A Strategy of ‘Subversive Rationalization’ for Revealing Modernity in Africa

8/14/2019 A Strategy of Subversive Rationalization for Revealing Modernity in Africa

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A Strategy of Subversive Rationalization for Revealing Modernity in Africa

"The world we have created is the product of our thinking. It cannot be changedwithout changing our thinking" Albert Einstein

"Science is a way of thinking much more than a body of knowledge" Carl Sagan

This paper is about sharing a novel strategy - a STRATEGY OF SUBVERSIVERATIONALIZATION - for uncovering modernity in Africa. The strategy emphasizes theinternalization of the scientific method and rational modes of thinking as well asthe assimilation of key scientific knowledge, as the epistemological foundation ofany kind of modernity. It also stresses the necessity of renovating conformist,traditionalist or totalizing belief and knowledge systems, worldviews andcultures, that stand in the way to essential changes on the road to modernity - amega-project of autonomization, individuation, rationalization, demystificationand feminization processes (less patriarchal forms). Modernity is also a projectof democratization, liberalization, secularization, trans-nationalization,systematization, technocratization and humanization processes.

The strategy relies on scientific knowledge, which offers only incomplete andpatchy theories of the real but nonetheless possibly the best models of reality,for reordering and reconstructing the African reality and for engaging it with upto date, robust and economically efficient technical know-how. More generally, itrelies on calculative thinking and on the scientific tradition as the most viablecivilizational horizon of a budding region, whose tortuous and uncertaintransition to modernity may necessitate an imaginative strand of thinking.Triumphant techno-scientific dogmas need not lead inevitably to the devastation,excesses and wastefulness of post-industrial consumerist cultures. They need notto be a model for an African modernity, which can avoid being exceedinglyobsessed, en-framed or ordered by technology.

Humans, knowledge and technology are co-emerging, co-evolutive and mutually co-

constitutive of each other. And as soon as we are born we enter into a corruptedreality: corrupted by ancient customary thinking, viewpoints and taboos; corruptedby ancestors tyrannies, norms and ideals; corrupted by the veiling visions ofpre-contemporary cosmologies, revelations and prophecies; corrupted by inheritedalien religious canons and credos including those of Constantinian Christianityand Imperial Islam, which from a scientific perspective can be assimilated toblind lotteries (confirmed by statistics) of self-confirming systems of medievalthinking, superstitions and prejudices; corrupted by lies, mis-information anddeceptions; corrupted by spirits, divinities and other cultural paradigms; and,more universally, corrupted by conventional modes of thinking, knowing,understanding and being.

The strategy aims at freeing, uncorrupting or modernizing mentalities and

mindscapes, thus opening the way to the emergence of some brand of originalmodernity on the African continent, going further than the simple ownership anddisplay of modernitys most visible technological gadgets and gizmos. It aims atreforming the technological code with key technologies: of the self, of sign, offreedom, of change, of creativity, of power and of truth. These technologies arefundamental for guiding the rebirth of the self, or for cultivating the rebornAfro-self as a more modern self; for enlarging the freedom necessary for therequired societal transformations; for evolving effective technological symbolsand meanings, such as those of a generous and mobilizing vision of a modernAfrica; for designing and manufacturing appropriate material artefacts; forinnovating in processes of change, including technologically-induced socio-


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cultural change; for reordering power configurations; and for uncovering,producing or reconstructing truth an essential technology in a sea of lies,half-truths, self-delusions, clichs, cock-and-bull stories, and an importantconstitutive element of modernity.

If ideas shape the course of history (Keynes) or if imagination shapes history(Napoleon) then access to modernity entails going past inflationary rhetoricaldiscourse, utopian dreams and ceremonial entertainments. It requires subversive

ideas and actions and a methodology that can engineer radical and terribly complexadjustments in the intricate inner working of African communities. It calls forcritical thinking, dialogue, self-examination, self-exorcism and outright waragainst the conservative supremacy of the status quo and the authority structuresthat maintain it. This cannot be achieved through somewhat academic, elitist andreductionist policies. The basic choice facing the region is between customaryreligio-mythic, idolatrous or astonishingly over-religious rules, on the one hand,and enlightening development regimes substantiated by controlled experiences, onthe other hand.

The relative bottom position of most African countries in the techno-scientificglobal order is beyond dispute and current STI strategies may leave half theregion as deprived as ever, blown by the fierce winds of technologization and

globalization, locked into scientific and technical dependency and unable to meetkey MDGs. In these circumstances, the strategy may be helpful for putting inplace new foundational power-knowledge frameworks and configurations, and forimproving the African condition.

The African problematic of low exploitation of science and technology is wellknown in details and is often understood as the main reason behind the regionspoor socio-economic performance. In this low techno-scientific environment,attempts to give substance to the idea of an African Renaissance and comparableinitiatives, have proliferated: Nyerres Ujamaa, Mobutus Authenticit, SengorsNgritude, Nkrumas Conciencism, Kenyatas Harambee, Wades Omega, BouteflikasEnnahda Movement, Mbekis Call to Rebellion (1998) - let alone the vision of theCommission for Africa. These initiatives have mostly been successful at

developing, justifying and communicating specific visions of modernity. But theyalso all have been failures because they have not only under-estimated thecolossal effort required for achieving the necessary makeovers but they alsoconveniently ignored the most important changes to bring about: the painfulmodernization of the mythological landscape, including pre-modern Abrahamic,Shamanic and Animist mythologies. These changes imply a paradigmatic shift towardscientific ways of observing, questioning, analyzing and knowing or toward scienceas the latest myth or the new religion of the time that can propel the continentinto some kind of modernity.

Rationalization refers to a maturation process guided by the scientific method andby instrumental reason, more than by fairy tale legacies, superstitions, revealedor divine knowledge, as historically envisioned by prominent Enlightenment

philosophers and scientists of the 16th and 17th centuries. This rationalizationenables better control and more accurate calculation of means to achieve preciseends, resulting in superior technological or technical effectiveness andflexibility, and in greater industrial advance. Modernizing nations are moreideologically open or keener to mathematize and channel the forces of nature fortheir own benefit. And they are more oriented toward the corrosion of doubt -believing in things that can be empirically supported -- and toward improvinglives in this world (rather than in the after-life). In these mindsets, there areno place for Jonas-in-the-whale type of spellbound stories, amazing archangels,absurd limbos, far-fetched miracles, occult forces and providential intrusions.Reality is what is perceived through technological means. This results in


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developing societies being progressively subverted into essentially moreadvanced, enlightened or disenchanted ones.

Subversion refers to a process of overthrowing or overturning systems ofprinciples and convictions as well as forms of dominance, control and power thatare incompatible with or are not sustained by instrumental rationality andrenovation processes. These processes result in the uprooting of totalizing,oppressive or terror structures that obstruct the way to modern manners of

grasping reality - from terrorizing gods and demons, authoritative governments,phallocratic ecclesiasts, polygamous masters, mystifying medicine men tocloistered women, domestic slaves, mutilated girls and abducted brides. A strategyof Subversive Rationalization, therefore, means clearing the way toward morepragmatic, empirical and mechanical worldviews and at critically challenging pre-modern systems from un-enabling governance structures, including commandinghusbands, as well as from constraining cosmological and ideological formations,whether home-grown or alien.The strategy intends to probe the knowledge-powertechnology gaps with modern /scientific modes of perceiving. Filling this gap necessitates not only acquiringnew types of information, such as scientific, technical and business, but alsoabandoning some habitual or pre-scientific types of knowledge that stands in the

way to progress and modernity. As much endeavour may be required to unlearn ordeconstruct a pre-modern reality acquired through acculturation and socialization,than to learn new scientific and technical knowledge and a new version of reality.

Scientific proficiency is by far the trickiest to achieve since it often comes inconflict with long-established traditional knowledge edifices, which may not beseriously altered without social and political struggles. Undeniably, pre-modernspiritual constructions, including those originating from the Middle-East andancient Arabia, tend to mesmerize, domesticate or subjugate African societies,leaving insufficient room for true scientific ways of viewing, judging, behaving,existing and living. These scientific ways must gain ground over non-scientificways.

In a strategy of Subversive Rationalization, medieval faith-based representations,infrastructures and institutions, such as the institution of Heaven / Hell amongst the most powerful establishment regulating the lives of Africans couldbe superseded or supplanted by new thinking, unleashing the power of efficientsystems, such as successful innovation systems. Indeed, Evangelical and Quranicmodels, although of relatively recent human construction, may lack decisive valuesfor accessing modernity, such as democratic governance; the complete utilizationof feminine talents and aptitudes; affection and care for nature; a concern forthe future; superiority of scientific methods and hypotheses over gaseous orprophetic knowledge; a strong focus on life before death and a less fatalisticattitude toward the lifeworld and poverty all indispensable preconditions foruncovering modernity. In many circumstances mytho-religious texts and documents -promoted by a pervasive and expanding physical and human infrastructure (not

exactly a hotspring of fresh worldviews) - may constitute a virtual owner's manualfor ones life. This is especially so for Africans-of-one-book, which undercertain conditions may not be conducive to paradigmatic innovation. Only techno-scientific knowledge can sustain the deep transformations to modernity.

The strategy requires pushing back fabulous or pre-scientific beliefs formationsin order to clear a space or a pathway for more scientific views and practices.The central tussle is being played between various categories of knowledge - fromscientifically founded to unfounded. This could be the crucible where a meaningfulAfrican modernity could emerge, through a redefinition of cultural, social,economic, ideological, mythological and political relationships with science and


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technology.

Technology is more than a tool or an instrument at our disposal. It is also anorganizing activity in which humans themselves are organized. The moretechnologies evolve and become ubiquitous the more humans are themselvestransformed and organized into resources, raw material, system components, toys,cogs, devices and sex organs and optimized for the sake of system efficiency theessence of technology. The outcome is easier and more secure and prosperous ways

of life, but dominated and regulated by the rigorous disciplinary order oftechnical systems. In this framework, the African youth struggles to becomeefficient resource in the global job market, while technology mainly revealsAfrica as a collection of folkloric curiosities, and an immense fuel stationcoveted for powering the global technological engine.

A techno-scientific renewal through a strategy of Subversive Rationalization couldbe helpful in promoting Pan-African integration and in responding to the specialneeds of the region. It could be supportive in revitalizing, refreshing, unifyingand integrating knowledge systems in African territories. These systems aregreatly fractured, compartmented, medievalized and largely unscientificallyfounded (Muslim / Christian division and exclusive possession), balkanized (by sixcolonizing powers), fragmented (+ 1000 idioms and worldviews), and mythologized

(with indigenous and foreign superstitions). Knowledge is also sometimesmonopolized (non-sharing knowledge practices and ethos), atomized (not part of anyadvanced international knowledge networks), decontextualized (uprooted,transplanted from the technologically-advanced areas), unused or underused(scientists as taxi drivers), misappropriated (by power hungry sources), under ormis-professionalized (shamanic knowledge), misapplied (ecocidal) or misinterpreted(disregarding scientific revolutions). African knowledge is also somewhat beingeroded (extinct or dying knowledge), canned (ready-made shipped in a pre-packagedfashion), drained (brains seeking greener pasture), rarely rented (against royaltypayments) and always somewhat plagued with ancestors-,Western- and phallo-centricity. The strategy would provide an enhanced and more modern ordering ofknowledge and reality.

Current science, technology, innovation and knowledge policy approaches remainhopelessly nave and basically adjunct to the actual working of knowledgeeconomies. They do not address the issues specifically related to a region a bitstained with pre-modern habits of mind, languages and views of the universe andlife. They do not put enough emphasis on the structural-constitutional issues thathave stabilized many African spaces into pre-modern technological ways of life(with some growing islands of imitative modernization). These spaces can graduateinto some sort of modernity through a more intensive, rational, unfettered andpopular use of avant-garde science, technology and knowledge and with therequisite mental or intellectual costumes of modern times.

Free-thinkers, scientists, policymakers and stakeholders could be influential incontextualizing and supporting the strategy in the African region. In line and in

full support of NEPAD, they could commit themselves to building competences foracquiring and incorporating vital techno-scientific knowledge in strategic areasand to encouraging and utilizing science as a way of thinking, which fortunatelyor unfortunately, is highly injurious and detrimental to time-honoured traditionalor pre-modern myths, prejudices, doctrines, tenets, precepts, credos, faiths orfantasies.

The strategy could entrust opinion makers and the scientific and entrepreneurialcommunities to sound courses of action such as strengthening capacities forconverting or revamping existing traditional knowledge systems, including faith-based systems, and for restructuring or recreating reality. These could include


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Africanizing, decolonizing, indigenizing, liberating, re-cosmologizing, re-mythologizing, re-charlatanizing, re-prophetizing, re-sacralizing and re-deifyingprocesses for a different African adventure, driven by thriving methodical ways ofthinking and scientific practices..In summary the strategy of Subversive Rationalization uses the power of scientificthought to launch a counter hegemonic offensive in order to subvert disablingtraditional and repressive knowledge-power orders that stand in the way to a new

realism, or to the rejuvenation and reconstruction of the African reality. Thestrategy may be valuable for bringing about a post-totemic, post-enchanted, post-Abrahamic, post-phallocratic, post-colonial and post-fragmented regional space andin moving Africa forward into a distinctive, creative, secular, democratic andauthentic form of modernity.

more at http://jachamel.googlepages.com

Jacques [email protected]

A Strategy of ‘Subversive Rationalization’ for Revealing Modernity in Africa

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