Intellectual Maroons: Architects of African Sovereignty by Uhuru Hotep, Ed.D. Kwame Ture Leadership Institute ktli.org Landmarks and Doorways “Slavery of the mind is far more destructive than that of the body.” – Edward Wilmot Blyden There are three major “landmarks” on the road to intellectual maroonage. If recognized when encountered, they will assure the African scholar that he/she is in flight from conceptual incarceration and comfortable captivity and headed toward mental freedom. It seems strangely paradoxical, but at the same time completely appropriate that we must use concepts to free ourselves from concepts. The first and perhaps the most readily identifiable landmark is what I call intellectual disobedience, which is a 21st century corollary to Henry David Thoreau’s (1849) notion of civil disobedience. Conceived in 2000, this view holds that African scholars, teachers, activists and others have a moral imperative to resist all efforts by the Europeancentric educational/informational hegemony to restrict, constrict or otherwise regulate the content and scope of their intellectual life. Back in the 1960s, Dr. King and his cohorts engaged in civil disobedience because they understood they had a moral obligation to resist unjust efforts by the state to deny their civil rights. Similarly, intellectual maroons have a divine command, as do all people, to engage in intellectual disobedience by resisting efforts by the state and its agents to deny, curtail or constrict their human rights. One of our most basic human rights is the right to intellectual sovereignty; and in this era of ubiquitous, state-sponsored efforts at mind control and “womb to tomb” state-sponsored surveillance, intellectual disobedience is the sine qua non of intellectual sovereignty. The second major landmark found on the road to freedom from conceptual incarceration and comfortable captivity is nyansa nnsa da, a Twi term meaning “wisdom has no limits.” Coined by Kofi Addae in 1996, (but alluded to as early as 1921 by Marcus Garvey), the nyansa nnsa da paradigm holds that African intellectual freedom, and by extension political and economic sovereignty, hinges on developing both the will and the skill to think and act outside of and independent from established Western categories and frameworks. At its highest expression, nyansa nnsa da brings forth models of excellence rooted [in] our highest African cultural values and philosophical principles. But as long as Black scholars rely like Negro scholars upon their slavery-acquired or colonial acquired Caucasian cultural and intellectual heritage to the exclusion of their African background, at best they can be no more than first-rate servants or second-rate Caucasian imitators. Like Africans who can only dance ballet or play basra, they bring nothing authentic or original to the world. To complete the restoration of our 100,000 year-old tradition of sovereign nation/civilization building will demand that Black scholars travel far beyond Europeans and Arabs into pre-Christian, pre-Islamic ancestral, cultural and intellectual spaces. Among other skills, mastering the art of shifting seamlessly from 21st century Caucasian to ancient or traditional African modes of thought and feeling is paramount for Africans in the Diaspora. Thomas Kuhn (1970) calls this skill “shifting paradigms;” we call it nyansa nnsa da. Our third major landmark is Maulana Karenga’s (1997) concept of “liberational logic,” which he defines as “reasoning directed toward undermining and overthrowing constraints on human thought and practice” by “promoting conscious emancipatory activity on the intellectual and practical level.” Liberational logic’s freedom-focused mode of reasoning is the ideal catalyst for W. Curtis Banks’ (1982) deconstruction-reconstruction-construction (DRC) model for processing and interpreting data before creating new knowledge. Two classic examples of Banksian deconstructionist thinking fueled by liberational logic are Amilcar Cabral’s (1974) view that to be free we must not only remove the oppressor from our land, we must also remove his “spirit” (meaning his concepts, values, images and belief systems) from our homes, hearts and minds and Chinweizu’s (1987) call for “decolonising the African mind”. Liberational logic in its reconstructionist mode is embedded in all activity that seeks to transform an oppressive social condition by bringing forth African centered concepts, practices, values and belief systems as solutions. When combined with intellectual disobedience and nyansa nnsa da, liberational logic in its constructionist mode empowers Black scholars to exorcise the ghosts of colonialism and slavery – like conceptual incarceration and comfortable captivity – from their collective psyches thereby freeing space for healthy orientations like Maat restoration-maafa termination to take hold and flourish. It is liberational logic that provides the rationality for our push to restore African societies to their pre-colonial status as sovereign powers. In the minds/hands of intellectual maroons, it is both a shield and a spear opening the way for defensive and offensive thought and action. In closing, the Black scholar traversing the road to freedom will find upon close inspection that these “landmarks” are actually “doorways,” secret portals into the glorious states of sovereignty and independence, which is the intellectual maroon’s home base. To escape from conceptual incarceration, comfortable captivity and the illusions of inclusion to become intellectual maroons, Black scholars can begin by initiating a two-step process. First, they must deeply, lovingly immerse themselves in the books, journals, magazines, CDs, videos, and audio-tapes produced by our intellectual maroon community. And second they must fellowship and network with intellectual maroons and their supporters by attending their conferences, workshops and other gatherings. The widespread availability of the Internet makes the first step possible even in the most Europeancentric locales, and the fact that nearly every urban center boast a community of intellectual maroons makes the second step possible as well. Taking these two simple but courageous steps will position Black scholars to embrace intellectual disobedience, nyansa nnsa da and liberational logic. To be continued.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 13:58:11 +0000