African Ideology and Belief: A Survey

Abstract

This paper surveys the state of research on ideology and belief in Africa, a subject made up of two often separated notions but significant as a conjunction in current African history and in need of theoretical elaboration. Although there have been writings on this subject in numerous disciplines, this essay will concentrate on the anthropological perspective of the relationship of ideology and belief, as stimulated by anthropologists' confrontations with African developments The paper presents three major arguments or themes. First, it contends that the distinction between ideology and belief is invidious and should be transcended. Second, it documents that the study of these phenomena in Africa, whether labeled cultural superstructure or labeled ideology and belief, has become increasingly a historical rather than a mythological science. This trend should be hastened. The argument applies to the study of belief principles similar to those that Professor Ajayi (1967:274) invoked in a well known essay for the study of history. It was time, Ajayi said, to replace the mythical Africa of colonial thought with knowledge of what real men did in real situations. The third theme of this essay is that although the models of society constructed by its members and the models constructed by outside observers are, as Lévi-Strauss says (1967:274), phenomena of the same order, the models belong to different cultures, meet different requirements, cannot be reconciled, and should not be confused, although they often have been in the past, in African studies in particular.

African Gnosis Philosophy and the Order of Knowledge: An Introduction

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Theories of Developmental Psychology for a Cultural Perspective: A Viewpoint from Africa

“…Human Development: An Eco-cultural Perspective According to Valsiner (1987, p. 45), &dquo;Any theoretical or empirical stance in developmental psychology is embedded in a reference frame of thought, which in its turn comes from investigators' cultural background.&dquo; This suggests the futility of discounting issues of epistemology and motive in psychology and the relations among science, social science and ideology (MacGaffey, 1981). Harre (1987) sees psychological theories as social talk, which constitutes one of the many kinds.…”

Conversations in the Rainforest: Culture, Values, and the Environment in Central Africa

“…Other works of African Philosophy that hold promise for this area of investigation are several of Mudimbe's other works (1994Mudimbe's other works ( , 1991bMudimbe's other works ( , 1982, Appiah (1992), Gyekye (1987), Hountondji (1994), Odera Oruka (1990, Serequeberhan (1994Serequeberhan ( , 1991, and Wiredu (1980). Key works in African religion and theology that include relevant material are Mbiti (1988), MacGaffey (1981, Paris (1995), Ray (1976), Sindima (1995Sindima ( , 1994, Somé (1993), and Zuesse (1979). The realm of African literature is vast, and therefore one might limit exploration to those works in which natural themes dominate.…”