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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Metaphysics and magic consciousness: towards a theory of combat literature in Africa and the diaspora |
Author: | Ogunjimi, Bayo |
Year: | 1990 |
Periodical: | African Notes: Bulletin of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan |
Volume: | 14 |
Issue: | 1-2 |
Pages: | 1-9 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Subsaharan Africa |
Subjects: | philosophy magic political action oral literature literature |
Abstract: | The inherent potential in Africans to muster the cosmic and material resources of their universe to give a version of their own permanent historical, cultural and economic values is demobilized by the substitution of European metaphysics for African metaphysics. In view of the common philosophical, cultural and historical ancestry of the peoples of Africa and the diaspora, the author provokes an interdisciplinary discourse that hinges on materialist dialectics as a means of deconstructing the theory and practice of Eruopean hegemony. Literature embodying a revolutionary interpretation and applying metaphysics and magic consciousness has been inspired by the Mau Mau in Kenya and the Maji Maji in Tanzania, while the revolutionary songs and poetry emerging from the diaspora are loaded with the contents of African oral literature. Calypso and reggae, the harbinger of revolutionary culture in the Third World today, reflect the African philosophical psyche and collective cognition. The artist in both Africa and the diaspora must apply his creative force to relate the material and the immaterial to the dynamics of history. Ref. |