AFRICAN IDEOLOGIES AND INNOVATIVE TRENDS AND ADVANCES: HONOURING THE PAST AND SHAPING THE FUTURE

Abstract

It is almost inevitable to talk about African ideologies without referring to the West which seems to have created and transferred the concept to the African operational system. Western ideologies, like materialism, formalism, idealism, rationalism, empiricism, communism, socialism, individualism and collectivism, tend to dominate and even dictate most of Western thinking and action. As for African ideologies, they are guided and propelled by cosmic vital forces that navigate within the space-time dynamics. One would like to explain the concept of ideology in terms of ideas and presuppositions behind the activities, processes, procedures and outcomes underlying decisions and policies on various issues. To put things in clear perspective, let it be noted that the Western ideologies are based on dualism, while those of Africa are based on dualitism. Both dualism and dualitism represent the idea of twoness in reality. Dualism’s twoness involves a contrast, while dualitism’s is one of complement. In Western thinking ideologies found their way into the various isms for every given field of research and activity. Africa’s thinking is oriented to and suffused with cosmology.