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Negritude and Bergsonism
Full text linkIt is generally admitted that both the form and the content of Negritude owe much to Western philosophical discourses, especially to French intellectual influence. The fact that the two most outstanding exponents of Negritude, namely Lpold S. Senghor and AimCaire, are deeply impregnated with French culture is taken as a case in point. And among the French roots, some scholars single out the profound impact of Henri Bergson. Thus, Abiola Irele maintains that it is largely the epistemology of Bergson that Senghor has adopted in his formulation of Negritude
Gebrehiwot Baykedagn, Eurocentrism, and the Decentering of Ethiopia
No full textThe article critically evaluates the analysis that Gebrehiwot Baykedagn, a prominent intellectual among the early Ethiopians who were exposed to Western education, gives of Ethiopia\u27s social and technological lag behind European countries. It shows how the Eurocentric conception of history prevented Baykedagn from developing any positive view about Ethiopian history and culture and how this failure led him to prescribe wrong remedies despite his remarkable insights into the dangers of economic dependency. The need to get out of Eurocentrism is strengthened by an attempt to approach Ethiopian history from the viewpoint of Ethiopians themselves rather than from European norms
Underdevelopment and the Problem of Causation
No full textUnderdevelopment is the most controversial issue of our time. In a world which apparently exhibits so much power and yet does so little to drive it back, it represents the challenge par excellence. However, concerning this most pressing and controversial issue of underdevelopment, of all the disciplines which study man, philosophy is the one which until now said the least. At first sight, to mark off in the topic of underdevelopment an area of real philosophical concern does not seem feasible indeed.
Underdevelopment understood as a mere failure of development appears to be within the competence of the disciplines of the social sciences, especially of economics, rather than that of philosophy. Viewed as a technical problem, it could thereby be declared outside the sphere of direct philosophical inquiry.
But this reason is no sooner accepted than it comes up against itself by the very nature of the conflicts in which the social sciences got bogged down in their attempt to understand underdevelopment. Although not directly spelt out, the conflicts are unmistakably pervaded throughout by philosophical questions. It suffices to point out the main cause of the theoretical split which divides scholars, in the general issue of tradition and modernity, to really bring out the eminently philosophical nature of the debate. We are obviously referring to the conflict between modernization theory and the neo-Marxist school.
The purpose of this paper is precisely to show that the topic of underdevelopment, not only raises one of the basic and oldest problems of philosophy, namely the nature of the connection between the spiritual and the material, but also helps positively to reformulate it
Return to the Source: Asres Yenesew and the West
No full textThe opposition of traditional scholars to the proliferation of modern schools is a fact known to all those who are familiar with the difficult beginning of Ethiopia’s modernization. Besides the opposition of the nobility and the church hierarchy, traditional clerical scholars known as debteras had used all their influence to convince the country of the perilous nature of Western education. Emperor Haile Selassie and those who supported him often had to battle energetically to neutralize their opposition. To the youngsters sent to Western schools before and soon after the Italian invasion of 1935, the opposition of the debteras appeared as a pathetic attempt to stop what was unstoppable, namely, the march of the long-awaited modernization of Ethiopia. They easily figured out that the debteras’ ignorance of the modern world and the anger over the loss of their traditional influence aroused the resistance. Some such defense of the traditional schooling betrayed the most stubborn form of traditionalism, which was nothing else but a wrongheaded endeavor to shield Ethiopia from the benefits of modernization in the name of tradition and the status quo
Chapter X — Where to, Ethiopia?
Full text linkIn the wake of the dethronement of the TPLF, Ethiopia was presented with four options arising from the implementation of ethnonationalist ideology and policies for 27 years. The options have generated politico-ideological movements that compete for the seizure of power in Ethiopia. Broadly speaking, these movements can be viewed as different stands in relation to Article 39 of the constitution granting ethnic groups an unconditional right to self-determination, including secession (see previous chapter). Let us briefly examine the four positions with the view of clearly demarcating the lines separating them.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/kebede_ethiopiamodernization/1010/thumbnail.jp
Radicalism and Cultural Dislocation in Ethiopia, 1960-1974
Full text linkA provocative investigation into the root causes of the Ethiopian political upheavals in the second half of the twentieth century
Chapter XI — Recapitulation and Therapeutic Roadmap
Full text linkThis book revolved around a central theme, which is to show how the imperative to hold on to absolute power derailed the modernization of Ethiopia under three consecutive but radically different political regimes, the irony being that each came to power on the promise of removing the defects of the regime that preceded it. Its main argument can be summed up thus: from Haile Selassie’s imperial state, military socialism, to the two versions of ethnic federalism, the framing of modernization in an exclusionary political system and the attendant excluding forms of ideological thinking are responsible in large measure for the derailment. As Kostas Loukeris notes:
All political ideologies currently promoted in Ethiopia share the commonality of political exclusion. This means that all of them are based on particular characteristics that force other Ethiopian citizens to either accept them and thus deny their own ideological orientation or feel excluded from its political system. These processes create grievances and breed conflict.
Let us recapitulate the main findings of our study.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/kebede_ethiopiamodernization/1011/thumbnail.jp
The Ethiopian Conception of Time and Modernity
Full text linkIf there is one thing that philosophers agree upon, it is that the meaning of time is a central philosophical question. If we take the Western world as an example, there is no famous philosopher who has not investigated time. The German philosopher Martin Heidegger, to indicate the centrality of time, writes: “all ontology is rooted in the phenomenon of time correctly viewed and correctly explained.”
Likewise, according to the French philosopher Henri Bergson, the main reason that philosophical questions are difficult is because “we do not think about real time.” The fact that the question of time is very confusing has led some philosophers to claim that time is an unreal, illusory notion. For example, the ancient Greek philosopher known as Parmenides, in order to explain that we have to think of being as outside of time, says that “before and after does not exist, because what is constantly exists as One.”
The main intention of this essay is to ask how Ethiopians perceive this difficult notion of time. Because time is a decisive question for philosophy, to examine how it is perceived allows us to understand how Ethiopians see the world.
Book\u27s description from the publisher\u27s website: This volume presents a collection of philosophical essays written in indigenous African languages by professional African philosophers with English translations on the facing pages—demonstrating the linguistic and conceptual resources of African languages for a distinctly African philosophy. Hailing from five different countries and writing in six different languages, the seven authors featured include some of the most prominent African philosophers of our time. They address a range of topics, including the nature of truth, different ways of conceiving time, the linguistic status of proverbs, how naming practices work, gender equality and inequality in traditional society, the relationship between language and thought, and the extent to which morality is universal or culturally variable
From Marxism-Leninism to Ethnicity: The Sideslips of Ethiopian Elitism
Full text linkFor many scholars, colonialism and neocolonial policies remain the root causes of Africa\u27s numerous impediments to its progress, ranging from the persistence of poverty to the ravages of ethnic conflicts. However, the number of scholars who prefer to ascribe these impediments essentially to the persistence of traditional views and methods and to the lack of reforms radical enough to trigger a sustained process of modernization is not negligible. My position contests this either-or debate and identifies the culprit as the rise of African elitism—a phenomenon implicating the specific effect of colonialism in conjunction with internal African contributions. I take the case of Ethiopia as a pertinent illustration of the precedence of elitism over other hindrances. The fact that Ethiopia, though not colonized, has followed the same declining course as other African countries underlines the derailing role of modern education, whose embedded Eurocentric orientations were quick to uproot those sectors of Ethiopian society that were exposed to it. The outcome was elitism, which spearheaded the trend of deeper marginalization and incapacitation of the country. But first, let me give concrete meaning to the concept of elitism
Chapter V — Derailed Modernization: The Imperial Phase
Full text linkThe critical review of the explanation of the failure of Ethiopian modernization from the perspective of modernization theory, that is, from the alleged contrast between tradition and modernity, has revealed that the concept of derailed modernization is more appropriate than the argument stating that inherent defects prevented Ethiopia’s modernization. The expression “derailed” puts the blame not so much on inner obstacles as on the spoiling of assets and opportunities. The change of approach speaks of engagement into a wandering path, the outcome of which was and still is the multiplication of difficulties. Indeed, obstacles hinder, but they can also be either removed or circumvented. Not so derailment: because it is a wandering path, it initiates a movement that continuously bumps against itself, and so is caught in a self-destructive cycle. Let us see how Haile Selassie laid the foundational phase of the wandering course.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/kebede_ethiopiamodernization/1005/thumbnail.jp
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