"AFRICAN GENIUS, THE" (BASIL DAVIDSON).   Term Paper ID:18578 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Reviews work presenting overview of history & development of continent's culture, government, religion, art, Western influences.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Reviews work presenting overview of history & development of continent's culture, government, religion, art, Western influences. Paper Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to discuss and analyze the book, The African Genius, by Basil Davidson. Davidson is a great admirer of the African culture in general, and the ability of the African people to survive. He is also very cognizant of the element of racism in European and American historians' discussion of Africa's history. As he puts it, it is still necessary to set African reality within its historical context "The anthropologists of the colonial period did not do this" (26). Davidson feels that most historians have looked upon African societies as being timeless entities without past or future. The result of this approach, according to Davidson, was to "strengthen the impression of a complete otherness of African societies. Presented without history, as living in a perpetual Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Why? Peoples separated by vast distances havesimilar ideas which suggest the same Stone Age source. Many of them began appointing chiefs, with increasing powers,at least ten centuries ago and sometimes more. Ultimately, Davidson admires the Africans as a people of strength andenergy, whose profundities have been discounted by most of the rest of theworld, especially those who have used their superior technology to enslavethem for so long. The answer is that art in Africa was always meant tomake things happen. He is also very cognizant ofthe element of racism in European and American historians' discussion ofAfrica's history. The reason for this appears to lie in thedisintegration of traditional structures and systems since the 188 s: inthe passing of Africa's "Age of Faith," and subsequently in a growth ofpersonal anxiety and alienation among the various peoples of the continent. And, considering the situation in South Africa today, so must we. A number ofAfrican tribes have believed that their kings, or ritual rulers must neverdie and have gone to great lengths to deal with the inescapable fact thatthey do die. Yet others sawtheir position differently, and began to preach the regeneration ofAfrica's civilization. Even when small communities becametransformed into large ones, minor governments into major governments,village states into far-spread empires, these foundations in self-rule werenever really lost by the african tribes and/or nation-states. In the area of government, secret societies superseded the state as avehicle for organization. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and analyze the book, TheAfrican Genius, by Basil Davidson. Davidson believes that the Africans, as a whole people, living on thesame continent, need their modern revolution. A majority of the educated few Africans tended to see themselves asEuropeans by adoption and, as such, to reject and even despise the culturesfrom which they sprang. A question here is how great was the Africanisolation? Withthe spread of Christian ideas, politics and religion continued to marchhand in hand. The African Genius. Davidson is a great admirer of the African culture in general, andthe ability of the African people to survive. The result of this approach, according to Davidson, was to"strengthen the impression of a complete otherness of African societies.Presented without history, as living in a perpetual vacuum of experience,these strange peoples came to seem the denizens of a 'Garden of Eden' leftover from the remote past. (312). . Boston: Little, Brown, 1969.----------------------- 7 "You drew an antelope on a wall of rock so that yourarrow should afterwards find one" (16 ). Then they would make a platform over this,using strips of hide, and finally cover it with cattle dung (118). . These were exceptions. They turned their energies to a revaluation oftraditional cultures (29 ). The arts were a branch of magic as though theseancient Africans were so many populations of Ali Babas and Aladdins. But diffusion ofideas, even where it really happened, was always less important thanprocesses internal to a given region" (19 ). Creation legends,according to Davidson, offer a good example. There are numerous tribes in Africa without a "state" to govern them. You performed a ceremony in orderto make the rain fall. Davidson is happy that he, as anhistorian, is not obliged to give a prophecy before the event. Davidson feels that most historians havelooked upon African societies as being timeless entities without past orfuture. As to beliefs in the supernatural, most observers seem to agree insaying that witchcraft fears have increased a great deal in Africa over thepast hundred and fifty years, and that those fears are less controlled thanthey used to be by mechanisms of social control and other built-inprotective factors. Works CitedDavidson, Basil. The Africans, asDavidson says, "are profound and far-reaching in creative stimulus,unleashing fresh energies, opening new freedoms" (317). He says, "many people outside Africa, andsome within, have mistakenly believed that the colonial period not onlyswept away the old but the new, like the English Industrial Revolution laidfoundations for the new" (313). Taking their own possession ofthe tree faith for granted (Jesus having long been considered an honoraryEuropean,) Europeans were pained at the sight of Africans subscribing totheir native religion. According to Davidson, art in Africa has always left the Westernobserver cold. According to Davidson, Africans had been going to Europe sincedistant times of European contact. They nourished each other as before. The interest lies in the arrangement (73). The political implications of African Christianity were generallydespised by all those Christians in Europe. The Dinka have traditionally buried alive their chief ritualpriests, whenever these dignitaries were approaching their natural death.On these solemn occasions they would dig a pit and place the dying masteron it on a comfortable bed. One can even regard it as the major politicalinstrument evolved by Africans for populating its arid continent with itssparse ancestral communities. Much can be inferred about the nature of kings and kingships amongthe African tribal priests, according to Davidson. He feelsthat the crises in Africa in the 196 s were not accidental, but insteadwere the fruits of upheavals long in the making, a crisis of institutionson a continental scale. A great many small societies seem to have found themselves in agrowing contradiction between lineage loyalty and the welfare of thecommunity. Theyhad settled in all but the most dry, desert-like parts of the Africancontinent; even in the desert areas they tried to travel and sometimesinhabited that district. Yet, according to Davidson, "the political emphasis of AfricanChristianity was of a piece with all African attitudes toward religion"(275). Until late inthe nineteenth century few Africans were able to travel abroad except asslaves, and only a handful acquired a modern education. Davidson believes that this is not to say that the societies in questionlacked a dynamism of change or failed to respond to it. As he puts it, it is still necessary to set Africanreality within its historical context "The anthropologists of the colonialperiod did not do this" (26). There were four million Africans two thousand years ago, there wereprobably as many as 15 million by the eve of the colonial period. For Davidson, the evidence that we have points to some kind of"common fund" years ago (37). But now they "marchedtowards ever more serious clashes with authority" (275). The same reaction was for a long while common toblack thought in the United States after the Civil War. Clearly, this author thinks that period has come to anend. Religion plays a great part in the societies of Africa. Davidson asks what kind of Africa may now emerge, what modern variantof the old civilization? One is left with kinshipsocieties which form a unity of basic pattern diversified by localvariation. This kind of government was possible for smallor fairly small communities. Davidson believes that with Christianity, the pact that mostAfricans had with their ancestors might be conceived in "suprasensible"terms; its "practical" character as a guide to the affairs of everydaylife, whether, social, political, or moral had never been in doubt. Davidson feels that the crisis is a crisis whose ideologicalconfusion has been enlarged by various illusions, mainly on the part of theEuropean and American peoples. Logically enough, they began to be called the'undeveloped peoples.' For development supposes history, and they havenone" (27). He feels that in the end thehistory of Africa will be a matter of knowing how the civilizations of thepast can be remade by a "bold and new vision" (317). Some of these secret societies are so deeply rooted in history as tohave become barely separable from new structures of daily life, even in thesecond half of the twentieth century. But, in his words,"it is to say that the nature of their civilization supposed a notion ofcommunity that was restrictive of change in certain ways" (68). Such is the venerable Ogboni Societyof the Yoruba, founded in an Earth cult of great antiquity, held firmly inthe balance of Yoruba life, and of continuing importance to the life ofmillions of people. The Ogboni society has remained a powerful center ofinfluence within Yoruba political alliances, especially those of the"action Group" which spoke up for most of Yoruba before and after theIndependence of 196 (1 3). One conclusion is thatcircumstances in different places repeatedly produced like results.Diffusion of ideas from the Nile Valley or North africa may have "playedsome distant part in sharing tropical developments . By the 187 s,however, the potentially positive aspect of European presence--the openingof channels to new learning--had begun to take effect in a few places,especially in British-influenced West Africa and in French-influencedSenegal (289). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.