Western Hegemony In Africa

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On the light of Nkrumah’s statement here, I begin my discussion by looking more closely at the break and continuity of Western hegemony on Africa since the European encounter with Africa. To begin with: I argue the West supplanted African position in the entire world order. The hegemonic domination of the West precludes Africa to take part on its share, for it serves as mouthpiece of Western states to empower themselves by African support. The underlining reason for the West to dominate Africa is to realize its myth of “universalization of European values” (Makinda, S. M. and Okumu, F. W. 2008). This aggravates ills of the continent which creep from bad to worse for which colonialism and globalization are tremendous causes. For this reason,…show more content…
For instance, it is still the West who utters and blames China when it opens a new era of economic empire in the continent. What does Western hegemony on Africa imply with regard to its ambition of universalism? 1.1 Hierarchy of Human Race in Western Philosophy and Its Implication Christianity, the religion that the West enunciates, preaches “God created mankind in His own image.” Other religions have no different doctrine on this which implies mankind is equal regardless of biological differences. Correspondingly, Western philosophy characterizes man as a rational being and Aristotle was proponent of it. But if Aristotle were correct, human race would not be put in to category of “superior” or “inferior”, “black” or “white”, endowed with “reason” or “emotion”. On the contrary, Aristotle argues, if a group of people was less rational than the Greek people, they would be less human (Manuel Velasquez, 2009:56). Aristotle became mastermind of racism whose philosophy brought “racist philosophers” such as G.W.F. Hegel, Immanuel Kant and David Hume. Hegel’s remark on the history of the world is a point of departure in the denial of Africa as if she is static, immoral, extravagant, and away from proper history…show more content…
A. Diop, 1991 and; George G.M. James, 2001). Following Hegel’s trivialization of Africa the “civilizing mission” is proposed to reshape Africa’s natural existence into Western made continent. Mudimbe contends “the current Africa is the creation of Europeans.” Olayiwola Abegunrin (2009); E. K. Bongmba (2001); C. A. Keim 8 | P a g e (2009) state the creation of Africa is in dramatic ways. Wiredu also states that the white racists enslaved Africa because they are in need of its black body. Portrayal of Africa as such illuminates the “civilizing mission” project and helps the “civilizers” export Western values to Africa. Such export continues in the contemporary age of globalization based on Westernization project. The justification of Western cultural, epistemological, and economic hegemony over Africa is thus complacent to the philosophy of hierarchy of human race. It is also the realization of inequality among nations which causes injustice that jeopardizes Africa’s search for justice, freedom, and humanity. The contemporary unjust domination of the West in the global system victimizes African values in particular and humanity in general. As a result, African ways of handling its ills rest

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