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Thursday, JANUARY 20, 2022 •
The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint
• www.sdvoice.info
INTERNATIONAL NEWS KWASI WIREDU, NOTED PHILOSOPHER AND GROUNDBREAKER
ON DECOLONIZATION, PASSES AT 90 Global Information Network
Distinguished philosopher, writer and teacher Kwasi Wiredu, born in Ghana and recognized on three continents, has passed away at the age of 90. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy cites Wiredu for his decades-long study of “conceptual decolonization” in contemporary African systems of thought. He examined the issue in depth in the essay “Custom and Morality: A Comparative Analysis of Some African and Western Conceptions of Morals.” There he explored the confusions that arise from the transplantation of Western ideas within an African frame of reference. Joel Modiri, Africanist and scholar/
teacher, observed that Wiredu’s writing on Akan thought and conceptual decolonization “challenged us to always resist uncritical assimilation to Western ways of thinking.”
Other scholars writing on social media of their senior colleague included novelist and New York University professor Kwame Anthony Appiah. “One of the greatest of African philosophers has died,” he wrote on Twitter. “If you don’t know about him, you should. He was an unbelievably decent man; I know because he was my first departmental Chair.” Aziz Mahdi, professor of Persian Language and Literature, wrote: “And now the passing of Kwasi Wiredu (1931-2022), one of Africa’s finest minds. The author
of “Philosophy and an African Culture,” a genuine philosopher, a ‘conceptually decolonialized’ being, is to join the ancestors.”
Dhe eraj C hand adde d: “Kwasi Wiredu is required reading. I only learned about him a few years ago and it reminded me of how heartbreaking “better late than ever” can feel.” Other published works of Wiredu i n clu d e : “O n D e c ol on i z i ng African Religions,”, “Death and the afterlife in African culture,” “Philosophy and an African Culture,” and “Cultural Universals and Particulars.” Wiredu was born in Kumasi, Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), in 1931, and attended Adisadel College from 1948 to 1952 where
he discovered philosophy. Following studies at the University of Ghana, Legon, he went on to University College, Oxford, as a philosophy major. At Oxford, Wiredu wrote his thesis on “Knowledge, Truth, and R e as on”. R eturning to Ghana, he taught philosophy at the University of Ghana where he remained for twenty-three years. From 1987 until he retired, he was an Emeritus Professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa. “Mhlonishwa” tweeted: “Kwasi Wiredu is a compelling African
Photo: GIN
philosopher to be studied across the social sciences; philosophy and political science in particular. He is a good heritage of ours. May his soul rest in eternal peace!”
REMEMBERING POITIER’S BRUSH
WITH AFRICA IN EARLY AMERICAN FILMS Global Information Network Not long ago, movies made in Hollywood filmed in major cities in Africa displayed an unapologetic ignorance of even minimal facts about the continent. Cities named Lagos, Nairobi or Johannesburg became “somewhere in Africa”, anti-colonial sentiments became a “colored struggle”, and the continent became a “setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as a human factor.” Such was the critique by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe describing filmmaking in the 1950s. Professor and author MaryEllen Higgins similarly faulted Hollywood’s Africa. Their films are projections, she said, that reflect national and international investments, both material and ideological.
Sidney Poitier, while a pioneer in Hollywood, played it safe in African roles he took on, observed Noah Tsika, associate professor of Media Studies at Queens College, City University of New York. Poitier’s films promoted a conciliatory, capitalist decolonization process, according to Tsika. These include the films Cry, the Beloved Country (1952), set in apartheid South Africa; The Mark of the Hawk (1957), set in an unnamed African country; Something of Value (1957), also known as Africa Ablaze and set in colonial Kenya; and Mandela and de Klerk (1997), about political negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa. Still, according to Wesley Morris, Poitier did more with less. “He achieved all he did despite knowing what he couldn’t do… He led
more people farther down the road than any other artist.” What he was up against could be seen in The Mark of the Hawk - a British-American-Nigerian co-production. “Starring Poitier and Eartha Kitt, it was largely shot in Nigeria and depicts an African revolution that is ultimately suppressed, its passions redirected by an American missionary who prescribes “patient faith” in place of violent revolt, says Tsika. An anticolonial uprising, in his view, is “moving too fast.” The African characters must “speak African”. A workers’ revolt, evocative of actual Nigerian labor movements, carefully reflects the sort of generalized, deracinated anti-colonial sentiment when the film was made, Tsika observes. The “most basic foreign policy”
HISTORIC CITY OF STONE-HEWN CHURCHS RE-OPENS TO PILGRIMS BARRED BY WAR Global Information Network A World Heritage Site and Ethiopia’s holy city of Lalibela is welcoming pilgrims once again. Throngs of Ethiopians recently flooded the streets of the town caught up in the fighting between the government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christians celebrate the birth of Christ on January 7. “When I heard the town was freed, I decided to celebrate Christmas in Lalibela and also wanted to fulfill my pact with God,” Hailu Abera told the news service France 24. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in November 2020 sent the army to oust the TLPF from the holy city, accusing the region’s dissident ruling party of staging attacks on army camps. Last August, UNESCO, in an open letter, expressed “deep concern” about the reported expansion of the conflict to Lalibela with its 12th-century icons and famed stone-hewn churches.
N. Mandela and S. Poitier
of the Motion Picture Association of America was to avoid giving offence to any country which provided [Hollywood] with any revenue,” however meager.
“I believe the writers and producers didn’t even bother to visit Africa but just Googled whatever stereotype they could find and threw it in the movie.”
Now, finally, the paternalism of the 50s is facing serious challenge. Critic Sarita Walker of Amplify Africa took on Tears of the Sun, a Nigerian story critics called “shamelessly one-sided with cheesy wooden dialogue”. “I have to point out the problematic view of these kinds of movies,” she wrote, “portraying Africa as a “savage” place in need of “colonization”, “Christianity” and “rescuing”. Have you ever noticed the protagonists are always “white saviors” who are out to save the dying African population?”
Poitier left a deep impression on South African film producer Anant Singh, (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Sarafina!, Cry, The Beloved Country) with whom he had a long-enduring friendship. Singh shared a memory: “I called him in 1985 when I needed help in Hollywood and he said ‘come whenever you’re here’, and invited me to his house for lunch,” Singh recalled. “He was a huge inspiration to me...growing up under apartheid, most of his films were banned in South Africa...his work lived through those films.”
by the PEN writers group with their Freedom to Write Award. He also received the International Press Institute’s World Press Freedom Hero award in 2017.
political corruption and repression despite being harassed and denied a license to practice journalism.
“UNESCO calls for the respect of all relevant obligations under international law in ensuring the protection of the Outstanding Universal Value and legacy of this precious site by refraining from any act that may expose it to damage, and by taking all necessary precautions to prevent any attempts of looting and pillaging cultural properties located in the area. The 11 medieval monolithic cave churches of this 13th-century ‘New Jerusalem’ are located in a mountainous region near a traditional village with circular-shaped dwellings. Lalibela’s rock-hewn churches were inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1978. Elsewhere in Ethiopia, the journalist, blogger and politician Eskinder Nega has been pardoned and released from prison. Nega had been sentenced on July 13, 2012, to 18 years behind bars for violating anti-terrorism laws after he criticized the government for arresting journalists and anti-government activists.
Photo: GIN
He was jailed for almost seven years at Kaliti Prison in Addis Ababa, where political prisoners are housed with criminals and family visits are extremely limited, and detained for over a year in a maximum-security prison in the capital. His struggle for the right to freedom of expression was recognized
Eskinder has also been a columnist for the U.S.-based news forum EthioMedia, which was also banned in Ethiopia. He continued to publicly call for an end to
His release comes as the Ethiopian government has pardoned numerous political prisoners - an effort to initiate a “national dialogue” after a year of civil war with forces from the Tigray region.
