Indigenous African Cultures Research Articles

Towards an Autochthonic Black Aesthetic for Graphic Design Pedagogy

This article serves several purposes. First, it posits that math is a source for the long sought after black cultural aesthetic [1] for graphic design. Second, it brings to designers research that has revealed the historical existence of advance mathematical principles in indigenous African art, architecture, and culture. Third, it recommends to African-American graphic design students the cultural artifacts of ethnomathematics as alternative sources for creative inspiration by showing how geometry (a relatively new discipline in western society) has been embedded historically in indigenous Africa. Fourth, it reports and analyzes empirical data from a test done on the design potential of the Cornrow Curves and Mangbetu Design software programs to generate mathematical visual patterns that are useful within the discipline of graphic design. Finally, it discusses the relevance of fractal geometry [2] to the visual semantics of the graphic designer's grid-based canvas-”a printed or electronic page or composition in which text and graphics are strategically positioned so that a diverse audience can access it for information and/or an aesthetic or cultural experience.

A proper conversation: Some reflections on the role of psychoanalysis in literary study in South Africa

Summary This paper asks: what are the epistemological and broader political implications of the employment of psychoanalytic theories in literary studies in South Africa? In the implicit endorsement of psychoanalytic theories of the subject in much poststructuralist and some postcolonial theory, academics subscribe to a value‐laden conception of the self. Psychoanalysis rejects as “primitive” notions of self such as those circulating amongst indigenous South African cultures while it privileges the individualised psychological person who emerges in the early modern period in the West. Thus, however fruitful psychoanalytic theories may be, if they are not made accountable to local thought systems then their complicity with intellectual imperialism may render them at best suspect, at worst incapacitating to South African students. What is needed is a kind of theorising which involves a dialogue with alternative models, models such as traditional Zulu thought and its attendant literary forms. If students are, for example, exposed to Zulu auto/biographical practices, and are encouraged to consider the philosophical underpinnings for such practices, they will be able to question the implications of the adoption of theories like psychoanalysis.

BRER RABBIT, A PLAY OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT: RECREATING BLACK CULTURE THROUGH BRER RABBIT STORIES

For centuries, Brer Rabbit stories have communicated the values and experiences of enslaved Africans and of indigenous African American culture (Abrahams, 1985; Brewer, 1968; Levine, 1977). According to Blassingame (1972, p. 127), Brer Rabbit stories are “a projection of the slave's personal experiences, dreams and hopes.” Dunn (1979, p.183) explained that the stories are “paradigms dictating how to act and how to live,” and Stuckey (1977, p.xuii) observed that they “revealed more about slave culture than… whole books on slavery by experts. Levine (1977) maintaned that Brer Rabbit stories survived the experiences of slavery and urban poverty because they were a vehicle by which African American cultural values could be shared by the masses of African American people, and Leslie (forthcoming) observed that urban Black mothers continue to share in these values by teaching their children that Brer Rabbit's tricks demonstrate the importance of “protecting the physically small and weak against the physically big and powerful.”

Self-Determination: A Solution to the Sudan Problem

Self-Determination: A Solution to the Sudan Problem Sam L. Laki Central State University, Ohio South Sudan is different from North Sudan in nearly every aspectethnicity , culture, history, religion and geography. It was misguided for the British colonial administration, under pressure from Egypt, North Sudan, and Britain, to annex South Sudan to North Sudan arbitrarily. Since Sudan's independence from Britain in 1956, the people of South Sudan have been subjected to racial, social, and religious discrimination. They have been relegated to second-class citizenry in their own country. North Sudan's sectarian parties have a vision of the country deeply rooted in sharia (Islamic) law, and correspondingly have pursued vigorously the policy of Islamicization and Arabization of South Sudan. The current National Islamic Front (NIF) government of Lt. General Omer El Bashir brags openly of its success in the application of the sharia law that has brought misery and immense suffering to the African population of Sudan. It is my contention that future changes of leadership in Khartoum will not bring any improvement to the conditions of the people of South Sudan. I would like to make it clear at the outset that the 'Sudan problem' is unique and has no comparison or similarity whatsoever with any local, regional or national problem in any African country. Precolonial Period The people of North Sudan are Muslims who lay claim to some form of Arab descent, and the South Sudanese are Africans who practice their own African beliefs mixed with Christianity. The diverse population speaks 400 different languages. This ethnic, religious, and racial mixture has been the root cause of the identity crises in Sudan.©Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 3, No. 2 (New Series) 1996, pp. 7-20 8 Sam L. Laki Before the advent of the Anglo-Egyptian colonial era in 1898, the Arabs and Africans lived apart with nothing in common. The TurcoEgyptian administration (Turkiyya), from 1820-1881, and the Mahdi administration (Mahdiyya), from 1881-1898, never attained any measure of control over South Sudan. South Sudan remained a theater of war between the intruders and the indigenous populations. The legacy of the notorious slave trade poisoned the relationship between the people of South Sudan and North Sudan to an extent that the relationship between the Arabs and Africans had been characterized by hatred and violence. The Arabs plundered South Sudan looking for ivory and slaves. It is fair to say that the only contact the two peoples had was through the slave trade, when the North Sudanese Arabs made many incursions into South Sudan in search of loot and people to enslave. North Sudanese retainers and slave traders pillaged and disrupted life in South Sudan. This invasion of South Sudanese territory by the Arabs was conducted with the tacit approval of the Islamic leadership. It suffices to say that the Sudan is an artificial creation of Britain, Egypt and elites of North Sudan. The people of South Sudan have never been a party to it. The Condominium Period The British colonial policy was to foster Islamic culture in North Sudan and indigenous African culture in South Sudan. Keeping the two nationalities separate was an honest recognition by the British of the distinct difference in culture, religion, peoples and geography. The 1918 closed districts and passports ordinances sealed off South Sudan from Arab influence until the reversal of the "Southern policy" in 1947. The governor-general, Sir Harold McMichael, was responsible for the institution of the "Southern Policy," meant to keep the Africans separate from the North Sudanese. This policy had been designed to close South Sudan from the external Arab influence with the ostensible intention of preserving indigenous African customs, traditions and beliefs. The policy was a total failure because the Anglo-Egyptian colonial administration also never engaged itself in any form of social, political, or economic development of South Sudan. Self-Determination: A Solution to the Sudan Problem 9 As mentioned above, North Sudanese claim Arab ancestry and identify with Arab culture, and South Sudanese have African ancestry and identify with African culture. The distinct difference between the African Sudanese and the Arabs has given birth to the "nationality question" at the core of...

Sankofa: African Thought and Education.

Elleni Tedla, Sankofa: African Thought and Education. New York: Peter Lang, 1995. 236 pp. $29.95, paper. Reviewed by L. Kay Walker and Dickson A. Mungazi, Northern Arizona University. In the four decades since the process of decolonization and political independence began in Africa, African scholars have attempted to evaluate the direction that the continent of Africa has taken in its developmental efforts. Among the questions these scholars have asked as a way of determining that development are: What theory guides African nations as they struggle for development? What are some of the more pressing problems nations of Africa face today? What must African nations do to bring about new institutions that are truly vested in the interests of the people? What kind of governments should these nations have in order to represent the genuine interests of the people? What kind of education do they need in order to influence the formation of new national identities and the emergence of a fresh continental character that will give meaning to the traditions of the past and greater impact to endeavors in the future? This last question is the subject of Elleni Tedla's Sankofa: African Thought and Education. The book is divided into three parts, each with distinctive, integrated features. Part one discusses the interaction between African and Western thought processes and explains how that interaction affects African education and society today. Part two defines some essential concepts and components of both the indigenous and modern African educational systems. In part three, having laid this foundation, Tedla presents her arguments for returning to traditional African values and thought processes as the basis for education in contemporary African society. To understand Tedla's line of argument, one needs to trace both its title and its theme to their beginnings. Sankofa is an Akan (Ghanaian) word that means return to the source and fetch (learn). Following this, Tedla first urges African educators and policymakers to reach back into the past to rediscover traditions that have been lost to them. Second, she challenges them to renew and refine these traditions so that they will have new meaning for all Africans, not just the wealthy and powerful, in both the present and the future. In Tedla's view, a rejection of colonialism is ultimately a rejection of Western thought process and Western education. This rejection necessitates a redefinition of education to reflect the needs of Africa today and tomorrow. The first step toward this objective is to evaluate the continent's present educational systems within the spirit of Sankofa. The source of this renewal is indigenous African culture, history, and identity-elements that to her suggest the power within African people to shape new directions. By utilizing what is positive in these elements, she maintains, Africans can build a foundation for future development. As such, she proposes that the experiences of contemporary Africans in and out of school reflect a philosophy that is enshrined in its indigenous symbols, including the ritual, music, dance, art, proverbs, poetry, drama, technology, and architecture of precolonial Africa. That these critical features of African culture were neglected by the colonial educational system suggests to Tedla their vitality to the future of Africa. Yet, as she sees it, the challenge before the people of modem Africa is to revive the old ways so that they renew modern institutions for the benefit of all Africans, educated and uneducated, and not simply the wealthy and powerful elites. The acquisition of critical knowledge of African traditions will also require an educational system that is consistent with the contemporary needs of the continent. To fully appreciate this book, readers also must come to terms with the author's understanding of the African concept of spirituality and its role in education. …

Essentials of African Culture

Opening ParagraphAre there elements in indigenous African cultures which might be used as vehicles for alien acculturation? Since cultural contacts in Africa must inevitably increase, thus tending to modify the native political, economic, and social order, can we distinguish features in African society which might well be retained, at least long enough to serve as aids in articulating the two cultures, native and foreign, or ease the transition, to the advantage of both?