A Critical Analysis of the Mytho-Reality Complexity of the Azanian Nation
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Azanism: A Critical Analysis of the Mytho-Reality Complexity of the Azanian Nation Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades an der Fakultaet Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Fachbereich Sozialwissenschaften der Universitaet Hamburg Vorgelegt von: Raul Guevara Diaz October 2009 Angaben der Gutachter Erste Gutachter: Zweitgutachterin Professor Dr. Cord Jakobeit Prof. Dr. Marienne Pieper Institut fuer Politikwissenschaft, Institut fuer Soziologie, Allende-Platz 1, Allende-Platz 1, 20146 Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Deutschland Deutschland Datum der letztzen muendlichen Pruefung 19 Mai, 2011 1 I. INTRODUCTION Substantial amount of academic literature in the field of social sciences (specialized in ethnic and nationalist politics) has dealt considerably with both the colonial and post-colonial aspects of the social and political history of Africa, and undeniably the conventional wisdom about Africa‘s political landscape should be best characterized as enduring instability. Two main factors, namely the role of colonialism and the [supposed] heterogeneity of the society, are considered crucial to explaining such a disturbing socio-political scenario. As would be expected most concern scholars and authors in this field have dealt with the general political situation in Africa within the modern paradigm of territorial nation-states. In other words, most theories of ethnic and nationalist politics have dealt with Africa‘s political instability within the formal context of the national state system (or statism). Even those who have attempted to explore the possibility of an integrated or homogeneous social growth or identity formation prior to indigenous Africans encounter with colonialism have often done so within that modern paradigm of statism. Hence, unsurprisingly, conventional wisdom espoused specifically by agents of colonialism/pseudo-nationalism tends to consider Africa‘s different dialects or linguistic groups as constituting ethnic and/or national categories in their own right. While such traditional approaches to analysing Africa‘s social history might be appealing to formal political requirements, they are in themselves disturbing in that they tend to fuel or incinerate the enduring instability characteristic of African politics today. This in turn prompts such reasonably and urgent question(s) as: whether, prior to Africans encounter with political colonialism, the local population had, at least, in its documented social history, never experienced any form of blanket socio-cultural order that could qualify them as constituting an ethno-cultural national community? It must be noted, first, that by taking into account the social history of pre-colonial/political Africa, this doctoral research does not intend to reduce Africans encounter with colonialism to Western Europe‘s occupation of Africa from the 17th to the 20th century but shall be including much early colonial encounters, as with ―Hyksos‖ [partial] military occupation of ―Lower Egypt‖ in the period between eighteenth and seventeenth century B.C.E and so forth. Although the exact period of the Hyksos conquest and occupation of Ancient Egypt remains contested, I share the calendar proposed by Martin Bernal in Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (1991) on Hyksos arrival in Egypt; but, unlike Bernal and some Afrocentric scholars, I not only consider foreigners arrival in [what is now] Africa recent, but shall be arguing that the only role such political outsiders or colonial agents played in the indigenous culture was its destruction—the 2 most recent of which was ―the politicized destruction of the nose of the Sphinx (supposedly either by Napoleon in 1798 or Mohammed Saim el-Dahr in 1378.‖1 Another reason for preferring Bernal‘s approach to the Hyksos‘ role in Egypt is his position that they introduced the Semitic language(s) into the previously ―Kushitic Egypt.‖ So, while I share the views of those scholars who, as will be shown later, agree that the wealth of cultural relics—i.e. the ruins of the cultural institutions of dynastic Egypt, Zimbabwean ruins etc.—that now spread across Africa was primarily an indigenous culture initiative (with later external politicized culture meddlings), I also differ with most on the subject for following those who uphold the thesis of a convergent/homogeneous culture growth for the indigenous population as a whole. The prior existence of such a blanket socio-cultural order should serve to stimulate contemporary debate about the national phenomenon in general and with reference to African politics in particular. Before we turn to the structure of this dissertation thesis, it is important to first ponder briefly on the methodology as this will give us an overview of some of the major themes to be discussed or the unfamiliar terminologies that will be used in this research. Indeed, as with most previous social sciences doctoral researches, the originality of this particular dissertation lies in its attempt to analytically establish a homogeneous ethno-cultural national consciousness for the indigenous Africans prior to their encounter with colonialism. Consequently, the concept of ―Azanism‖ invoked or introduced in this work should serve as an ideological premise for such a homogeneous national culture, if there had been any as later arguments tend to suggest. Thus, methodologically, this research will be largely ―analytical‖—that is, analysing not only traditional academic literature on the subject of ethnic and nationalist politics, but also local myths, legends and oral narratives attributed to local culture institutions—such as Hiku-Ptah, Manfour/Menēfre (Greek Memphis), Thibe/Thebes, Napata, Meroē, and Bunkper etc.—with the aim of identifying signs of ethnic or cultural convergence that would have transcended Africa‘s conventional linguistic differences had later political interventions not interrupted its natural growth. In this sense, the literature to be used for this research will be of diverse sources. Like the concept of Azanism, the closely related concept of Azania should also be used for such an authentically derived ethno-cultural/national community prior to African politics. In any event, because of the mythological origin of the Azanian concept, it would be appropriate to explore it in detail in the section reserved specifically for the ―Critical Analysis of the Mytho-reality Complexity of 1 Hans-Christian Huf , 2002. Sphinx: Geheimnisse der Geschichte-Von Spartacus bis Napoleon. Muenchen, 80- 84. 3 the Azanian Nation.‖ For our present purpose (introduction), it suffices to maintain that Azania is used here to represent an ethno-cultural national community of the Bantu- Ethiopians prior to colonial African politics. Hiku-Ptah, from which Aigyptos (Egypt) is derived, was originally used for the Grand culture institutions in honour of the soul of Ptah; while Manfour/Menēfre (or Greek Memphis) was the capital city of [what] Egyptologists generally consider to be the First Egyptian Dynasty founded by Min (the Menes of Herodotus). Martin Bernal for his part states in his ―Black Athena Writes Back…” that ‗the name translated as ―Memphis‖ was Hkpt, from the Egyptian Ht kЗ Pth (―House of the ka, spirit of Ptah‖), the religious name of the city, from which, by extension to the whole country, the Greek Aigyptos and our ―Egypt‖ are derived‘(2001: 304). Most Egyptologists also agree that Ancient Egyptians called their nation ―Kem or Cham,‖ meaning black (some would say after the black soil of the Nile valley). However, unlike conventional views, this work derives both Cham and Manfour/Menēfre (Memphis and its founder Min) from a Bantu-Ethiopian language called Moar (with its speakers known as Moab(s)) spoken today in North and North-western Africa. Mōb generally stands for mouth, so Moar simply means the people of words or language. ―Cham‖ in Moar generally stands for ancestor; so there is Cham-Ba (male ancestor) or Cham-Po (female ancestor), while Manfou(i)r/menēfre has the mythological equivalence of infinite phenomenon, Moab definition of life. ‗Maann‘, in essence, means phenomenon while ‗Fou(i)n‘ is derived from Fou(i)r, respiration. Manfouir is sometimes also used by this group to represent ultimate- freedom. Accordingly, total freedom and life (in its eternal manifestation) are synonymous. ‗Min‘, the founder of Memphis, in Moar is a demonstration of a first person simply meaning me. However, with this group the demonstration is often accompanied by a gesture with the demonstrator pointing either his finger to (or placing the hand on) the chest—as do the so- called Bushmen in the Kalahari when greeting—when claiming credit for, say, an extraordinary act or achievement, especially when such an act is a contested one. If anything, C.A. Diop argues in his ―African Origins of Civilization: Myth or Reality‖ that ‗only the indigenous population/Blacks were privileged in serving the cult of the god Min‘ (1974: 147). Egyptologists generally agree today that Thibé/Thebes (Karnak/Luxor) was central to the indigenous cultural institutions of Hiku-Ptah and Manfouir; and similarly, Napata and Meroē are also generally considered to have been local settlements culturally affiliated to the Ethiopian Kingdom or later Dynastic Egypt. On the other hand, the culture symbolism of Bunkper (―Old River‖) seems rather unfamiliar to conventional academia, but popular among the elderly of the Moabs. Interestingly, this 4 particular indigenous group not only continue to worship the Sun-god today, who they call Hyen-Nu/Hyeru