Humanism as History in Contemporary Africa

Abstract

The socio-political imagination of contemporary Africa is usually beckoned upon a deconstruction of historiography- usually colonial history. If colonialism flourished through a misrecognition of the native as a historical subject, and by extension, a denial of humanity, the native would have to reassert his humanity through a re-cognition of his own history. At which point, African history would become a history of humanism. The first part of this essay localizes the debate within the historical context for which the debate gained relevance. The context is the Enlightenment and colonial history. I shall link these historicities to the emergent social political imagination in contemporary Africa. The attempt to rehabilitate the truncated African subjectivity would also become a rehabilitation of history by attacking the intellectual roots of colonial historicity.