Challenging Eurocentrism: The Theft of Philosophical Legacies and the Struggle for Global Recognition
Attempts have been made to reduce the origin of philosophical thinking to Europe. This is part of a calculation to reduce the world to European thinking and has been described as a conscious attempt to enshrine white supremacy. A bias exists in the study of history, philosophy, and politics by placing a dominate impression around the Greek tradition as if no other tradition has validity. After the Berlin Conference of 1885, a meeting that divided the world amongst the racist and colonial nations of Europe, the struggle against racism became clearer as the world was heading toward WWI.
Europe had begun the process of carving up the world for themselves using false ideas that enshrine the ideology of white supremacy. The Berlin Conference was the beginning of splitting ethnic populations using maps and borderlines that they invented. Kwame Nkrumah, the leader and revolutionary from Ghana, and eventual leader of Pan-Africanism, may have been the first to use the term “ethnophilosophy.” However, all the dimensions of African philosophy should be viewed across time frames and countries. From ancient times up to the present, all philosophies have addressed the concerns of justice and the well-being of the people. Frantz Fanon, Charles Mills (Black thinkers), and many others have addressed and explored the meaning of life and the reality of those meanings, not just the Greeks.
”Thought Centering Around Whiteness is Absurd…”
One could argue that many of the Greek ideas are not applicable to the entire planet. The criticism of traditional European thought centering around whiteness is absurd and not historical. The European tendency to regard philosophy as only that which is written, while oral traditions are ignored is no doubt racist. This tendency is associated with Plato, and other European thinkers, taking the position that ideas were only to be understood by the philosophers that came from Europe. Prior to the European colonial conquests, African political culture and philosophy was based on an “elders’ tradition, the warrior’s tradition, the wisdom tradition, and a monarchial trend.” These traditions are presently viewed in opposition to Western philosophy.
Many philosophical scholars have embraced the idea that all of philosophy is ethnic in origin and based on the culture it came from. The study of ethnic philosophical systems is known as ethnophilosophy. Greek philosophy is not the only philosophy for all peoples and cultures. Many have argued that all of philosophy is ethnic based, an idea that is disturbing to Eurocentric racist thinkers. The idea that philosophy has its origins in Greece is challenged in that the origins of Greek philosophy can be traced back to ancient Egypt. This is the concept of “Stolen Legacy,” whereby African political and philosophical thought spread to Greece and other areas but is denied by racist historians. For example, the Greek Goddess Isis is an Egyptian God that Greece borrowed, accepted, or stole. It can be argued that much of European philosophy is seen in ancient Chinese and East Indian philosophy, but not acknowledged.
Stealing ideas is common in America. Originally, the idea of being “Woke” in the Black community simply meant that one was aware of racism and other issues, but now Trumpers have twisted it. The quote, “Speak softly and carry a big stick” was stolen by Teddy Roosevelt from a West African proverb. Even now, the Republican Party and Trump followers and their stooges are trying to steal the legacy of Martin Luther King by having counter events on the day of the MLK March in San Antonio. Theft is the hall mark of bigots across time and country.
