The African Difference: Discourses on Africanity and the Relativity of Cultures (review)

The African Difference: Discourses on Africanity and the Relativity of Cultures, by Oyekan Owomoyela. New York: Lang, 1996. xii + 236 pp. ISBN 0-8204-2881-7 paper.

In this thought-provoking collection of essays, Oyekan Owomoyela challenges readers to consider an African-centered philosophical perspective instead of privileging Western knowledges and practices. His departure point is premised on the necessity to mine continental epistemologies and cultures for the development of an intellectual orientation and political policies that directly benefit the needs of African peoples. In particular, Owomoyela takes issue with African Marxists, philosphers, writers, and economists who have looked to the West for models and solutions to problems of development, education, and social change, arguing that "the insistence on the part of African intellectuals on replacing African 'intelligence' with Western 'intelligence' (which is a continuation of collaboration with the colonizers) amounts to the reproduction of the conditions necessary to perpetuate our colonization" (93).

Owomoyela argues for an African-centered perspective through which to imagine alternative practices and policies insisting that immersion in Western language and culture has distracted African intellectuals from developing national identities. They have internalized Western values, including the presumption that there is a necessary corollary between literacy, science, and development. He advocates the need for an official and institutional investment in cultivating indigenous languages that would elevate the status of orality, against the prevailing tendency to privilege literacy and literary creative activity.

Chastising Abiola Irele, Kwesi Wiredu, and Paulin Hountondji for blaming continental economic and political crises on African traditional ways that impede the development of a scientific spirit and, in turn, development, Owomoyela assumes, rather than establishes, the necessity of juxtaposing respect for tradition, a worthy cause, with a search for pragmatic solutions to contemporary problems that necessitates bracketing those customs that are no longer functionally beneficial. In fact, his representation of traditional practices invokes the sentimentality of timelessness
for which an earlier generation of anthropologists have been sharply and correctly critiqued. Indeed, before "the new philosophers," as he calls them, the appeal to cultural particularism and authenticity at the expense of building viable political and economic structures was anticipated by psychiatrist and political theorist Franz Fanon who interpreted this rhetoric as political conservatism that would legitimize corruption on the part of the post-colonial elite. Yet Owomoyela dismisses Fanon as a "deracinated francophone Antillean" (84) whose focus on new nations, rather than ethnicity, language , and original geographical locations, was motivated by a desire to be included in the decolonization process (85).

Owomoyela calls for "the resumption of a distinctly African episteme" (52) rather than European-based theories like Marxism, and insists on a retrospective analysis that draws on ideas from the African past. While there is every reason to support the development of national and continental programs that are tailored to meet the specific needs of contemporary African countries, an Africanist perspective that romanticizes practices and attitudes from pre-colonial Africa is merely inverting, rather than subverting, traditional European stereotypes. Perhaps the weakest discussion centers around gender relations: asserting that the depiction of women in Africa has been deliberately distorted, Owomoyela hypothesizes about the role women occupied in the precolonial era. In his view, differences between men and women are natural, thus the gendered division of labor complements and benefits both sectors. Instances of inequality and abuse of power are attributed to the intervention of colonialism that undermined traditional balance. Using proverbs, rather than citing women's perspectives, the chapter entitled "Gender in Traditional Africa" is a decidedly male-centered perspective. Moreover, the Yoruba-centered focus that characterizes all the essays is most pronounced in this chapter.

Ultimately, if The African Difference is considered as part of a conversation among African scholars, even readers who are not persuaded by Owomoyela's carefully mapped out counter-arguments will find them provocative.

Katya Gibel Azoulay

Katya Gibel Azoulay is with the Africana Studies at Grinnell College in...