The Demise of the Inhuman: Afrocentricity, Modernism, and Postmodernism

240 Pages·2014·2.35 MB·English

by  Ana Monteiro-Ferreira & Molefi Kete Asante

THE DEMISE OF THE INHUMAN

The Demise
of the
Inhuman
Afrocentricity,
Modernism,
and
Postmodernism
ANA MONTEIRO-FERREIRA
Foreword by Molefi Kete Asante
Cover painting entitled Harmony-I by the author
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2014 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Monteiro-Ferreira, Ana, 1949–
The demise of the inhuman : Afrocentricity, modernism, and postmod-
ernism / Ana Monteiro-Ferreira ; foreword by Molefi Kete Asante.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5225-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Afrocentrism—
Philosophy. 2. Agent (Philosophy) 3. Globalization—Social aspects.
4. Technology—Social aspects. 5. Modernism (Aesthetics)—Social
aspects. 6. Postmodernism—Social aspects. I. Title.
B5310.M66 2014
909'.0496—dc23
2013029954
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To João

CONTENTS
Foreword by Molefi Kete Asante ix
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
Relevance of a Dialogue xix
Chapter One
Context and Theory
Molefi Kete Asante and the Afrocentric Idea 1
Chapter Two
Reason and Analysis
Africana and New Interpretations of Reality 13
Chapter Three
Afrocentricity and Modernism
Innovative Encounters with History and Ideology 37
Chapter Four
Afrocentricity and Postmodernism:
The Moment of Truth 91
vii
viii CONTENTS
Chapter Five
The Paradigmatic Rupture:
Critical Africology 157
Notes 169
Bibliography 181
Index 199
FOREWORD
In a rare display of the combination of brilliance and bold-
ness, Ana Monteiro-Ferreira has written about the annihilat-
ing impact of contemporary globalization in a manner that will
cause many sensitive theorists to pause. The reason this is so is
because her appropriation of two important tropes of the current
dialogue in the academy, the inhuman and agency, has created an
intellectual tension that is resolved in her proposed rupture of the
normal process of technocratic hegemony inspired by a runaway
philosophy of globalization. Obviously, Ferreira seeks to change
the paradigm and shift the discourse around the issues of theory
and had constructed a very useful argument about the role of
African culture in expanding the inquiry into human values.
Consequently, her book is both an advance on theory and a
critique. The advancement on theory is grounded in the nature of
discontinuity, that is, once we are no longer accepting as legitimate
a particular direction, scheme, or plan, we can consider the pos-
sibility of an alternative or many alternatives. In its critique, the
more familiar role, the book tackles the hegemony of the Western
rationalist project by inserting a severe Jean-François Lyotard and
Molefi Kete Asante into the equation of discovery. While other
writers have sought to use European scholars for such a task, this
is the first time that an intellectual born in Europe, educated in
the Western academy, has ventured to employ the work of a non-
Eurocentric writer in this process.
ix