Posts com a Tag ‘Pós-colonialismo’
African Thought in Comparative Perspective – MAZRUI (HU)
MAZRUI, Ali. African Thought in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013. 369 p. OLIVEIRA, Silvia. Pensamento africano em perspectiva comparada. História Unisinos, 23(3):475-477, Setembro/Dezembro 2019.
Assente no profissionalismo e na crítica científica, a presente obra traz a público, num único volume, uma coletânea de artigos publicados por Ali Mazrui ao longo da sua carreira, onde apresenta não só os resultados das suas pesquisas enquanto historiador, pesquisador, professor, analista e cientista político, mas igualmente as suas ideias e convicções enquanto cidadão africano, como o mesmo faz questão de se identificar. Apesar de ser pouco abordado no espaço lusófono, a sua experiência, o seu intelecto, o seu carisma, a sua defesa do pan-africanismo e a sua dedicação à causa africana fazem dele um “dos mais prolíficos escritores africanos do nosso tempo” (p. xi), assim como uma referência na produção de conhecimento sobre África, nas suas múltiplas dimensões, com destaque para a pesquisa sobre o Islão e os estudos pós-coloniais.
African Thought é um livro realista e, ao mesmo tempo, apaixonante na medida em que, ao lermos, vemos o cenário de África ser descortinado, ampliando, desse modo, a compreensão do leitor em relação ao continente e aos africanos, de um modo geral, mostrando igualmente que, ao contrário da “irrelevância histórica para a qual foi relegado” (Mazrui, 2013, p. 10), este é detentor de um “repertório intelectual riquíssimo” (Mazrui, 2013, p. XII) que precisa de ser explorado, compreendido, explicado e valorizado. A riqueza das temáticas abordadas e analisadas, que vão desde o “legado dos movimentos de libertação, a convergência e a divergência africana, o pensamento islâmico e ocidental, ideologias nacionalistas, o papel da religião na política africana e o impacto da filosofia clássica grega na contemporaneidade” (Mazrui, 2013, p. XI), visa precisamente cumprir estes pressupostos. Dada a complexidade do objeto de estudo, os editores organizaram este volume em cinco secções autónomas, cada uma delas dividida em capítulos.
A primeira secção – Africanidade comparada: identidade e intelecto – apresenta as teorias e os preconceitos “meio-diabólicos” (Mazrui, 2013, p. 4) que alimentaram, durante séculos, a exploração e a colonização do continente e dos africanos, caracterizados como “crianças imaturas” (Mazrui, 2013, p. 5), “pré-históricos” (Mazrui, 2013, p. 8), “cultural e geneticamente retardados” (Mazrui, 2013, p. 10), posicionados como os menos civilizados na escala evolutiva estabelecida pelo próprio ocidente, catalogações que serviram de pretexto e justificativa para o tráfico de escravos e alimentaram ideias e teorias como o darwinismo social e as conhecidas teorias da modernização e da dependência. Segue-se uma abordagem sobre a legitimação e reconhecimento da filosofia africana enquanto fonte de sabedoria, sendo identificadas três escolas filosóficas, nomeadamente a) escola cultural, também conhecida como etnofilosofia, que assenta na tradição oral e é classificada pelo autor como uma escola de massas, abrangendo os períodos pré-colonial, colonial e pós-colonial; b) ideológica, que reúne as ideias dos ativistas políticos e seus líderes, abrangendo sobretudo o período colonial e pós-colonial, cuja caraterística principal passa pela utilização das línguas ocidentais, sendo por isso considerada mais elitista; c) crítica ou racionalista, composta essencialmente pelos filósofos académicos, enquadrados nas universidades.
Posteriormente, Mazrui identifica as cinco maiores tradições do pensamento político em África, nomeadamente, a) conservadora, ou solidariedade tribal, assente na continuidade (da tradição) em detrimento da mudança. Esta engloba três subtradições: the elder tradition (o respeito pelos mais velhos), the warrior tradition (a tradição dos guerreiros) e the sage tradition (a sabedoria); b) nacionalista, que surge parcialmente como resposta à arrogância da colonização branca, podendo assumir diferentes dimensões, nomeadamente, nacionalismo linguístico, religioso, rácico, pan-africanismo, etnicidade (unidade tribal), nacionalismo civilizacional; c) liberal-capitalista, com ênfase no individualismo económico, na iniciativa privada, assim como na liberdade civil; d) socialista, e) internacional ou não alinhamento. O autor salienta ainda o papel e a importância da memória coletiva identificando, para o efeito, quatro funções da mesma, nomeadamente: preservação, seleção, eliminação e invenção, bem como a questão dos arquivos africanos que assentam sobretudo na tradição oral.
Ao alertar para a necessidade de compreensão e distinção entre relativismo histórico (diferença entre épocas históricas) e relativismo cultural (diferença em termos de valores entre sociedades) no início da segunda secção, o autor introduz a temática sobre a presença do Islão no mundo e em África, constituindo este, a par da africanidade e da influência ocidental, uma das suas heranças, denominada pelo autor de triple heritage (tripla herança). Posteriormente, Mazrui apresenta a sua teoria sobre a existência de cinco níveis de pan-africanismo: 1) Subsariano, que congrega a união dos povos negros ao sul do Sara; 2) Trans-Subsariano, a unidade do continente como um todo, tanto ao norte como ao sul do Sara; 3) Transatlântico, que engloba igualmente a sua diáspora pelo mundo; 4) Hemisfério Ocidental, união dos povos descendentes de africanos e que se encontram no ocidente; 5) Global, a conexão de todos os negros e africanos pelo mundo. É feita ainda referência à Negritude como movimento cultural, no qual o autor distingue duas categorias, nomeadamente: a literária, que inclui não só a literatura criativa, mas igualmente aspetos da esfera política e social, e a antropológica que corresponde a um estudo romantizado de uma comunidade tribal africana por um etnógrafo africano.
É a partir da filosofia e da construção do conhecimento que Mazrui reflete sobre a influência que a filosofia ocidental exerce(u) sobre os africanos, sobretudo sobre os nacionalistas. Composta por seis capítulos, a terceira secção é dedicada à construção do nacionalismo africano e às suas diferentes manifestações. O autor defende que a herança greco-romana foi utilizada pelo ocidente com propósitos sombrios, servindo como justificação para a colonização, sendo o exemplo belga na República Democrática do Congo (RDC) o mais pragmático de todos. Assim sendo, o autor defende que a Negritude não é mais do que “a resposta do homem negro à mística greco-romana” (Mazrui, 2013,p. 146). Mas é igualmente essa mesma filosofia que influencia o pensamento africano, em particular os nacionalistas, tornando-se eles próprios, de certa maneira, filósofos, ao beberem e defenderem, posteriormente, as teorias de Hobbes, Rousseau e Lénin, entre outros autores, que estarão na base da luta pela igualdade e libertação do continente, constituindo por isso três formas de resistência, nomeadamente, 1) tradição guerreira: assente na cultura indígena; 2) resistência passiva: técnica utilizada por Gandhi; 3) revolução marxista, tendo como exemplo os casos das ex-colónias portuguesas, nomeadamente, Angola, Guiné-Bissau e Moçambique.
No entanto, a luta não se circunscreveu às fronteiras do continente, sendo que a diáspora também arregaçou as mangas e deu o seu contributo; exemplos dessa luta são Frederick Douglas e Du Bois. Outros aspetos igualmente importantes para a compreensão da dinâmica política contemporânea do continente prendem-se com a questão do religioso, da tradição, da cultura e, consequentemente, da ética, na análise dessas temáticas. E o autor chama a atenção para a sua importância na quarta secção, a mais curta de todas as secções. De uma forma bastante simples, porém, completa, são-nos apresentadas as características do religioso em África, nomeadamente, a) étnicas, b) não expansionistas, c) universalistas, d) ausência das sagradas escrituras, tendo como base a tradição oral, e) língua nacional, f) não separação dos assuntos terrenos e espirituais, ou seja, não se assentam na fé. Outras peculiaridades culturais que fazem do continente aquilo que ele é, como o casamento, os casamentos inter-raciais, a poligamia, entre outras, são igualmente analisadas por Mazrui, que alerta para a exercem no quotidiano dos africanos ainda na contemporaneidade e pelo fato de nos ajudarem a perceber a atual situação do continente, funcionando igualmente como pressupostos de análise do pós-colonial.
Nos seis capítulos que compõem os Ensaios Conclusivos, o autor traz a debate temáticas mais contemporâneas, que têm levado a uma continuidade da ideia periférica que se construiu e se continua a construir sobre o continente, nomeadamente, pós-colonialismo, multiculturalismo, modernidade, democracia, globalização, entre outras. Ao alertar para a necessidade de pensarmos e debatermos o pós-colonial ou o que “Said chamou de orientalismo e Mudimbe chamou otherness” (Mazrui, 2013, p. 287), Mazrui relembra a tripla herança africana e aponta para os diferentes instrumentos de que o ocidente tem feito uso para manipular o discurso que vai contra a visão do mundo implantada pelo próprio ocidente, monopolizando e perpetuando, deste modo, os seus próprios paradigmas em relação ao “Outro” (Mazrui, 2013, p. 288), numa tentativa de continuar a dominar, mostrando a sua supremacia, da qual a globalização se apresenta como o exemplo mais flagrante.
Apesar da obra estar disponível apenas em língua inglesa, o que constitui uma condicionante para os não falantes dessa língua, não podemos deixar de realçar que, pela riqueza de informações e pela crítica científica que serve de base para a sua análise, estamos em presença de material de consulta obrigatória para qualquer ramo do saber, não só direcionado para a área dos estudos sobre África, mas igualmente sobre a temática da produção do conhecimento sobre o pós-colonial, numa perspetiva macro. Com efeito, uma das suas inovações é precisamente a transdisciplinaridade do autor na análise dos diferentes temas com destaque para a sistematização teórica do pensamento político africano, a sociedade africana, filosofia, multiculturalismo, globalização, bem como a visão global que emprega nessa análise, levantando mais questões do que dando respostas às interrogações iniciais. Por outro lado, a sua riqueza bibliográfica dá-nos igualmente pistas para futuras leituras e pesquisas sobre as diferentes temáticas, alimentando desse modo o debate científico e abrindo caminhos futuros de pesquisa.
Pela sua importância, não podemos igualmente deixar de referir aspetos que a podem fragilizar, como o fato do autor não aprofundar o debate sobre a responsabilidade das elites africanas pela atual situação em que se encontra o continente, as falhas no processo de construção da democracia, assim como em relação à realidade que enfrentam os africanos na contemporaneidade, os desafios e expectativas em relação ao futuro. Talvez seja esse o propósito, ou seja, despertar em cada um dos leitores outras interrogações que conduzam à produção de mais conhecimento sobre o continente, desmistificando, deste modo, a ideia preconcebida e obscura que se foi construindo ao longo dos séculos.
Notas
2 A partir dessa parte da resenha, os trechos em itálico são grifos presentes no livro.
Silvia Oliveira – Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), campus de Assis, Avenida Dom Antonio, 2100 – Parque Universitário, 19.806-900 Assis, São Paulo, Brasil. Bolsista da Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP). E-mail: [email protected].
History Education and (Post)Colonialism. International Case Studies – POPP et al (IJRHD)
Susanne Popp. www.researchgate.net /
POPP, Susanne; GORBAHN, Katja; GRINDEL, Susanne (eds). History Education and (Post)Colonialism. International Case Studies. Peter Lang, 2019. Resenha de: HAUE, Harry. International Journal of Research on History Didactics, n.40, p.245-252, 2019.
This anthology on colonialism discusses the reasons for its upcoming in different parts of the world as a fundamental contribution to the development of modern times, and the substantial impact the decolonization process has on the new modern era after World War II. In the introduction the editors make an overview of the content of the book, which has the following structure: Part 1: Two essays, Part 2: Three narratives, Part 3: Five debate contributions and Part 4: Three approaches.
The editors also present the fundamental problems in the study of colonialism and postcolonialism, and quote UN resolution 1514 from 1960: All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Consequently, one of the questions raised in education is to what extent actual history teaching in schools represents and communicates the items of colonization and decolonization as well in the former colonies and in the countries of colonizers. The process of globalization has in the last decades made this question urgently relevant and moreover inspired to formulate the question of culpability.
In the wake of decolonization and globalization, especially Europe and the US have experienced a migration movement, which inspire classes to reflect on questions of inequality, and the former subordinates right to travel to high developed countries. This challenge to the national history might lead to fundamental changes in syllabus and teaching, which prompt a focus more on global history and postcolonial studies. As the editors point out: history educationalists need to take the issue of the ‘decolonization of historical thinking’ seriously as an important task facing their profession.
It is not possible in this review to refer and comment all 13 contributions in detail. However, I will present a thematic discussion of the four parts.
In part 1 Jörg Fisch, professor of History, University of Zürich, Switzerland, discusses the concepts of colonization and colonialism. He presents and reflect on the conceptual development on from the Latin idea of ‘colere and colonus’, in the late renaissance changed into ‘colonialist and colonialism’. The last concept is ‘aimed at making political, economic, cultural and other gains at the cost of his competitors and is often consolidated into colonial rule.’ Whereas the colonus occupied contiguous territory, the colonialist thanks to his technological superiority conquered land distant from the colonizer’s own country. The result was foreign rule, which required a new theoretical basis: Francisco de Vitoria postulated in 1539 that all peoples had the right to free settlement, trade and free colonization.
Another theory was that the indigenous populations had the right to be fully sovereign. Above those two theories, raw power was to decide to what extent the one or the other should be respected, if any of them. When the national state in the 19th century came into being in Europe and when ideas from the French Revolution gained impact in the Americas, independence was the answer. But this was not the end of colonialism which developed in the same period in the not yet unoccupied areas of Asia and Africa. Colonies became in the period from 1850 to 1914 part of European based empires divided between the big powers at the conference in Berlin in 1884-85. The process was called imperialism. World War I changed this development fundamentally, Germany lost all its colonies and the indigenous elite in the colonies began to question their subaltern status. After World War II the process of decolonization began, and the concept of anticolonization gained momentum in the aforementioned UN declaration form 1960. As Fisch underlines, the postcolonial world was not synonymous with a just world. In ‘Colonialism: Before and After’ Jörg Fisch has written a well-structured presentation of the main lines of this complex phenomenon and the conceptual development. His article is an appropriate opening to the following chapters in the anthology.
Jacob Emmanuel Mabe, born and raised in Cameroon, now a permanent visiting scholar at the French Center of the Free University of Berlin, has written a chapter on: ‘An African Discourse on Colonialism and Memory Work in Germany’. His aim is to demonstrate the significance of the concept of colonialism in intellectual discourse of Africans and to show how the colonial question is discussed in Germany.
It was the intellectuals among the colonial peoples who formed the critical discourse against European colonial rule in Africa, which Mabe calls a ‘ruthless territorial occupation’. The first materialization of this opposition to European rule was the formation of the ‘Pan- African Movement’ maybe inspired by the US-based initiative: ‘Back to Africa Movement’, which culminated in the founding of the Republic Liberia in 1879. On African soil, however in the interwar years a new concept was developed by especially Leopold Sédar Senghor, who was to become one of the most dominant voices among African intellectuals. He and his followers used the concept ‘Negritude’ and the aim was to create a philosophical platform for the promotion of the African consciousness by means of a literary current, a cultural theory and a political ideology. Mabe gives a short description of the reasons for the many barriers for the fulfilment of Senghor’s program.
Mabe ends his article with a discussion of the German attitudes to its colonial past. When the decolonizing process took off after World War II, the Germans were mentally occupied with the Nazi-guilt complex, which in comparison to the regret of the brutal treatment of the Africans, was much more insistent. Nonetheless, Mabe indicates that researchers of the humanistic tradition in the two latest decades have ‘presented some brilliant and value-neutral studies which do justice do (to) both European and, in part African epistemic interest. However, a true discipline of remembering which is intended to do justice to its ethics and its historical task can only be the product of egalitarian cooperation between African and European researchers.’ Florian Wagner, assistant professor in Erfurt, ends his chapter with a presentation of African writers in modern post-colonial studies. In competition with the USSR Western historians invited African writers to contribute to a comprehensive UNESCO publication on the development of colonialism. Wagner’s aim is to underline that transnational historiography of colonization is not, as often has been thought, a modern phenomenon, but has been practiced by European historians over the last century. His main point is that although nationalism and colonialism went hand in hand, transnational cooperation in the colonial discourse has been significant. It is an interesting contribution, which partly is a supplement to the chapter of Fisch according to use of concepts about the colonial development. It brings a strong argument for the existents of a theoretical cooperation between the European colonial masters, notwithstanding their competitive relations in other fields.
This statement can give the history teacher a new didactical perspective, as Wagner emphasizes in his conclusion: ‘Colonialism can provide a basis of teaching a veritable global history – a history that shows how globality can create inequality and how inequality can create globality.’ Elize van Eeden, professor at the South West University, South Africa, has written a chapter on: ‘Reviewing South Africa’s colonial historiography’. For more than 300 years South Africa has had shifting colonial positions, and consequently the black and colored people had to live as subalterns. The change of government in 1994 also gave historians in South Africa new possibilities, although the long colonial impact was difficult to overcome. For a deeper understanding of this post-colonial realities it is important to know African historiography in its African continental context. Elize van Eeden’s research shows that the teaching in the different stages of colonialism plays a minor role in university teaching. Therefore, new research is needed, exploiting the oral traditions of the subaltern people, and relating the local and regional development to the global trends. As van Eeden points out: ‘A critical, inclusive, comprehensive and diverse view of the historiography on Africa by an African is yet to be produced.’ Van Eeden’s contribution gives participant observers insight into especially South Africa’s historiography and university teaching and provide a solid argument for the credibility of the former quotation.
In the third chapter on narratives, written by three Chinese historians: Shen Chencheng, Zhongjie Meng and Yuan Xiaoqing: ‘Is Synchronicity Possible? Narratives on a Global Event between the Perspectives of Colonist and Colony: The Example of the Boxer Movement (1898-1900)’, the aim is to discuss the didactical option partly by including multi-perspectivity in teaching colonialism and multiple perspectives held by former colonies and colonizers, instead of one-sided national narratives, partly teaching changing perspectives, instead of holding a stationary standpoint. Another aim is to observe ‘synchronicity of the non-synchronous’ inspired by the thinking of the German philosopher Reinhard Koselleck. The chapter starts with a short description of the Boxer War, which forms the basis for an analysis of the presentation of the war in textbooks produced in China and Germany, i.e. colony and colonizer. Then the authors provide an example to improve synchronicity in teaching colonialism, followed by didactic proposals.
The Boxer War ended when a coalition of European countries conquered the Chinese rebellions and all parties signed a treaty. Germany in particular demanded conditions which humiliated the Chinese. This treaty is of course important, however at the same time, one of the Boxer-rebels formulated an unofficial suggestion for another treaty, which had the same form and structure as the real treaty, however, the conditions war turned 180 degrees around, for example, it forbade all foreign trade in China. The two treaties were in intertextual correspondence and expressed the demands of the colonizer and the colonized. The question is whether the xenophobic Boxers in fact were influenced by western and modern factors or whether the imperialistic colonizers were affected by local impacts of China? The ‘false’ treaty was used as a document in the history examination in Shanghai in 2010, with the intention of giving the students an opportunity to think in a multi-perspective way, and to link the local Chinese development to a global connection. Nonetheless, the didactical approaches in history teaching in schools are far behind the academic state of the art. It is an interesting contribution to colonialism, but it is remarkable that the authors do not use the concept of historical thinking.
In the third part of the anthology, there are five contributions. Raid Nasser, professor of Sociology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, discusses the formation of national identity in general and its relations to cosmopolitanism. The idea of a global citizenship conflicts with nationalism and the differentiations according to social, economic and ethnic divisions, and Kant is challenged by Fanon.
Nasser’s own research concerns the history textbooks in the three counties where the state has a decisive say in determining the content of those books and therefore it might have a decisive influence on the identity formation of the pupils, in this case from the year four to twelve. How much room is there for cosmopolitanism? This is a question which Nasser has thoroughly addressed in this chapter.
Kang Sun Joo, professor of Education, Gyeongin National University South Korea, discusses the problems with the focus on nation-building in the history teaching in former colonies and the need for new ‘conceptual frames as cultural mixing, selective adoption and appropriation.’ She gives an interesting view on the conformity of western impact on Korean history education.
Markus Furrer, professor of History and History Didactics, teacher training college Luzern, examines post-colonial impact on history teaching in Switzerland after World War II. He has the opinion that we all live in a post-colonial world, including countries with no or only a minor role in colonial development. He emphasizes that there are ‘two central functions of post-colonial theory with relevance to teaching: (1) Post-colonial approaches are raising awareness of the ongoing impact and powerful influence of colonial interpretive patterns in everyday life as well as in systems of knowledge. (2) In addition, they enable us to perceive more clearly the impact of neo-colonial economic and power structures.’ He analyzes six Swiss textbooks and concludes that there is a need in this regard for teaching materials which enable students to understand and interpret the construction and formation process which eventually end with ‘Europe and its others’.
Marianne Nagy, associate professor of History, Karoli Gáspar University, Budapest, has made an examination of history textbooks used in Hungary in 1948-1991 on the period between 1750 and 1914 when Hungary was under Austrian rule. This is an examination of Hungary’ s colonial status seen from a USSR- and communistinfluenced point of view. In the communist period only one textbook was accepted, and in this book, Austria was perceived as a kind of colonial power which controlled Hungary for its own benefit. The communist party had the intention to present Habsburg rule in a negative light, with the wish to describe Hungary’s relation to USSR as a positive contrast. Today the Orbán-led country uses the term colony in relation to the EU.
Terry Haydn, professor of Education, University of East Anglia, has made an explorative examination of how ‘empire’ is taught in English schools. His findings are somewhat surprising. In the history classes of the former leading colonizing country, most schools taught ‘empire’ as a topic, however with emphasis on the formative process of colonization and not ‘the decline and fall’. Haydn has with this short study focused on an item which should be the target of more comprehensive research.
The last three chapters concern the teaching of colonialism in a post-colonial western world. Philipp Bernard, research assistant at Augsburg University in Germany, discusses the perspectives in teaching post- against colonial theory and history from below. His basic assumption is that: ‘No region on the earth can evade the consequences of colonialism’, therefore, ‘A post-colonial approach emphasizes the reciprocal creation of the colonized and the colonizers through processes of hybridization and transculturation.’ The aim of teaching, in this case in the Bavarian school, is to achieve decolonization of knowledge. The author gives interesting reflections from his teaching which could be of inspiration in the schools both of colonized and colonizing countries.
Dennis Röder, teacher of History and English in Germany, writes about ‘visual history’ in relation to the visual representation of Africa and Africans during the age of imperialism. The invention of the KODAK camera in 1888 brought good and cheap pictures, which could be printed and studied world-wide. Soon those pictures could be used in education, and thereby history teaching got a new dimension, and a basis for critique of the white man’s brutal treatment of the natives. These photos were used in the protests against Belgian policy in Congo. Röder emphasises that the precondition for the use of photos as teaching material is the need for some methodological insight both on behalf of the pupils and students. Moreover, it is important to select a diverse collection of photos so that all sides of life in the colonies are represented. Then it would be possible to make a ‘step toward the visual emancipation and decolonization of Africans in German textbooks.’
Karl P. Benziger, professor of History, State University of New York, College at Fredonia, in the last chapter of the anthology has reflected on the interplay between the war in Vietnam as a neocolonial enterprise and the fight for civil rights in the US. Benziger discusses different approaches to teaching those items in high schoolclassrooms. An interesting course was staged as a role play on the theme: The American war in Vietnam. The purpose of the exercise was ‘to develop students’ historical skills through formulating interpretations and analyses based on multiple perspectives and competing narratives in order to understand the intersection between United States foreign and domestic policy from a global perspective.’
The editorial team should be acknowledged for its initiative. The anthology could be perceived as a didactical patchwork which gives inspiration to new research in the subject matter as well as innovations in history didactics. The current migration moveme would prompt to include colonialism and post-colonialism in history teaching and moreover these aspects are part of any pupil’s/student’s everyday life.
Harry Haue
[IF]