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Pan-African Linguistic and Cultural Unity

A Basis For pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance

Simphiwe Sesanti

Abstract

Contrary to the view that Africa is populated by many ethnic groups whose cultures and languages have no relation to one another, scientific research, as opposed to impressionistic arguments, points to the fact that African languages are connected, and by extension, demonstrate African cultural connectivity and unity. By making reference to both African and European scholars, this article demonstrates pan-African linguistic and cultural unity, and echoes pan-Africanist scholars’ call for African linguistic and cultural unity as a basis for pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance.

Cover Theoria

In  Theoria

Published (Print):
01 Dec 2017
Article Type:
Research Article
Pages:
10–21 (12 total)
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Pan-Africanism and Epistemologies of the South

Pascah Mungwini

Abstract

The topic of pan-Africanism today brings to the fore questions of the unfinished humanistic project of decolonisation in Africa. When Kwasi Wiredu (1996) calls for the need for conceptual decolonisation in Africa, he recognises the intellectual price the continent continues to pay as a result of conceptual confusions and distortions caused by a colonial conceptual idiom implanted in the African mind. Reflecting on the potential which the ideology of pan-Africanism holds for the continent’s future, my position is that the same passion and energy which brought about political independence should now be redirected to the epistemic front. A new form of pan-Africanism on the intellectual front is required to galvanise Africans to develop and deploy in their thinking veritable categories of analysis born out of the experiences of being African in Africa. It is in the generation and application of these alternative epistemologies that the future of the continent lies.

Cover Theoria

In  Theoria

Published (Print):
01 Dec 2017
Article Type:
Research Article
Pages:
165–186 (22 total)
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Reassessing the Relevance of the Pan-African Discourse in Contemporary International Relations

Valery B. Ferim

Abstract

Spearheaded by pan-Africanists around the beginning of the twentieth century, the pan-African movement hosted a series of Pan-African congresses. Though the main objectives of the First Pan-African Congresses were to fight against the colonisation of Africa and the oppression of black people, the messages behind pan-Africanism have evolved over time. The central theme behind these Congresses, however, is to reiterate calls that African unity is the most potent force in combating the malignant forces of neocolonialism and entrenching Africa’s place in the global hierarchy. These calls have clamoured for the solidarity of Africans both on the continent and in the diaspora through associated paradigms such as ‘Afrocentrism’, ‘postcolonialism’, ‘African indigenous knowledge systems’ and ‘African solutions to African problems’. Despite this, contemporary societies are characterised by the encroachment of Westernisation, which has become synonymous to globalisation. This article reassesses the relevance of the pan-African discourse within the context of the contemporary world.

Cover Theoria

In  Theoria

Published (Print):
01 Dec 2017
Article Type:
Research Article
Pages:
85–100 (16 total)
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The Relevance of Robert Sobukwe’s Pan-Africanism in Contemporary South Africa

Lauren Marx

Abstract

Presently certain catchphrases and hashtags have been circulating and trending in the public discourse such as ‘white monopoly capital’, ‘radical economic transformation’ and movements’ phrases such as ‘fees must fall’ and ‘Black First Land First’ formulated in response to issues around education, land and race specifically. However, Robert Sobukwe, intellectual giant of the pan-Africanist struggle, articulated very strong beliefs underpinning these burning societal questions from as early as the 1940s. His incarceration, banishment and ultimate death in 1978 left a political vacuum in South Africa and more than twenty years after democracy, the aforementioned issues Sobukwe stressed during his time need to be revisited. South African is currently experiencing a massive resurgence in the narrative and discourse regarding the need for dialogue around education transformation, land reform and race as a whole. Therefore, this article seeks to draw unpack Sobukwe’s take on these three burning issues in relation to the current discourse in South Africa today underpinned by pan-Africanist philosophy.

Cover Theoria

In  Theoria

Published (Print):
01 Dec 2017
Article Type:
Research Article
Pages:
128–143 (16 total)
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Wiping away the Tears of the Ocean

Ukusulaizinyembezizolwandle

Mogobe Ramose

Abstract

This article distinguishes between pan-Africanism and pan-Africanness. It argues that the history of pan-Africanism is replete with achievements but that the achievements could have been more and radical if the movement had from its inception adopted pan-Africanness, manifesting itself as ubuntu, as its point of departure. It focuses on epistemic and material injustice and suggests that there cannot be social justice without epistemic justice. The pursuit of the latter ought to lead to giving up one’s life if necessary, for the sake of giving life to others.

Cover Theoria

In  Theoria

Published (Print):
01 Dec 2017
Article Type:
Research Article
Pages:
22–57 (36 total)
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Deliberation and Courts

The Role of the Judiciary in a Deliberative System

Donald Bello Hutt

Abstract

We lack analyses of the judiciary from a systemic perspective. This article thus examines arguments offered by deliberativists who have reflected about this institution and argues that the current state of deliberative democracy requires us to rethink the ways they conceive of the judiciary within a deliberative framework. After an examination of these accounts, I define the deliberative system and describe the different phases deliberative democracy has gone through. I then single out elements common to all systemic approaches against which I test whether the regard that the authors show for the judiciary in deliberative terms can be maintained and argue in the negative. I conclude by pointing at the necessity to think about the definition of deliberative systems, and to the value of these discussions for debates on the legitimacy of judicial review when it is exercised under the form of judicial supremacy.

Cover Theoria

In  Theoria

Published (Print):
01 Sep 2017
Article Type:
Research Article
Pages:
77–103 (27 total)
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Distinguishing Injustice, Exploitation and Harm

The Impossibility Result

Elias L. Khalil

Abstract

This article advances what it calls the ‘Impossibility Result’: it is impossible to claim that the reduction of exploitation leads to the improvement of efficiency. The Impossibility Result is the inevitable result of the proposed conceptual difference between ‘injustice’ and ‘exploitation’. Injustice occurs when one member of a society deviates from the norms and the legal rules concerning how one should treat other members of that society. Exploitation occurs when one member of a society takes advantage of entities such wild animals, cattle, a field of vegetables, or other people that lie outside the boundary of that society. In many cases of exploitation, the exploited may derive some benefit, as in the case when enslavement is better than death. In other cases of exploitation, the exploited may derive zero benefit, called here ‘harm’, as in the case when a deer is hunted.

Cover Theoria

In  Theoria

Published (Print):
01 Sep 2017
Article Type:
Research Article
Pages:
24–52 (29 total)
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Kant’s Contradiction in Conception Test

A Causal-Teleological Version of the Logical Contradiction Interpretation

James Furner

Abstract

The contradiction in conception test (CC test) is one of two tests posed by Kant’s Formula of the Law of Nature. This article proposes a new interpretation of this test: a causal-teleological version of the Logical Contradiction Interpretation (LCI). Its distinctive feature is that it identifies causal and teleological implications in the thought of a universal law of nature. A causal-teleological version of LCI has two advantages. While the established view of the Groundwork’s applications of the CC test is a hybrid view that treats the Groundwork’s arguments as different in kind, a causal-teleological version of LCI unifies the Groundwork’s applications of the CC test. Relatedly, a causal-teleological version of LCI provides a solution to the problem of how the CC test can confirm the impermissibility of a self-directed maxim.

Cover Theoria

In  Theoria

Published (Print):
01 Sep 2017
Article Type:
Research Article
Pages:
1–23 (23 total)
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Relational Ethics and Partiality

A Critique of Thad Metz’s ‘Towards an African Moral Theory’

Motsamai Molefe

Abstract

In this article, I question the plausibility of Metz’s African moral theory from an oft neglected moral topic of partiality. Metz defends an Afro-communitarian moral theory that posits that the rightness of actions is entirely definable by relationships of identity and solidarity (or, friendship). I offer two objections to this relational moral theory. First, I argue that justifying partiality strictly by invoking relationships (of friendship) ultimately fails to properly value the individual for her own sake – this is called the ‘focus problem’ in the literature. Second, I argue that a relationship-based theory cannot accommodate the agent-related partiality since it posits some relationship to be morally fundamental. My critique ultimately reveals the inadequacy of a relationship-based moral theory insofar as it overlooks some crucial moral considerations grounded on the individual herself in her own right.

Cover Theoria

In  Theoria

Published (Print):
01 Sep 2017
Article Type:
Research Article
Pages:
53–76 (24 total)
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Review Essay

Lasse Thomassen

Cover Theoria

In  Theoria

Published (Print):
01 Sep 2017
Article Type:
Other
Pages:
104–107 (4 total)