distinction of being elected as
fellows of those distinguished scholarly bodies.
Even if Father William’s African Studies legacy and
contribution, may today appear as if it is being relegated to the ‘prophet
being no a prophet among his own,’ his Nicolas M. Williams Ethnological
Collection, currently housed at Burns Library, at Boston College, moved the
International Institute of African Languages and Cultures to recognize it,
during his time, to be the only one of its kind in the United States.
Given the updated Mission Statement of Boston
College as approved by the Board of Trustees. [1996 URL: http://infoeagles.bc.edu/cwis/mission.html]
the stated three ways of serving global society gives hope for a future of
African Studies at Boston College. It
is stated that
“Boston
College pursues this distinctive mission by serving
society in three ways:
· by fostering the rigorous
intellectual development and the religious, ethical and personal formation of
its undergraduate, graduate and professional students in order to prepare them
for citizenship, service and leadership in global society;
· by producing nationally and
internationally significant research that advances insight and understanding,
thereby both enriching culture and addressing important societal needs; and
· by committing itself to
advance the dialogue between religious belief and other formative elements of
culture through the intellectual inquiry, teaching and learning, and the
community life that form the University.”
AFRICAN
AMERICAN FOLK
Relative to Africism as a response to semantic
racism a word to African American brothers and sisters may be appropriate. America today, is largely a country of
immigrants whose advantages and successes are reflected in the connectivity
with ancestral geontological heritages.
Eurocentricity carries a good amount of advantages. Under such circumstances peoples’ worth is
valued according to geontologically ancestral backgrounds. Africa is a sleeping giant to which African
Americans are ancestrally so connected that they can hardly disentangle
themselves from it. By accepting to be
part of the process of the re-awakening of Africa, African Americans will be in
position of contributing to the common good for the benefit of all.
TO AFRICANS
With regard to Africism a word to fellow African may
aptly be reflected in Chinua Achebe’s remark [1989:43]. “Needless to say, we (Africans) do have our
own sins and blasphemes recorded against our name. If I were God, I would regard as the very worst our
acceptance-for whatever reason-of racial inferiority. It is too late in the day to get worked up about it to blame
others, much as they may deserve such blame and condemnation. What we need to do is to look back and try
to find out where we went wrong, where the rain began to beat us.”
To avoid proclivities of inferiority as referred to
above by Chinua Achebe’s Hope and
Impediments, to discourage semantic racism, to encourage Africans to name
themselves, the submission and strong recommendation of this presentation for
an essentially geontological name of
the religions and philosophies of the land of Africa, is Africism.
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