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Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior
Yurugu removes the mask from the European facade and reveals the inner workings of global white supremacy, a system that functions to guarantee the control of Europe and her descendants over the majority of the world's peoples. Examines the influence of European culture on the formation of modern institutional frameworks, through colonialism and imperialism, from an African perspective.
631 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 1994
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August 7, 2020
Sometimes, I run out of words. I want to write a book on this book and disseminate it among the masses. I want to encourage everyone and anyone who is interested in seeing a full -- a rather awesomely full, detailed, and well-reasoned -- critique of Western Thought.
Let me be clear: this is a critique of Western Thought while USING Western Thought in conjunction with African spiritualism, zeitgeist, and practical/historical experience with the invasion OF Western Thought. It is a synthesis, but it is also a rather piercing indictment.
AS a personal reaction to the book, I'm flabbergasted as to why it isn't HUGE and widely discussed in ALL academic communities or popularized to the public at large in bite-sized chunks.
Many anti-colonialists already do. Many counter-culture philosophers also do.
Few, if any, actively show us a NEW (or if you please, extremely OLD) zeitgeist, worldview, to see through.
Let me break it down. There are a few terms that are absolutely essential. To discuss other cultures - or your own - you need to accurately define them. If your entire worldview is enmeshed with your descriptions of other peoples, you automatically see-through your own lens no matter how objective you might want to be.
From this point, almost any argument you might make will be colored by your preconceptions. This is the real value of this book.
Asili is the idea of a cultural essence. What kind of world-views does it hold highest? Humanitarianism? Christianity (whatever flavor)? How does it hold the idea above all other values? It defines itself against what it RESISTS. Everything else is lower, less valuable, even worthless. That's asili.
Utamaroho is the drive. A culture's will to power. It's the direction and flavor of what the culture tries to accomplish. World dominance? That's utamaroho. World saviors? That's utamaroho.
Utamawazo is cultural thought process, the rationalization that allows the culture to propagate. How about bringing the convenience of 50's American zeitgeist to the rest of the world, showering everyone else in the love and harmony of the nuclear family unit? That's utamawazo. Progress? A world community? All the pretty things we say we want that paint such pretty pictures of ourselves even as we know we will betray those same ideas? That's utamawazo.
So what's the point? It's this: we have a framework of thought to work within that is NOT Western Thought. We are free to discuss how a culture thinks of itself, how it feels of itself as if it is a real person.
We can use psychology on it. We can ask the hard questions and compare how it perceives itself versus how it actually behaves. We can examine its cognitive behaviors and pinpoint the logical inconsistencies. The hypocrisy. We can judge it by what it ACTUALLY accomplishes versus its stated goal.
When seen from the outside, Western Culture is freaking INSANE.
I mean, most of us already know this. We see bits and pieces and shake our heads. Sometimes we say it's just a bunch of bad apples and sometimes we say it's just huge groups of misguided men and women.
But this book breaks it down in unflinching terms. From Plato, we get the idea of objectivism. We get the idea of dichotomies. We get the idea that we, as individuals, are separated from our actual selves. We split the mind from the body. Instead of having a single real, living creature that we call us, we now have abstract terms that are completely divorced from the living person. We may put them back together and see if we come back with something more or less like Frankenstein's monster, but in the end, it is a divorce from reality.
When you take these ideas and forget that the Terrain is NOT the Map, it's very easy to start objectizing everything. Today, I have a very easy time watching people get blown up or die in horrible ways on tv, but always have a very difficult time watching a puppy get killed in the same show. Why is that? Because we, as a Western asili, are so used to the maps we make of people that we forget that they are ALSO REAL PEOPLE. We're shocked out of that complacency at random times when we see something that is JUST as real but doesn't jibe with what we expect.
We are comfortable with tons of dead people but not a dead puppy because we have dehumanized ourselves.
What does this mean for someone who values being a Humanist?
Disconnect.
Now let's not forget all the times when western countries invaded foreign lands under the banner of god, country, or progressive economic equality. The utamawazo, the reasoning, matches our asili, our self-conception. What doesn't match is our will-to-power, our need to dominate, to exploit, or just destabilize foreign nationals because they might prove to be just as rational as you but use a different system of government/economic-system/god.
The stated claims, even for those who are missionaries propelling god's truth, do not match with the actual effects. They hardly ever do. That's because the asili and the utamawazo are there to make ourselves feel good and bamboozle others while the utamaroho, the ACTUAL DRIVE of the culture, is defined by exploitation.
You know the type. Winning is everything, you know. The good guys win and the bad guys lose. That's a Platonic dichotomy, by the way. You'll find drives like this everywhere you look -- once you see them for what they are.
It's the private reasoning of certain individuals who will not be named who believe, in the core of their being, that they must win at all costs. Literally, at all costs. It doesn't matter how many people get dehumanized in the process. They're all maps, after all. The terrain no longer exists. But yet, we still have the utamawazo fully intact. Just look! We're Making ******* Great Again!
Be aware of yourself. Of your culture. Find frameworks that are outside of it. View yourself from others' lenses. It's the only way to truly see yourself as you truly are.
Let me be clear: this is a critique of Western Thought while USING Western Thought in conjunction with African spiritualism, zeitgeist, and practical/historical experience with the invasion OF Western Thought. It is a synthesis, but it is also a rather piercing indictment.
AS a personal reaction to the book, I'm flabbergasted as to why it isn't HUGE and widely discussed in ALL academic communities or popularized to the public at large in bite-sized chunks.
Many anti-colonialists already do. Many counter-culture philosophers also do.
Few, if any, actively show us a NEW (or if you please, extremely OLD) zeitgeist, worldview, to see through.
Let me break it down. There are a few terms that are absolutely essential. To discuss other cultures - or your own - you need to accurately define them. If your entire worldview is enmeshed with your descriptions of other peoples, you automatically see-through your own lens no matter how objective you might want to be.
From this point, almost any argument you might make will be colored by your preconceptions. This is the real value of this book.
Asili is the idea of a cultural essence. What kind of world-views does it hold highest? Humanitarianism? Christianity (whatever flavor)? How does it hold the idea above all other values? It defines itself against what it RESISTS. Everything else is lower, less valuable, even worthless. That's asili.
Utamaroho is the drive. A culture's will to power. It's the direction and flavor of what the culture tries to accomplish. World dominance? That's utamaroho. World saviors? That's utamaroho.
Utamawazo is cultural thought process, the rationalization that allows the culture to propagate. How about bringing the convenience of 50's American zeitgeist to the rest of the world, showering everyone else in the love and harmony of the nuclear family unit? That's utamawazo. Progress? A world community? All the pretty things we say we want that paint such pretty pictures of ourselves even as we know we will betray those same ideas? That's utamawazo.
So what's the point? It's this: we have a framework of thought to work within that is NOT Western Thought. We are free to discuss how a culture thinks of itself, how it feels of itself as if it is a real person.
We can use psychology on it. We can ask the hard questions and compare how it perceives itself versus how it actually behaves. We can examine its cognitive behaviors and pinpoint the logical inconsistencies. The hypocrisy. We can judge it by what it ACTUALLY accomplishes versus its stated goal.
When seen from the outside, Western Culture is freaking INSANE.
I mean, most of us already know this. We see bits and pieces and shake our heads. Sometimes we say it's just a bunch of bad apples and sometimes we say it's just huge groups of misguided men and women.
But this book breaks it down in unflinching terms. From Plato, we get the idea of objectivism. We get the idea of dichotomies. We get the idea that we, as individuals, are separated from our actual selves. We split the mind from the body. Instead of having a single real, living creature that we call us, we now have abstract terms that are completely divorced from the living person. We may put them back together and see if we come back with something more or less like Frankenstein's monster, but in the end, it is a divorce from reality.
When you take these ideas and forget that the Terrain is NOT the Map, it's very easy to start objectizing everything. Today, I have a very easy time watching people get blown up or die in horrible ways on tv, but always have a very difficult time watching a puppy get killed in the same show. Why is that? Because we, as a Western asili, are so used to the maps we make of people that we forget that they are ALSO REAL PEOPLE. We're shocked out of that complacency at random times when we see something that is JUST as real but doesn't jibe with what we expect.
We are comfortable with tons of dead people but not a dead puppy because we have dehumanized ourselves.
What does this mean for someone who values being a Humanist?
Disconnect.
Now let's not forget all the times when western countries invaded foreign lands under the banner of god, country, or progressive economic equality. The utamawazo, the reasoning, matches our asili, our self-conception. What doesn't match is our will-to-power, our need to dominate, to exploit, or just destabilize foreign nationals because they might prove to be just as rational as you but use a different system of government/economic-system/god.
The stated claims, even for those who are missionaries propelling god's truth, do not match with the actual effects. They hardly ever do. That's because the asili and the utamawazo are there to make ourselves feel good and bamboozle others while the utamaroho, the ACTUAL DRIVE of the culture, is defined by exploitation.
You know the type. Winning is everything, you know. The good guys win and the bad guys lose. That's a Platonic dichotomy, by the way. You'll find drives like this everywhere you look -- once you see them for what they are.
It's the private reasoning of certain individuals who will not be named who believe, in the core of their being, that they must win at all costs. Literally, at all costs. It doesn't matter how many people get dehumanized in the process. They're all maps, after all. The terrain no longer exists. But yet, we still have the utamawazo fully intact. Just look! We're Making ******* Great Again!
Be aware of yourself. Of your culture. Find frameworks that are outside of it. View yourself from others' lenses. It's the only way to truly see yourself as you truly are.
May 21, 2008
READ THIS BOOK NOW.
It's hard to find; I lucked out with an interlibrary loan program connected to a few universities. It is absolutely worth reading, though, to be fair, written academically and demanding a thorough familiarity with Western history and philosophies.
It also would have scared the crap out of me, being a white man raised in the European mindset and tradition, as of two years ago. It is not racist or reactionary but it does mercilessly reveal the workings of European "thought and behavior" per non-Europeans. If you are willing to read this, do so. Stat.
(And if you can find a used copy for under $200, buy it.)
It's hard to find; I lucked out with an interlibrary loan program connected to a few universities. It is absolutely worth reading, though, to be fair, written academically and demanding a thorough familiarity with Western history and philosophies.
It also would have scared the crap out of me, being a white man raised in the European mindset and tradition, as of two years ago. It is not racist or reactionary but it does mercilessly reveal the workings of European "thought and behavior" per non-Europeans. If you are willing to read this, do so. Stat.
(And if you can find a used copy for under $200, buy it.)
June 17, 2008
Amazing!!...So far it's one of the most thorough books I've read around the de-construction and analysis of western philosophy, exposing many of the reasons and causes for circumstances experienced by people of color today and the ruling mass minority.
September 28, 2009
With its searingly accurate description of the insanity of European culture and behavior -- this book provides the best reality-check I have ever seen in writing. Brilliant, accurate, detailed, conceptually extraordinary, this is in my view a must-read for anyone who wants to put words to what we're inside and the details of its wrongness.
Read
May 10, 2012An amazing breakdown of the ideological substrate of current and past European cultural hegemony.
Read
July 23, 2008My college prof... great book, nice polemic
July 16, 2014
Absolutely Powerful!!!! Analyzes the rise of Europe and its impact on people of color.
August 2, 2013
The European and The Beginning of Abstract Enforces and Aggressive Thoughts Behavior Patterns
Thinking in abstract when you think you look you see you see a building. A building is made of bricks you see individual brick you register in your mind a brick is strong a brick become synonymous with strength.
Thinking in the abstract
What is a brick what's the composition of molecules to make a brick. So someone rearrange elements that are found naturally on the earth. Taking for granite the molecule are composed in such a way that they match the natural strength of Earth rocks. Composition of molecules to make something like a earth rock.
Hindsight of abstract thinking
We'll only be proclaimed out of necessity. If the house falls down and kills you. To insure it will not happen again. Measurements will be taking for the attempt to match the molecule configuration of a earth rock.
Layman's Terms this was recorded through the Samaritan laws dating back six thousand years this is why I use the brick as an allergy of abstract thought.
The origins of European aggression
Why build a house out of brick as opposed to fetch which around the world for 4000 years has been used as temporary and permanent shelters.
I decree that it was aggression from abstract self survival thought and not the environment of nature in all its abundant forum ranging from weather to wild animals As the first Europeans gave birth to aggressive abstract thought. According to anthropolog and Logic you would not develop aggression to fight nature only to fight other human beings.
So the escalation of fortress, weapons and the caste system. Define as anti-human behavior . Comes from the necessity immoral acts to be performed in accordance with aggressive behavior.
European aggressive behavior was to birth an ideal of a race first described and define by skin color. 98 percent of Europeans described there self based on opposite description of what it means to be non-white. In the modern age.
Thinking in abstract when you think you look you see you see a building. A building is made of bricks you see individual brick you register in your mind a brick is strong a brick become synonymous with strength.
Thinking in the abstract
What is a brick what's the composition of molecules to make a brick. So someone rearrange elements that are found naturally on the earth. Taking for granite the molecule are composed in such a way that they match the natural strength of Earth rocks. Composition of molecules to make something like a earth rock.
Hindsight of abstract thinking
We'll only be proclaimed out of necessity. If the house falls down and kills you. To insure it will not happen again. Measurements will be taking for the attempt to match the molecule configuration of a earth rock.
Layman's Terms this was recorded through the Samaritan laws dating back six thousand years this is why I use the brick as an allergy of abstract thought.
The origins of European aggression
Why build a house out of brick as opposed to fetch which around the world for 4000 years has been used as temporary and permanent shelters.
I decree that it was aggression from abstract self survival thought and not the environment of nature in all its abundant forum ranging from weather to wild animals As the first Europeans gave birth to aggressive abstract thought. According to anthropolog and Logic you would not develop aggression to fight nature only to fight other human beings.
So the escalation of fortress, weapons and the caste system. Define as anti-human behavior . Comes from the necessity immoral acts to be performed in accordance with aggressive behavior.
European aggressive behavior was to birth an ideal of a race first described and define by skin color. 98 percent of Europeans described there self based on opposite description of what it means to be non-white. In the modern age.
Read
April 7, 2008Eye opener
December 12, 2018
This book is everything! A critique of the west through an afrocentric lense.
Using an African proverb as an analogy for white people, Marimba Ani, pulls together the different major historical events, concepts & figures that contributed to white supremacy & it's current place in the world. She used very specific concepts from Swahili, to help drive her points home and provide the structure for what she's proposing.
She does veer off into conspiracy theories about homosexuality and HIV but given how history has been distorted about the existence of the former throughout humanity's history and how science, in the hands of white people, has been used in harmful & negative ways on black people, thus straining the relationship with an otherwise useful subject, its understandable. Doesn't mean I accept or forgive it, but given the history, I understand why some black people do harbor these beliefs unfortunately, especially in response to oppression.
It is very thorough. A long read but it is very much worth it.
Using an African proverb as an analogy for white people, Marimba Ani, pulls together the different major historical events, concepts & figures that contributed to white supremacy & it's current place in the world. She used very specific concepts from Swahili, to help drive her points home and provide the structure for what she's proposing.
She does veer off into conspiracy theories about homosexuality and HIV but given how history has been distorted about the existence of the former throughout humanity's history and how science, in the hands of white people, has been used in harmful & negative ways on black people, thus straining the relationship with an otherwise useful subject, its understandable. Doesn't mean I accept or forgive it, but given the history, I understand why some black people do harbor these beliefs unfortunately, especially in response to oppression.
It is very thorough. A long read but it is very much worth it.
May 24, 2013
In order to move beyond racism, we have to separate out the development of modern European culture. This books takes out the emotion to help understand the phenomena of how one group of people were able to dominate the world. Through comparing to other cultural paradigms, it raises the consciousness of the reader and take a responsibility of what aspects of all cultures are important to practice to move forward in a more harmonized, just, and spiritual way; if we are willing.
May 26, 2020
In this book Christianity is seen in terms of race...a European religion, impressed upon Africans by Europeans in order to make them European. African traditions are elevated as higher in spirituality and mentality. I think it is a neat history resource without the bias religious views.
Read
December 11, 2007deeper
Want to read
February 14, 2008whew, intense! glad i own a copy; i ll be ready for you someday, professor ani.
September 17, 2013
It is a Mandatory read !!!!
January 11, 2020
Enlightening psychological historical look at our zeitgeist. A great read. Ubuntu - I am because we are.
September 20, 2021
The author has some valid critiques of western thought and has pretty extensive working knowledge of the history of philosophy in general- however, the assertion that "objective truth" and "fact" are exclusively western ideas that seek to enforce white supremacy strikes me as either an unintentionally white supremacist notion or a deliberately spiritual one that doesn't really have a place in academic or critical theory discussion. The author, whilst making the aforementioned critiques of western culture, overly idealizes African culture in a manner in which feels deliberately ahistorical, given her previous demonstrations of historical knowledge. This isn't a book I would take very seriously or trust, which is unfortunate given the clear advantage in having African critiques of western society.
Read
March 11, 2023I'm not the target audience for this book, and none of this information was new to me, so I won't rate this.
However, White/Euro folks should study these ideas, though I feel that this work is not a good introductory piece since it's heavily academic and, at times, overly dense. I learned all of these concepts from hundreds of different sources and personal conversations. So, while it would be nice to have all of that experience packaged up in one book, the delivery of it here may not suit everyone.
Still, the importance of this book deserves more recognition. If you're interested in critiques of Euro/North American culture, then this has everything you want. It touches on philosophy, art, imperialism, patriarchy, religion, politics, propaganda, and more.
However, White/Euro folks should study these ideas, though I feel that this work is not a good introductory piece since it's heavily academic and, at times, overly dense. I learned all of these concepts from hundreds of different sources and personal conversations. So, while it would be nice to have all of that experience packaged up in one book, the delivery of it here may not suit everyone.
Still, the importance of this book deserves more recognition. If you're interested in critiques of Euro/North American culture, then this has everything you want. It touches on philosophy, art, imperialism, patriarchy, religion, politics, propaganda, and more.
December 19, 2020
I would recommend this book highly to anyone seriously passionate about understanding the world history, especially as it pertains to racial geopolitics, imperialism and colonialism. This author has done for anthropology what Dr. Frances Cress Welsing did for psychology: lay bare the unacknowledged yet brilliant analysis of the impact of the European will to power as a bludgeon against the majority peoples of the world.
December 28, 2020
An essential book that needs to be read by more people. Impossible to summarize in a review. Anyone interested in understanding the western world should read this book.
December 5, 2024
Very good
December 29, 2021
Been tryna think of a good way to say how I feel for months… there aren’t enough words. This book is DOPE. Amazing. Necessary. Life-altering. All that
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews