Returning
to Serequeberhan and African Hermeneutics

It has been more than two months since I wrote my last Ph.D. dump. It symbolises the craziness of it all. I have written two or three (depending on how you count them) articles for journals and seminars, and now I am returning to my Ph.D. Hopefully, with some vigour and joy. Therefore, I am going to try and re-introduce the work of Serequeberhan in such a way that it basically summarises the whole chapter I am going to write on him. The reason is simple: I want to use this summary as a point of departure for that chapter. In other words, I want to use this post as a first draft for the chapter (in a very loose sense). I thus hope that you as the reader/learner might also gain something from this work. I think it is very important and essential to a reworked idea of what philosophy is and should be, that being a critical and interpretative attitude towards the lifeworld we are situated in.

A couple of technical remarks. I will not use references in this post for one simple reason: I do not have them ready yet. I have read about 10 articles and 3 books by Serequeberhan, so I have not clue where all these details are as of now. Therefore, from the get-go, the work is my own reading of Serequeberhan based on his whole oeuvre. The essential ideas are his, the understanding and interpretation that I present here, is my own. In the future, I will probably post something more detailed. Most of these works are available online if you know where to look; or they will be in university libraries. Some the ideas presented though are my own and probably not what Serequeberhan had in mind when he wrote his work. This is obviously some creative leeway I am taking.

In the previous Ph.D. dump on Serequeberhan, I introduced three key ideas to understand his philosophy, namely, (i) horizon and discourse, (ii) the contemporary neo-colonial situation, and (iii) the double task of contemporary African philosophy. I will again use these markers as points of departure, but I will fill them in more. Now that a couple of months have passed, these ideas have slowly “fermented” in my mind. This is another reason why I initially do not want to reference these ideas. I just want to get them onto paper so that I can expand on them as I return to the sources later. That said, I hope that you will enjoy this part of the Ph.D. dump, which will feature a bit more regularly now that I have all my time aimed at my Ph.D.

Introduction: African Hermeneutic Philosophy as a Concretising/Actualising Interpretative Endeavour

Philosophy in its most watered-down form is essentially an interpretation of the surrounding horizon presented in a discourse which others can access. In short, the surroundings of a philosopher – that being the socio-economic-historical and linguistic factors – plays an integral part in the formulation of the questions he/she tries to answer/understand and in the way he/she might respond to those questions/issues. One might here refer to the idea of “philosophical place”. This idea does not play an important role in Serequeberhan’s work, but it might be useful to use this term to understand the idea better. So, the interpretation is actualised or concretised from within and as a response to philosophical place. The horizon, or philosophical place or lifeworld, thus shapes the discourse, or answers/questions/responses. Every philosophical place will have different sets of questions and issues and by implication different answers and solutions. This idea of philosophy is very important for Serequeberhan because if we take this line of thought further, to its logical end we might say, the necessary idea of an African philosophy is born, and the absurdity of Western philosophy’s universalised practise becomes glaringly apparent.

So, in this post, which will be quite lengthy, I want to trace the steps Serequeberhan takes which leads to this position in which the turn to African philosophy becomes necessary and the move away from hegemonic and superior forms of Western philosophy becomes a given. I first to this by turning to his existential turn via Heidegger and Gadamer, in which he indigenises and appropriates their positions. I briefly discus some of the implications and why this is important, but why one should not see this as turning to the West but to the essential nature of philosophy.

Secondly, I turn to the contemporary situation of Africa and the previously colonised to showcase how Serequeberhan understands this. The importance of this cannot be understated and his whole notion of African philosophy resides in this formulation. A kind of weak spot in his philosophy emerges here. Relying too much on the idea of African philosophy responding to the contemporary African situation, the conversation/dialogue/hermeneutic might get stuck and stagnant. African philosophy is thus only a response to this situation. In effect, he is giving the African situation, one not of its own making, too much credence and therefore cuts off the openness to philosophy. However, this should not be a problem in the long run when one reads his work a bit more charitable.

And lastly, I turn to the most important section in which Serequeberhan introduces the idea or notion of the double task of African philosophy. Here, he turns to the function and the goal of African philosophy which is by its very nature a praxis and not just something abstract and theoretical. Praxis in this instance is understood to be a practise or something contra theory. It is not beyond theory, though, it merely stems from it. This will become clearer as I discuss Serequeberhan in more detail. The double task of African philosophy is thence to first identify the problematic “pre-texts”/prejudices, i.e., judgements and meanings we already unknowingly ascribe to something, and then to transcend or amend them. In short, the African philosopher should try and come to an understanding of the current situation and why it is like it is to create something new and better. The past plays and immensely important role, especially regarding one’s own history and culture/tradition. Therefore, colonialism’s role in taking away local histories and cultures/traditions can adequately be addressed because its influences still perpetuate today.

This is already a very lengthy piece, so sit back, grab some popcorn, and relax into it.

Philosophical place: The Interplay between Horizon and Discourse

As a point of entry, Serequeberhan turns our attention to the idea that philosophy is essentially interpretative in nature. Its aim and goal are to further understanding through interpretation. This interpretation necessitates that it happens, i.e., is actualised, from somewhere done by someone. I am doing the interpretation from where I am situated. This place, which I call philosophical place, or horizon or lifeworld is influenced by various factors such as socio-economic-historical and linguistic factors. The language which one speaks will structure one’s thoughts in specific ways. One’s economic and social standing will influence it. And more importantly, one’s history will influence one’s questions and answers. Therefore, one can state, discourse is based on and as a response to the horizon one finds oneself in. In important interplay between these two is always at work. Philosophy is thus not an uprooted and universal practice in the sense that we have a God’s eye view of things. Instead, things which are rooted in a specific lifeworld gives rise to the sets of questions and subsequently the answers to those questions.

Philosophy thus becomes the endeavour to understand this philosophical place, and our questions and answers that stem from it. Serequeberhan attains this idea and position of philosophy from the existentially aware ideas of Heidegger and Gadamer. The importance of their work cannot be understated. From Heidegger, he gets the notion that philosophy is always attending to questions and issues stemming from a specific place and time. Philosophy cannot transcend and escape time and space (or place). We ensue from a specific place in a specific time. This is merely from where things take place. This, in some sense, limits one to say certain things. One cannot say something so radically different from what has already been done. But conversely, one can see how some positions in the past necessitates the future. Me writing this today from where I am located is in a very loose sense predicated on what others have already said. It shapes my responses in a certain way and limits them as well. Heidegger’s work could not have happened if certain things in the past did not happen.

This idea leads to a profound insight, which will be explore in more detail throughout the post. One’s history shapes one’s present and future. The implication of this insight is that if a history imposed onto you, your life will be shaped by that imposition. But more on this below.

The important insight that Serequeberhan gains from Gadamer, on the other hand, is from the notion of prejudice. Serequeberhan uses this idea to read Western philosophical texts, especially Kant, Marx, and Hegel, by showcasing how certain ideas or prejudices permeate these texts and necessitate their meanings. These texts and ideas thus enter the African landscape and impose their own histories and traditions onto others as if they are universal and without problems. Gadamer’s prejudice, in short, is about what (hidden) meanings we bring to the text before we interpret the text. These prejudices shape our interpretation or our understanding. Our own horizon then is filled with different prejudices which subsequently influence the discourse. The important insight that Serequeberhan gains from this is that the texts from prominent philosophers, such as Kant, Marx, and Hegel, function and rely on a pre-text of Western superiority. When their works are discussed and used in the African context, these unproblematised prejudices subjugate those who are precluded and marginalised in them. Hegel, for example, maintained Western superiority and that Africans cannot philosophise. When his work is subsequently used and discussed in an African context, these problematic prejudices are upheld and internalised. African philosophers might thus relinquish and abandon their own philosophies to practice Western-centric philosophy.

This leads, in some sense, to the contemporary neo-colonial situation.

The Deplorable Contemporary Neo-colonial Situation

Colonialism formally ended at a certain date. But most scholars today maintain that coloniality, the logic of colonialism, remained and is in fact hiding behind new code words and guises. The logic of colonialism, coloniality, permeates almost every aspect of our lives. The previously colonised are those who are unfortunately still under the yoke of neo-colonialism. The colonisers have left, but they still maintain hegemonic and superior status by having successfully spread their own ways of thinking. Many African philosophers, including Serequeberhan, maintains that the previously colonised have internalised Western modernity as norm and standard, thus measuring their own ways of being/living with those many miles away from them. Coloniality structures every aspect of the live of the previously colonised. “Real freedom” has not yet been won over because of this situation. Colonialism ended but the logic of colonialism prohibits the previously colonised from embracing freedom. Therefore, Serequeberhan notes that the contemporary neo-colonial situation is one marked by a kind of liminality, an in-between state, a gap, which is between the state of the formerly colonised as being colonised and the state of being free from colonialism. The residue of Western superiority which gets transported through educational institutions in Africa and so on, still prohibit the previously colonised from exploring and establishing her own ways of living/being.

Moreover, the situation is maintained through the imposition of colonialism’s history into the African situation. Indigenous ways of living/being were marginalised and excluded and occluded from being developed and explored. Languages, an integral part of one’s being, was excluded via various ways, including education being offered in colonial languages. This maintains the neo-colonial situation especially today in which educational institutions function via specific pre-texts or prejudices. Even solutions to African problems are addressed by using Marx and other figures who excluded and marginalised Africans. These texts therefor maintain and uphold Western hegemony and superiority by “exporting” their own ways of being and living, that is, their own history and culture/tradition.

As stated in the previous section, by not addressing these issues, the history of the coloniser in the neo-colonial situation will shape one’s future. The future of those in the neo-colonial situation is shaped by the imposed history which still functions through various mechanisms today. Responding to this, Serequeberhan proposes the double task of African philosophy.

The Double Task of Contemporary African Philosophy

Fanon, writing prior to Serequeberhan, states that Africans should turn a new leaf and create new concepts. Serequeberhan embraces this challenge but is also cognisant of merely leaving the status quo alone before de-structing it. De-struct in this idea is used contra the idea of destruct which entails the complete destruction of a text or prejudices. In short, the total eradication of everything West in Africa is itself a form of exclusion and not in need. One would essentially cut off many potential avenues of inquiry and give too much credit to the West by accepting that these practices are Western when they are in fact not. For example, various philosophers even question the very coherence of Western philosophy because it used so many ideas and constructs from philosophers and scholars not hailing from what we today understand as Western. Therefore, Serequeberhan proposes de-struction and construction as the double task of African philosophy.

The first task, that of a critical-negative de-struction can come in the form of the critique of Western-centrism. How this is done is by identifying and establishing the specific Western-centric pre-text which essentially declares and upholds Western ways of living and being as universal or as true human existence. Many authors such as Hegel and Kant maintained that Western philosophy and society was the pinnacle of humans and that Western history was the right one. Or that history culminated in Western history. Therefore, the myth that Western society “humanised and civilised” various cultures around the world to save them and set them on the same path of “modernisation and progress”. Colonialism, the forceful and violent imposition of its own Western history onto every other culture and tradition found in its way, was seen as a “civilising” mission. By maintaining and upholding texts without firstly problematising them will do nothing to the situation. Therefore, the first task of African philosophy: identify these prejudices and see how they work. Or, see how the present is constructed by a history that is not one’s own.

The second task of African philosophy is to construct a new framework and new concepts, by remembering, recognising, and establishing one’s own history. As noted, one’s history and tradition/heritage/culture determine one’s future. But a sort of stumbling block arrives at this point: the African philosopher cannot simply return to a past uncontaminated by colonialism, that is, she does not have access to ways of being/living stuck in the past. Why would she want to return to that in any case? The past is valuable in terms of remembering and establishing one’s present, but the static past cannot have much meaning beyond that. Therefore, the African philosopher, following Cabral, should “return to the source”.

The return denotes filtration and fertilisation or a sifting and sieving process in which the African philosopher so to speak takes “stock”. She can use anything that comes from the West if it will help her in the liberation process by indigenising and appropriating it. Serequeberhan does this to the work of Heidegger and Gadamer in the initial steps of his earlier works. But the African philosopher should also critically but respectfully examine the past in order to also take what she needs for the liberation process. The source to which she returns is, as mentioned, not a static one stuck in the past. Rather, the source is the vigour and joy in which the previously colonised got rid of the colonisers. However, the hard work cannot stop here as this is what lead to the deplorable neo-colonial situation. What is needed is to create new concepts and establish new frameworks stemming from the return to the source.

A Political Praxis

This idea of African philosophy is necessarily political in nature. The praxis of Serequeberhan’s hermeneutics is actualised through the resistance it presents. If the above mentioned is successful, the African philosopher might transcend the deplorable neo-colonial situation. It might therefore reinstate the essentiality of being rooted, of developing ideas stemming from and responding to the lifeworld or horizon of the African without the need to uphold the problematic history of colonialism or coloniality. Western philosophy, in turn, might also again be particularised with the renewed focus on philosophies stemming from particular philosophical places. Western philosophy is after all also merely a particular philosophy responding to certain issues and questions. However, in its attempt to universalise its own particularity, it appropriated other particular philosophies for itself and thus cannot rightfully claim it as its own. But establishing this is the hard work of philosophers.

Postscriptum, or A Very Long Post

This is a monster of post, one of the longest I think I have made. It contains way too much information for one post as it is actually a condensation of a 12 000-word chapter. I tried to write down everything I want to do in the chapter; I will use this structure as the basis for the longer piece of work. I still need to write it, but the main research is done. It exists in extensive handwritten notes in margins of articles and books and in various articles I wrote in the last year. Now I need to do the hard work of writing all of this and philosophising about the consequences of what I wrote. It seems like a lot of fun (to me) until I sit down and need to produce the text. Then my writer’s block always shows its nasty head. Hence, this post. To actually write something. To get myself going.

If you read the entire article/post, you deserve a cold beer (or any drink)! If you just scrolled till the end, I do not judge you. Thanks you in any case for the effort!

For now then, happy reading and stay safe.

The photographs used in this post are my own taken with my Nikon D300. The writings and musings in this post are also my own, albeit interpretations of the work of Serequeberhan. I thus do not claim ownership to the central ideas in the post but merely to the interpretations of these ideas. None of the work used is any directly quoted material (that I am aware of) and consists only of my own phrasing and writing.