CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1: BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
According to African statesmen, the whites even after granting independence to the colonies they were governing left as a parting gift to the Africans the concept of neo-colonialism. Neo-colonialism is a situation whereby the black man feels inferior to the Europeans and derives psychological satisfaction only by associating with them. Even till today, traces of neo-colonialism are still visible. The African never values any product that is of African origin. He prefers the product which has the label “made in China” or “made in America” and other foreign seals.
This predicament was what prompted African thinkers like Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Leopold Senghor, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and others to embark on the search for the ‘African identity’ and this they expressed in their works.
Kwame Nkrumah, one of the African statesmen, postulated an ideology known as ‘Consciencism’. This ideology is an exercise in anti-colonialism. It advocated for a social revolution which was to be brought about by an intellectual revolution. This was clearly articulated in the first sentence of the first chapter of the book. He noted that “practice without thought is blind; thought without practice is empty”1.
This project work will have as its focal point ‘Consciencism’ as presented by Kwame Nkrumah. It must be noted that Consciencism is a summary of Nkrumah’s ideological viewpoint geared towards the economic and political emancipation of the African. It was marked that Consciencism arrived at a stage of development where the vigorous African search for freedom; unity and identity need to be expressed in the form of philosophical statesments2.
Furthermore, the concept; ‘Consciencism’ has been subjected to some criticisms; hence there is need for an overview of the concept with a view to presenting it in the very spirit of African revolution.
1.2: STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Kwame Nkrumah’s ideology which he propounded for the development of the African is based on a foundation of materialism. The minimum assertion of materialism is the absolute and independent existence of matter3. Looking at it singly from this view, it becomes apparent that ‘philosophical consciencism’ as Nkrumah calls it cannot be reconciled with the religious realities found in the African society as the roles of spirits and souls cannot be over-emphasized as far as the African is concerned.
As pointed out by Paulin Houtondji, “consciencism is wrong in treating any political system as interdependent with some specific metaphysical theory”4. For him, if political theories are to need justification, “it must be political justification, belonging to the same level of discourse”5. In other words, there is a problem with bringing metaphysics into the realm of political discourse.
Another problem is that of the realization of Nkrumah’s ideology. Nkrumah himself said that “Colonialism and its attitude are die hard, like the attitudes of slavery, whose hangover still dominates behaviour in certain parts of the western hemisphere”6. For the above reasons, the problem arises as to whether or not philosophical consciencism is not merely a theoretical concept, which will fail in practice.
All these problems are associated with the concept of ‘consciencism’ and its application.