“l am a simple African man doing my duty, in my own country in the context of our time.” AMILCAR CABRAL
The history of philosophy is characterized by particular thoughts of philosophers. This implies that by studying the history of philosophy we also study the account of the thoughts of particular philosophers. It is in this sense that biography and autobiography are intertwined with the history of philosophy both historically and conceptually. The history of thought and concepts is at the same time but irreducibly the history of particular individual thinkers. In this essay we will endeavor to show how the study of biography and autobiography can assist in our understanding of the history of philosophy. Our focal point is the history of African philosophy. We will employ the biography of Robert Sobukwe by Thami Ka Plaatjie. In so doing, we will locate Sobukwe within the discourse on and the task of contemporary African philosophy as well as the Nationalistic-Ideological paradigm.
The history of African philosophy has a complex history which is characterized by the philosophical activities and thoughts of African philosophers within the broader context of African history. This means that the study of the history of African philosophy is at the same time but not reducible to the study of African history. We now know following the likes of Theophile Obenga (2004) that the history of African philosophy traces its origins to ancient Kemet. Because our focal point is contemporary African philosophy, we will employ the hermeneutics of African philosophy within the context of white settler colonialism in “South Africa” and neocolonialism in Africa in general. Our fundamental point is to show that Sobukwe is an African philosopher who philosophized within the context of the African liberation struggle. As Ka Plaatjie (2019:117) states it “Sobukwe and his peers at Fort Hare were not mere intellectual converts to the new ideology of African nationalism; they began to see their role as activists whose mission was to win over as many people as possible”. Thus, by studying the biography of Sobukwe we study the history of the Africanist philosophy of liberation. This philosophy, following Oruka, can be located within the Nationalistic-Ideological paradigm. This is how Oruka (2002:144) defines this paradigm “Most of the contributions to this trend of African philosophical literature have so far been politicians or statesmen”. In studying the biography of Sobukwe we are able to study the relationship between contemporary African philosophy and the anti-colonial struggle on the continent of Africa since the disastrous coming of the Europeans.
The study of the biography of Sobukwe assists us in our understanding of the evolution of African political philosophy as formulated by a number of African intellectuals such as Sobukwe, within the context of the struggle for national liberation. This also aids us to show the continuity in the tradition of African political philosophy of liberation. The current discourse on the Azanian critical philosophy (Dladla 2021, Modiri 2021) is a tradition that traces its origin to the Africanist philosophy of liberation as developed by Sobukwe in his speeches and writings which have come down to us. The Africanist philosophy of liberation as reformulated by Sobukwe is a manifestation of African political philosophy and is traceable to Lembede’s philosophy of Africanism. Anton Lembede just like Sobukwe, was fully conscious of the fact that his philosophy of Africanism is traceable to the primary resistance as conducted by the likes of Sekhukhune, Moshoeshoe, Shaka, Nongqawuse and many others in conquered Azania/“South Africa”. This is how Sobukwe (1959) puts it “We are here to draw inspiration from the heroes of Thaba Bosiu, Isandlwana, aandile’s Kop, Keiskammahoek and numerous other battlefields where our forefathers fell before the bullets of the foreign invader.” The thoughts and activities of this phalanx of heroes and heroines is the African heritage of the liberation struggle which is the fountain of the African political philosophy of liberation in the form of African nationalism. It is through the philosophizing of the likes of A.P Mda and Sobukwe that this heritage was transmitted through several generations to this day in the form of the Azanian critical tradition/philosophy.
The study of the biography of Sobukwe demonstrates that African nationalism as an epitome of the Nationalistic-Ideological paradigm flourished on the African continent around the 1940s and 1960s with the African struggle for Independence. This is how Sobukwe (1959) states it “Throughout Africa, then, the forces of white supremacy are in retreat before the irresistible march of African nationalism. This is the era of African emancipation. Africa holds the stage today”. A reading of the biography of Sobukwe aids us to understand the broader context and the task of contemporary African philosophy, namely, the liberation of Africa and the African people from racism/white supremacy. Within the South African context, the biography of Sobukwe aids us to understand the history of the philosophy of African nationalism as formulated by the Congress Youth League of the 1940s in its attempt to develop an African philosophy of national liberation against white settler colonialism in the form of epistemicide and conquest since 1652 in the unjust wars of colonization (Ramose 2018). As Ka Plaatjie (2019:68) states it “Sobukwe embraced the initial founding strategic stance of the Youth League and sought to defend it against what he regarded as deviation.”
Sobukwe was part and parcel of this Youth League generation who formulated an African philosophy of liberation in line with the Nationalistic-Ideological paradigm. Sobukwe’s Africanist philosophy of liberation foregrounds the issue of conquest in the unjust wars of colonization since 1652(Ramose 2018). This foregrounding by Sobukwe is a manifestation of the Africanist conception of history and historiography in conquered Azania. This is because the reading of South African history and historiography (as written mainly by all white settlers) is characterized by the elision of 1652 thus justifying the right of conquest by white settlers. Through this foregrounding Sobukwe was able to define the nature of the struggle in South Africa as one centered on the conqueror and the conquered and the issue of historic title to territory. This is precisely what the Azanian critical philosophy in “South Africa” as a contribution to the Nationalistic-Ideological paradigm is doing in the present-day “conqueror South Africa” (Ramose 2018) euphemistically called “post-apartheid new South Africa”.
It is important to note that Sobukwe just like many of his generation was educated at Western institutions of higher learning such as the University of Fort Hare. As an African philosopher within the Nationalistic-Ideological paradigm, Sobukwe did not indulge in what Olabiyi Yai (1977) designates as speculative philosophy which is practiced by “pure philosophers”. This type of “African” philosophy as formulated by the likes of Paulin Hountondji is characterized by its paucity of political content. In other words, it is replete with abstractions which are devoid of the “socio-historical dimension” (Yai 1977).These university-trained “African” philosophers intentionally avoid politics in their philosophizing by like Hountondji calling for the “autonomy of politics” (Hountondji 1996). They ignore the primary political task of contemporary African philosophy which is the freeing of Africa and African people from racism/white supremacy. Because of their ivory-tower “African” philosophy these pure “African” philosophers avoid contact and cooperation with the African masses for the liberation of Africa and her people from European colonialism and imperialism. This is how contrary to them, Sobukwe (1949) states it “You have seen by now what education means to us: the identification of ourselves with the masses. Education to us means service to Africa. In whatever branch of learning you are, you are there for Africa”. These pure and speculative philosophers are Westernized Africans ala Serequeberhan, who are characterized by Duboisian “double-consciousness” which explains their liminal beingness in the form of their ambivalent defense of Europe like Achille Mbembe. This is how Tsenay Serequeberhan (2000:5) puts it “The outrage in this outrage is at the Westernized Africans have made the purported self-righteousness of Europe’s colonial enterprise their own. Thus, snared and implicated in their own colonial domination, marked and branded by their own hands, Westernized Africans, as a distinct section-not European and not quite indigenous-of formerly colonized Africa, are guilty beings”. Their Western training has uprooted them from their African culture. These “African” philosophers need what Amilcar Cabral (1973) designates as re-Africanization.
But the reading of the biography of Sobukwe suggests that he is different from these “African” philosophers. Sobukwe was rooted in African culture in his philosophizing for the purposes of African liberation. Sobukwe’s Africanist philosophy of liberation was immersed in African culture as embodied by the masses of Africa especially in conquered Azania. As Ramose (2016:88-89) states it “One of the points we discussed was the inspiration and the theory behind the slogan Izwe Lethu, “Our land”. It became very clear to me that there is a view of the history of this country, a certain perspective that many indigenous peoples conquered in the unjust wars of colonization have, that the territory known as South Africa today, belongs to these peoples from time immemorial. The perception and understanding of this point were quite clear and explicit in the discussions we had with Sobukwe.” In his speeches we encounter words and ideas like “izwe lethu, mayibuye iAfrika and asazi ukuthi iyozala nkomoni”. This is indicative of the fact that just like Cabral, Sobukwe understood the significance of the role of culture in the struggle for national liberation of the African people. It is in this sense that through Sobukwe’s biography, we can locate him within what Theophilus Okere (1996) designates as the hermeneutical approach in African philosophy. The hermeneutics of African philosophy as Serequeberhan calls it, is premised on the idea that African philosophy should draw from African culture and the experiences of the African people.
The Azanian political slogan “izwe lethu” has also influenced the philosophizing of Mogobe Ramose who as a contemporary African philosopher was influenced by Sobukwe following his meeting with him as narrated in an interview with Derek Hook quoted above. This slogan was popularized by Sobukwe and the PAC as an idea which fires the imagination of the African masses in their struggle for the restoration of sovereign title to territory. In line with the title of the interview between Ramose and Hook, Sobukwe’s hermeneutical Africanist philosophy of liberation was centered on the fundamental question of historic justice, namely, to whom does the land belong? The answer to this question has been provided by Africans since 1652 through the ant-colonial thoughts and activities of the likes of Nongqawuse, the Garvey movement, the Ethiopian movement, the Israelites under Enoch Mgijima and the Wellington movement, Bambatha rebellion, Lembede’s philosophy of Africanism, Sobukwe’s Africanist philosophy of liberation, Biko’s Black Consciousness movement and currently the Azanian critical tradition/philosophy and movement. The reading of the biography of Sobukwe shows that he is part and parcel of this long Africanist and Azanian anti-colonial struggle heritage and has ensured its transmission through his life, political praxis, thoughts, and writings.
Following Steve Lebelo (2020:49), our reading of the biography of Sobukwe suggests that we should unlike Ka Plaatjie as his most recent biographer, locate Sobukwe within the amathamba and the struggle for historical being. It is in this sense that Sobukwe’s emphasis on African culture, which is a pillar of the native sphere, which is antithetical to the white settler colonial sphere, clearly distances himself from the pure and speculative “African” philosophers. The latter as Westernized Africans ala Serequeberhan operate within the colonial sphere and thus accept the terms of order of colonialism/white supremacy. As philosophical captives to the imagination of their “Occidental Icons” such as Marx, their politics which they disguise in the philosophical abstractions of their “African” philosophy embodies a struggle for actual being as opposed to historical being.
This is not to say that Sobukwe was completely immune to the Northbound gaze ala Ramose and to epistemicide (for example his idea of democracy as practiced in the West), but that Sobukwe understood his “fractured heritage” and “the enigma of heritage” as Serequeberhan would put it. It is in this sense that Sobukwe heeded Frantz Fanon’s call of every generation and understood the import of “effective-history” ala Serequeberhan. Following the latter, we can posit that just like Fanon and Cabral, Sobukwe fathomed the horizon of his generation and the historicity of the African people. In so doing, Sobukwe understood the primary task of contemporary African philosophy which is the discourse on the need for the liberation of Africa and her people from all forms of domination and exploitation, in this case racism/white supremacy and white domination. As Serequeberhan (2012:13) states it with regard to Marcien Towa “in this respect, it can be said that Towa consciously articulates a perspective that concretely engages the issues and concerns of the dispossessed vast majority.”
Our reading of the biography of Sobukwe is a means to accentuate the fact that knowing his life also aids us to understand his works (White 1926:481) as an African philosopher within the Nationalistic-Ideological paradigm. This reading was careful not to reduce Sobukwe to his experiences as many biographers do for example with Fanon (Gordon 2000:29) but to accentuate and distill his African philosophical thought and contribution to contemporary African philosophy. Our interpretation of the history of African philosophy is not an impersonal one which is premised on metaphysics as White (1926:484-485) would put it. Our interpretation is one which is personal and accentuates ethics thus the creative contribution of Sobukwe as an African political philosopher whose facts of life show a die-hard political commitment to the national struggle for the liberation of Azania/Africa in general. The reading of the biography of Sobukwe is just a personal means to understand the contemporary discourse on African philosophy and his contribution in this regard.
In conclusion, this essay has attempted to answer the question, namely, how can the study of a biography/autobiography assist in our understanding of the history of philosophy. In so doing, this essay has employed the biography of Sobukwe by Ka Plaatjie to locate Sobukwe within Oruka’s Nationalistic-Ideological paradigm thus within the broader context of the discourse on and task of contemporary African philosophy. Sobukwe’s African political philosophy in the form of the Africanist philosophy of liberation was accentuated as part of an anti-colonial heritage since the conquest of 1652 in the unjust wars of colonization.
Masilo Lepuru
A Researcher and founding director of the Institute for Kemetic and Marcus Garvey Studies (IKMGS).
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