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African Isms

Africa and the Globalized World

by Abdul Karim Bangura (Volume editor)
©2021 Monographs XII, 162 Pages

Summary

The impetus for this book emerged from our belief that as Africans across the globe are confronted with a myriad of challenges that have been birthed by globalization (i.e., the process of going to a more interconnected world by diminishing the world’s social dimension and expansion of overall global consciousness), they must turn to their own ideas for solutions. While many books exist on individual African Isms, such as Afrocentrism, Nasserism, and Pan-Africanism, none exists that has looked at a series of these Isms together. This book is the first to do so and, thus, its justification. Consequently, through this edited volume, we address the applicability of different African Isms to various issues, particularly current issues, on the continent of Africa. Each chapter provides a theoretical framework and topics or issues concerning African people of the continent. It is therefore an innovative scholarly work as no other work has examined these Isms in this manner. Thus, the ideas are quite appealing. Reexamining and applying each of the African Isms in order to challenge Eurocentric myth and reality in current African political, economic, cultural, and social matters is quite logical and clear.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This edition of the eBook can be cited
  • Table of Contents
  • Preface: (ABDUL KARIM BANGURA
  • Acknowledgments
  • 1. General Introduction: African Isms: Africanisms and Linguistic Backdrops: (ABDUL KARIM BANGURA
  • 2. Africanism: (KINGSLEY CHINEDU DARAOJIMBA, CHINWE BEATRICE EZEOKE, HADIZAT AUDU SALIHU AND PATRICK ESIEMOGIE IDODE
  • 3. Afrocentrism: A Mazruiana Perspective: (ALI KUNDA
  • 4. Mandelaism: (JULIUS NIRINGIYIMANA, ROBERT KAKURU, IBILATE WARIBO-NAYE AND JUDITH IRENE NAGASHA
  • 5. Nasserism: (ABDUL KARIM BANGURA
  • 6. Ubuntuism: (ESTHER NKHUKHU-ORLANDO, CHICK LOVELINE AYOH NDI AND CHARLES MASSIMO
  • 7. General Conclusion and Postscript: (ABDUL KARIM BANGURA
  • Bibliography
  • About the Contributors
  • Index

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Preface

The impetus for this book emerged from our belief that as Africans across the globe are confronted with a myriad of challenges that have been birthed by globalization (i.e. the process of going to a more interconnected world by diminishing the world’s social dimension and expansion of overall global consciousness), they must turn to their own ideas for solutions. Just as the ideas of Pan-Africanism, birthed by Henry Sylvester-Williams and others in the late 1800s, and Négritude, ushered by Aimé Césaire and others in the early 1900s, emboldened many African thinkers and leaders to push for independence across the continent, so will these ideas help Africans to address current challenges that are stifling their advancement. Also, just like Afrocentricity and other ideas birthed by major contemporary African thinkers in the Diaspora, which gave rise to the Africanist Perspective on the Motherland to place Africa at the center of all intellectual discourses pertaining to African people everywhere while at the same time challenging the pervasive and pernicious Eurocentric myth of African people being inactive agents in history, so will these ideas serve as wellsprings for combating the current vagaries Africans are facing. Correspondingly, what the chapters in this book do is delineate the essentialities of a group of African Isms in order to generate suggestions on how to address contemporary challenges with which Africans are grappling. Inevitably, the chapters interrogate past, present and future issues dealing with the African continent, people of African descent, institutions in the continent and the Diaspora, and relationships between Africa and other countries and regions across the globe.

While many books exist on individual African Isms, such as Afrocentrism, Nasserism, and Pan-Africanism, none exists that has looked at a series of these Isms together. This book is the first to do so and, thus, its justification. Consequently, through this edited volume, we address the applicability of ←ix | x→different African Isms to various issues, particularly current issues, on the continent of Africa. Each chapter provides a theoretical framework and topics or issues concerning African people of the continent. It is therefore an innovative scholarly work as no other work has examined these Isms in this manner. Thus, the ideas are quite appealing. Reexamining and applying each of the African Ism in order to challenge Eurocentric myth and reality in current African political, economic, cultural and social matters is quite logical and clear.

As such, the book is suitable as a main or supplementary text for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in African/Afro-American/African American/Africana/Black Studies, History, Political Science, Philosophy, and Social Studies from which the various epistemologies covered in the book have sprung. It also is useful to professors teaching about and scholars doing research in these areas. In addition, policy makers in these areas will be interested in the valuable information that the book provides. Furthermore, relevant political activists and advocacy groups will be interested in the book to pursue their objectives.

Abdul Karim Bangura

Washington DC, USA

Summer 2020

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Acknowledgments

We, and hopefully many readers, owe gratitude to:

The Creator, for giving us the good health and fortitude to do this work.

Our African ancestors, for providing us spiritual guidance throughout this endeavor.

Scholars in Africa and the Diaspora, for listening to and providing useful comments on the subject. Asking difficult questions often leads to better answers.

Immediate and extended family members across the globe, for offering encouragement and prayers.

The anonymous manuscript reviewers, for providing suggestive evaluations. All shortcomings, of course, rest with us.

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1 General Introduction

African Isms: Africanisms and Linguistic Backdrops

ABDUL KARIM BANGURA

The chapters in this book are the contributions of professors and doctoral candidates affiliated with the Council for the Development of Economic and Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA) College of Mentors with headquarters in Dakar, Senegal. The impetus for this work emerged from our belief that as Africans across the globe are confronted with a myriad of challenges that have been birthed by globalization (i.e. the process of going to a more interconnected world by diminishing the world’s social dimension and expansion of overall global consciousness), they must turn to their own ideas for solutions. Just as the ideas of Pan-Africanism, birthed by Henry Sylvester-Williams and others in the late 1800s, and Négritude, ushered by Aimé Césaire and others in the early 1900s, emboldened many African thinkers and leaders to push for independence across the continent, so will these ideas help Africans to address current challenges that are stifling their advancement. Also, just like Afrocentricity and other ideas birthed by major contemporary African thinkers in the Diaspora, which gave rise to the Africanist Perspective on the Motherland to place Africa at the center of all intellectual discourses pertaining to African people everywhere while at the same time challenging the pervasive and pernicious Eurocentric myth of African people being inactive agents in history, so will these ideas serve as wellsprings for combating the current vagaries Africans are facing.

Correspondingly, what the chapters in this book do is delineate the essentialities of a group of African isms in order to generate suggestions on how to address contemporary challenges with which Africans are grappling. ←1 | 2→Inevitably, the chapters interrogate past, present, and future issues dealing with the African continent, people of African descent, institutions in the continent and the Diaspora, and relationships between Africa and other countries and regions across the globe.

In order to provide a setting for what follows in the rest of the book, the ensuing discussion is divided into two main sections entailing African and linguistic backdrops. In the end, the basic organization of the rest of this book is stated. It behooves me to note here that while the African backdrop may appear more relevant to most, if not all, readers, the linguistic backdrop may not seem so to them. But, it is imperative that a reader gets a sense of the linguistic aspects that undergird the general notions and theoretical compositions of isms.

Africanisms Backdrop

Many sources have provided definitions for Africanisms, with some focusing on specific aspects, others focusing on general aspects, and still others focusing on both general and specific aspects of the concept. For example, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the concept as “(1) a characteristic feature of African culture; (2) a characteristic feature of an African language occurring in a non-African language; (3) allegiance to the traditions, interests, or ideals of Africa” (2018, p. 1). The dictionary then goes on to add that the first known use of the concept was in 1641 (2018, p. 1). The Encyclopedia.com describes the idea as “any cultural (material or nonmaterial) or linguistic property of African origin surviving in the Americas or in the African diaspora” (2018, p. 1). The Collins English Dictionary elucidates the notion as “(1) an African custom, characteristic, or belief; (2) a word, phrase, grammatical construction, or other feature originating in or peculiar to an African language; (3) devotion to African customs, traditions, etc.; specif., advocacy of independence for African states or of Pan-Africanism” (2018, p.1). The Oxford Dictionaries proffers the explanation of the thought as “(1) a feature of language or culture regarded as characteristically African”; (2) the belief that black Africans and their culture should predominate in Africa—‘some proclaim a policy of non-racialism, others a more racially exclusive one of Africanism’ ” (2018, p. 1). And, The Free Dictionary explains the conception as “(1) a characteristically African cultural feature, such as a belief or custom; (2) a linguistic feature of an African language occurring in a non-African language” (2018, p. 1).

It is quite evident from the preceding definitions that the sources offer similar and dissimilar features for Africanisms. In this book, the reader will discern the preceding attributes and more on the concept.

←2 | 3→

Linguistic Backdrop

The term ism, which can be defined as a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy, typically a political ideology or an artistic movement, is from a linguistic point of view a suffix. As I point out in our book titled Fettered –tions and –isms (Bangura 2011a), from which what appears in the rest of this section is culled, grammarians generally define a suffix such as –ism as an affix or a derivational or an inflectional bound morpheme that is attached at the end of bases or stems and that changes the meanings or syntactic functions of the words to which it is attached—for example, Africanism. Over the years, many phenomena in the world, some of which are examined in this book, have been labeled with the ism suffix. The other types of affixes are called (a) prefix—that which is attached to the front of its stem, for example, unAfrican disappear, replay, illegal, inaccurate; (b) infix—that which occurs within another morpheme, for example, expletives such as guaran-damn-tee, abso-bloody-lutely; and (c) reduplicative—that which duplicates all or part of the stem, for example, putt-putt, chop-chop, so-so, bon-bon, boo-boo (for more on these, see O’Grady et al. 1989, pp. 95–96; Bangura 2011a, pp. 1–7).

In particular, according to Stuart Robertson and Frederic Cassidy, –ism is a suffix that English borrowed through French and Latin from Greek. The very mention of it, with its suggestion of the prevalence of “isms”, is perhaps enough to indicate how English affixes have often yielded ground to borrowed ones (1954, p. 197). From a phonological perspective, -isms, because of their linguistic origin, when they are added to words show a shift of stress. In contrast, when a prefix or suffix of Old English origin is added to a word, it has no effect on the position or stress (Bangura 2011a, p. 2).

Affixes can have varying effects when they are added to roots (Langacker 1967, p. 74; Pyles & Algeo 1982, p. 5). For example, when s is added to giraffe to form giraffes, the effect is to further specify giraffe with respect to the number of those animals. Both giraffe and giraffes are nouns; adding the plural morpheme s does not change the grammatical class of the word. Similarly, suffixing the past tense morpheme of the verb knock yields another verb, knocked. However, swift and swiftly belong to different grammatical classes; swift is an adjective, but swiftly is an adverb. There are still other affixes that relate to other grammatical classes (Bangura 2011a, p. 2).

Thus, linguists often distinguish between inflectional and derivational affixes (e.g. Langacker 1967, p. 74; Pyles & Algeo 1982, p. 5). Giraffe and giraffes, intuitively, are alternate forms of the same entity, as are swift and swiftly. The endings added to giraffe and knock are inflectional affixes. English nouns like giraffe can be inflected for number. Knocked contains an inflectional ending to indicate past tense (Bangura 2011a, p. 2).

←3 |
 4→

However, the relation between swift and swiftly is of a different kind. When ly is added to swift, it does not serve to mark agreement with some other element of the sentence or to qualify the root with respect to number, tense, or any other comparable entity. It does not simply yield another version of the same entity; instead, it derives from it an entity that is quite distinct. Therefore, ly is considered a derivational affix. In addition, derivational affixes do not always affect a change in grammatical class (Langacker 1967, p. 75; Pyles & Algeo 1982, pp. 5–6). For instance, the derivational prefix re relates construct and reconstruct, yet both are verbs. Also, compare make/remake, happy/unhappy, and plausible/implausible (Bangura 2011a; p. 2).

Consequently, as Langacker observes, “the lexicon of a language is its inventory of morphemes, together with information about how these morphemes can be combined to form more complex lexical items, such as words” (1967, p. 76). In certain cases, the combination of morphemes into complex units is a regular exercise. For example, the past tense can be added to most English verbs. Therefore, we have hack/hacked, mince/minced, blow/blew, catch/caught, will/would, is/was, light/lit, praise/praised, etc. The combination of roots with derivational affixes tends to be less regular (Langacker 1967, p. 76; Pyles & Algeo 1982, pp. 5, 8). One can undo a tie, but s/he cannot unopen a window (Bangura 2011a, p. 2).

Furthermore, affixes take on very interesting characteristics in pronunciation. The following discussion is based on extensive notes I took as a graduate student of linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC in courses taught by the late Professor Charles W. Kreidler, one of the leading experts on Phonology at the time (Bangura 2011a, p. 2).

Suffixes and Mobile Stress

When a prefix or suffix of Old English origin is added to a word, it has no effect on the position of stress; for example (Bangura 2011a, p. 3):

‘brother

Details

Pages
XII, 162
Year
2021
ISBN (PDF)
9781433183829
ISBN (ePUB)
9781433183836
ISBN (MOBI)
9781433183843
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781433183812
DOI
10.3726/b17800
Language
English
Publication date
2021 (February)
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Oxford, Wien, 2021. XII, 162 pp., 2 b/w ill.

Biographical notes

Abdul Karim Bangura (Volume editor)

Abdul Karim Bangura is a Senior Mentor of the CODESRIA College of Mentors and a Researcher-in-Residence of Abrahamic Connections and Islamic Peace Studies at American University’s Center for Global Peace. He holds five PhDs in Political Science, Development Economics, Linguistics, Computer Science, and Mathematics.

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