AFRICAN THOUGHT

This course will review the foundations for African world view on the African societies and social life. Its main interest will be in a delineation of social, cultural and psychological challenges confronting Africans and how those experiencing these challenges have responded to them in the past in the African cultural setting. African thought will be presented as the way Africans conceptualize their world, including relationships with people, nature and the ?spiritual world?. This way you will appreciate that ?thought? is not restricted to mental operations but also includes feelings, emotions and perceptions. African thought also finds its expression in symbols, dances, language, art. It is affected by what Africans think about themselves and what others think about them and take them to be. Different systems of African social organizations will be examined to include but not limited to leadership and political systems, cultural values, music, dance, art and religion. The course will raise fundamental questions about the African experiences. This course is expected to illustrate that the African continent and a people with such incredible potential can rise to meet any challenge, provided that their worldview and/or thought must become truly their own, separated from the enslaving thoughts of those who have sought racial domination.