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Rethinking the Concept of Race's Conundrums in African Philosophy SCHOOL OF RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY AND CLASSICS Rethinking the Concept of Race’s Conundrums in African Philosophy Ovett Kodilinye Nwosimiri Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy, in the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics. College of Humanities, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg Campus December 2015 Acknowledgements I wish to thank my supervisor Dr Bernard Matolino, under whose supervision this thesis has been completed. Thanks for your professional guidance and constructive suggestions, during the course of this research work. Thanks for carrying me through to the end. I owe my deepest gratitude to my late father, Mr. Felix Nwosimiri, and my mother, Mrs. Mary Nwosimiri, and my brothers and sisters, Mr. Boniface (Big Bro), Mrs. Agatha, Juliet, Mrs. Leontina, Linda, Romeo, Jennifer, and Victor (late), to whom I dedicate this work, for their prayers, support and encouragement. To my nephews and nieces: Emmanuela, Agatha, Johnpaul, Margaret, Emmanuel, Harmony, Emmanuel, Helen, and Elsa, you are my angels and I love you all. Special thanks to Dr Heidi Matisonn, Dr Jacek Brzozowski and Mutshidzi Maraganedzha for sharing with me the invaluable wealth of your learning. Special thanks to my friends, Nondalelo Majola, Regis Wilson, Benjamin Maiangwa, Dr Anthony Oyowe, Emmanuel Matambo, Anthony Odili, Gabriel Darong, Anthony Dim, et al, for their support and encouragement during the year. i Declaration - Plagiarism I ……………………………………….………………………., declare that 1. The research reported in this thesis, except where otherwise indicated, is my original research. 2. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. 3. This thesis does not contain other persons’ data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. 4. This thesis does not contain other persons' writing, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: a. Their words have been re-written but the general information attributed to them has been referenced b. Where their exact words have been used, then their writing has been placed in italics and inside quotation marks, and referenced. 5. This thesis does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and pasted from the Internet, unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed in the thesis and in the References sections. ……………………………………………………………………………… Student Name ……………………………………………………………………………… Date ……………………………………………………………………………… Signature ……………………………………………………………………………… Name of Supervisor ii Abstract The pattern of discourse in the history of African philosophy resulted from historic events such as slavery, colonialism, race and racism. Historically therefore, the concept of race played a significant part in the existence of African philosophy. Recent years have seen a series of studies on the concept of race, with philosophers at the lead of this research development. These philosophers, including Joshua Glasgow, W. E. B. Du Bois, Lucius Outlaw, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Naomi Zack and Emmanuel C. Eze, among others, undertook to explain the concept of race with articulations on whether it should be conserved or eliminated. Thus Eliminativists and Conservationists standpoints, where the former hold that race is an illusion and race-thinking should be eliminated, while the later contend that race is very real and the concept should be conserved This dissertation is a critical assessment of how the concept of race affects African philosophy and an exploration of how the concept can be transcended. To achieve this objective, the dissertation appraised how the concept of race affects African philosophy. It further discussed the eliminativists and conservationists approaches to race, and how they contribute to and affect the concept likewise, it made an attempt to respectively reconcile the perspectives of the eliminativists and conservationists proponents. In the main, the dissertation explored and considered the possibilities of transcending the concept of race. Keywords: Race, African, Philosophy, African philosophy, Transcend iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... i Declaration - Plagiarism ............................................................................................................... ii Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One ................................................................................................................................... 4 1. Understanding the Concept of Race: the Philosophical and the Social meaning of Race, and how Africa’s Identity is shaped by the Issues of Race in African Philosophy .................. 4 1.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 4 1.2. A Brief History of the Concept of Race and the Biological Perspective ......................... 5 1.2.1. Colonialism, Racism and Oppression ...................................................................... 9 1.3. Race: The Philosophical and the Social Meaning ......................................................... 14 1.4. The need for a Rethink: Race, African Philosophy and Identity ................................... 19 1.5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 24 Chapter Two ................................................................................................................................ 26 2. Intellectual Lineage and the Indirect, Direct and Unconscious Interest in the Concept of Race .......................................................................................................................................... 26 2.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 26 2.2. Descartes’ Cogito: A Logical Step of Human Knowledge of the Self ............................... 28 2.2.1. Nothing on Race .......................................................................................................... 32 2.3. Hume’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge .......................................................................... 33 2.3.1. Hume on the Human Mind .......................................................................................... 35 2.3.2. Hume on Race ............................................................................................................. 38 2.4. Kant’s Idea of Human Knowledge ..................................................................................... 40 2.4.1. Kant on Race ............................................................................................................... 42 2.5. The Unconscious Racial Intention: Tempels’ misinterpretation of the Bantu Ontology and African philosophy .................................................................................................................... 46 2.6. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 54 Chapter Three .............................................................................................................................. 55 iv 3. The Works of the Nationalist Ideological Philosophers and the Existence of African Philosophy as an Indirect Response on Hume’s and Kant’s ideas about the Negroes/Blacks ……………………………………………………………………………………………….55 3.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 55 3.2. Nationalist-ideological Philosophy ............................................................................... 57 3.3. The Birth of Nationalistic Ideological Philosophy ........................................................ 57 3.4. The Nature of Nationalistic-ideological Philosophy ..................................................... 59 3.5. The Philosophical Ideologies of the Nationalist Ideological Philosophers ................... 60 3.5.1. Consciencism ......................................................................................................... 60 3.5.2. Communalism........................................................................................................ 62 3.5.3. Humanism.............................................................................................................. 62 3.5.4. Cultural Life .......................................................................................................... 63 3.5.5. Negritude ............................................................................................................... 63 3.5.6. Black Consciousness ............................................................................................. 65 3.5.7. Pan-Africanism ...................................................................................................... 65 3.6. African Philosophy and Philosophical Pride: The Existence of African
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