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Nihilism and Negritude: Ways of Living in Africa
There are two common ways of writing about Africa, says Célestin Monga. One way blames Africa’s ills on the continent’s history of exploitation and oppression. The other way blames Africans themselves for failing to rise above poisonous national prejudices and resentments. But patronizing caricatures that reduce Africans to either victims or slackers do not get us very far in understanding the complexities and paradoxes of Africa today.
A searching, often searing, meditation on ways of living in modern Africa, Nihilism and Negritude dispels the stereotypes that cloud how outsiders view the continent―and how Africans sometimes view themselves. In the role of a traveler-philosopher, Monga seeks to register “the picturesque absurdity of daily life” in his native Cameroon and across the continent. Whether navigating the chaotic choreography of street traffic or discoursing on the philosophy of café menus, he illuminates the patterns of reasoning behind everyday behaviors and offers new interpretations of what some observers have misunderstood as Africans’ resigned acceptance of suffering and violence.
Monga does not wish to revive Negritude, the once-influential movement that sought to identify and celebrate allegedly unique African values. Rather, he seeks to show how daily life and thought―witnessed in dance and music, sensual pleasure and bodily experience, faith and mourning―reflect a form of nihilism developed to cope with chaos, poverty, and oppression. This is not the nihilism of despair, Monga insists, but the determination to find meaning and even joy in a life that would otherwise seem absurd.
A searching, often searing, meditation on ways of living in modern Africa, Nihilism and Negritude dispels the stereotypes that cloud how outsiders view the continent―and how Africans sometimes view themselves. In the role of a traveler-philosopher, Monga seeks to register “the picturesque absurdity of daily life” in his native Cameroon and across the continent. Whether navigating the chaotic choreography of street traffic or discoursing on the philosophy of café menus, he illuminates the patterns of reasoning behind everyday behaviors and offers new interpretations of what some observers have misunderstood as Africans’ resigned acceptance of suffering and violence.
Monga does not wish to revive Negritude, the once-influential movement that sought to identify and celebrate allegedly unique African values. Rather, he seeks to show how daily life and thought―witnessed in dance and music, sensual pleasure and bodily experience, faith and mourning―reflect a form of nihilism developed to cope with chaos, poverty, and oppression. This is not the nihilism of despair, Monga insists, but the determination to find meaning and even joy in a life that would otherwise seem absurd.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published March 9, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 24, 2021
I'd never associated african with nihilism but this book convinced that certain aspects of our way of life is indeed very nihilistic. However, the last 3rd of the book doesn't hold up as much as I'd hope it would.
I would still recommend it if only for the fact that it gives another perspective on the african experience.
I would still recommend it if only for the fact that it gives another perspective on the african experience.
February 5, 2020
Título em português: "Niilismo e Negritude".
March 23, 2024
Der Start ins Buch ist chaotisch: Der Autor schildert ausführliche autobiographische Anekdoten aus verschiedenen Städten Sub-Sahara-Afrikas, hervorzuheben diejenige in Yaoundé (S. 8f.).
Zur Absicht das Buch zu schreiben, möglicherweise problematisch ohne den Kontext aus dem Buch: "It is therefore important to try to understand my compatriots' objective choices and their desire for off handedness. To understand the ineffectiveness of ethical fervor in Africa. To explain the propensity for cynicism in individual and collective action, the essence of daily life in various spheres of the black world. To ponder the philosophical hypotheses underlying the discrepncy in paths between our universe and the world." (S. 16)
Das Buch schliesst mit der Kontrastierung der Wahrnehmung des Todes des Vaters des Autors und der Schlussfolgerungen daraus zwischen ihm, der in den letzten Jahrzehnten die meiste Zeit in Frankreich und den USA zugebracht hat, und seinen Verwandten aus Douala und Umgebung.
3 Arten Nihilismus zu konzeptualisieren
1. Aus der Etymologie vom lateinischen nihil = nichts: "terminal life fatigue, a doleful perception of the vanity of all effort" (Bourget, S. 30)
2. "Celebrating the absurd and nothingness, to the point of scorning not only any attempt to change society, but also the justification of any action at all" (S. 31): u.a. "the death of God and the obsolescence of the values orienting human action" (zu Nietzsche), dass Pessimismus und Leere "uns" trotzdem ohne Grund das Leben lieben lassen (Enthoven) sowie Skepsis und untröstbare Wehmut (Cioran). Als Skepsis bezeichnet der Autor im Gegenzug aber auch die Ausschweifung/Verkommenheit (debauchery) als Kontrast zur Askese (wie bei Schopenhauer, S. 86).
3. "Active nihilism" (u.a. Vattimo): Alles Leben hat den gleichen Ursprung und das gleiche Ende, für eine Metaphysik der eigenen Existenz muss man sich also ein Ziel im Leben setzen.
Zur Absicht das Buch zu schreiben, möglicherweise problematisch ohne den Kontext aus dem Buch: "It is therefore important to try to understand my compatriots' objective choices and their desire for off handedness. To understand the ineffectiveness of ethical fervor in Africa. To explain the propensity for cynicism in individual and collective action, the essence of daily life in various spheres of the black world. To ponder the philosophical hypotheses underlying the discrepncy in paths between our universe and the world." (S. 16)
Das Buch schliesst mit der Kontrastierung der Wahrnehmung des Todes des Vaters des Autors und der Schlussfolgerungen daraus zwischen ihm, der in den letzten Jahrzehnten die meiste Zeit in Frankreich und den USA zugebracht hat, und seinen Verwandten aus Douala und Umgebung.
3 Arten Nihilismus zu konzeptualisieren
1. Aus der Etymologie vom lateinischen nihil = nichts: "terminal life fatigue, a doleful perception of the vanity of all effort" (Bourget, S. 30)
2. "Celebrating the absurd and nothingness, to the point of scorning not only any attempt to change society, but also the justification of any action at all" (S. 31): u.a. "the death of God and the obsolescence of the values orienting human action" (zu Nietzsche), dass Pessimismus und Leere "uns" trotzdem ohne Grund das Leben lieben lassen (Enthoven) sowie Skepsis und untröstbare Wehmut (Cioran). Als Skepsis bezeichnet der Autor im Gegenzug aber auch die Ausschweifung/Verkommenheit (debauchery) als Kontrast zur Askese (wie bei Schopenhauer, S. 86).
3. "Active nihilism" (u.a. Vattimo): Alles Leben hat den gleichen Ursprung und das gleiche Ende, für eine Metaphysik der eigenen Existenz muss man sich also ein Ziel im Leben setzen.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews