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Bewaji\u27s Critique of Mills\u27 Racial Contract Theory: A Challenge of its Structure, Content, and Conclusions
No full textIn this paper, I examine John Ayotunde (Tunde) Isola Bewaji’s discussion ofCharles W. Mills’, racial contract theory. Bewaji critiques the theory’s structure, content, and conclusions. He argues against its structure by advocating for an epistemological understanding, instead of a historical racial contractarian perception of it. Bewaji contends with the theory’s content by emphasizing how racial distinctions naturally occur, against Mills’ claim that they politically take place in Western society from antiquity to modernity. Finally, he challenges Mills’ idealist racial contract theory conclusions, by asserting his realist position on them
Barry Chevannes, Myalism, Revivalism, Rastafari and Leadership
Full text linkAbstract
Humans have only been able to survive in association with other humans. For this reason, society has been the only logical, practical and pragmatic arrangement in which such survival has been maximally realized, both for the self in terms of the basic necessities and, where the former have been achieved, other luxuries of life; and for the group as communes for the clearest definition, realization and appreciation of worthwhile modes of existence and interaction. This is a basic datum of human existence which is incontrovertible, even by the most cynical conception of human existence in the form of extreme individualism and libertarianism championed, by the advocates of social contract such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Bewaji 1999).
The next statement boldly posited in this discussion is this: Human societies have been able to develop socially, culturally, economically, technologically, scientifically, spiritually, aesthetically and make progress, or they have fallen into decay, dysfunction and committed communal and corporate suicide as a consequence of the kinds of leadership and leadership education that the societies have had. To this end, it is affirmed that the decisions that leadership makes determines the fortunes of society as a group and of individuals as atomic members of society.
These are the banal hypotheses that guide this discussion. And they are banal hypotheses that have implications that a single disciplinary investigation cannot fully sustain, because they have so many ramifications that require multidisciplinary approaches for proper elucidation and harnessing. But they are ones that have become very persuasive to me, given my humble familiarity with some of the various elements of the academe and how they have studied societies and commented on human existence. In this discussion, therefore, I examine how Barry Chevannes’ research has evidenced these hypotheses, given the fact that he straddles so many disciplines (philosophy, sociology, anthropology and religion) which help us to focus attention on various elements of the social sciences. I am of the considered view that his signal research and life devotion to the Rastafarian and sibling religions of Jamaica, on the one hand, and his advocacy on matters of social issues such as fatherhood, children rights, gender justice, poverty eradication, etc., on the other hand, in Jamaica, clearly show these hypotheses as valid means of gaining a perspective to understand the implications of his research for leadership in Jamaica, the Caribbean and in Black societies generally.
I argue then that the works of Barrington Chevannes, who is being celebrated here now (just like the seminal works of Rex Nettleford and Orlando Patterson, who are living intellectual legends and icons of knowledge and culture, in my judgment), all show this critical nature of leadership to and in human society. I concentrate the searchlight on Rastafarianism and kindred Jamaican religio-cultural and intellectual ideas treated by Chevannes here for practical reasons. Scratching the surface is all that can be done here, but just scratching the surface clearly show that the challenges that Rastafarians, Rastafarianism, Jamaica and, in deed, blacks universally, have faced and are facing, are directly and indirectly traceable to the paucity of leadership
The geographies of reason - remapping the existential model across cultural boundaries
Full text linkThe task of a contemporary African and African Diaspora philosopher is often defined from exogenous sources, in the sense of having to react to paradigms and hypotheses generated from colonial metropolitan thinkers. This has bred the so-called four traditions in African philosophy, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the tradition charted under the advocacy of the brilliant Caribbean philosopher, Lewis R. Gordon, through the exploration of existentialist and phenomenological philosophies from an Africana perspective.
In this discussion, I wish to subject to exploration a) the geographies of reason that constitute the founding basis of these philosophical responses, b) interrogate the theses generated through the approaches I annotate here, and c) examine African socio-cultural and existential dynamics to see if the geographies of reason derived by African philosophers and, especially by Lewis Gordon, stand up to the test of critical intellectual appraisal from a theoretical and practical application to life, literature, society and reality in Africa and its Diaspora.
This exploratory exercise is intended to generate and stimulate reflective and reflexive engagement with the reality of philosophical effort in the context of globalization and consumerism, to ensure that we maintain a clear vision of the nature of the geographies of reason(s) that define us and our existence
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