Teilhard de Chardin and Senghor on the civilization of the universal

II.2.2.2. The Split of Personality

As a result of his inferiority complex, the African develops a split personality. This reflects itself more especially in African leaders as Kaunda points out: «the modern African leader is a split personality between two ways of thought...between heart and head.»^48(*) This schizophrenia extends to the masses. In effect, the problem lies in the mentality of the African. Frantz FANON observes: «the Negro behaves differently with a white man and with another Negro; and this self-division is a direct result of colonialist subjugation.»^49(*)

II.2.3. An Inventory of our African Resources

Africa is a continent blessed with a lot of natural resources. Due to poor technical and economic development, these resources are and have been exploited by the West. Senghor thus insists on the spiritual and cultural resources of Africa.

The foreign contributions, whether capitalist or socialist, whether from the West or from the East, must take cognizance of and be adapted to the African cultural and economic realities. Neither western nor eastern, nor African civilization is the universal civilization. Africa has something to offer in the process of collectivisation of mankind. The Hegelian and other racist attitudes are therefore wrong:

The Negro-African is not finished before he even gets started. Let him speak; above all, let him act. Let him bring like a leaven, his message to the world in order to help build the Civilization of the Universal.^50(*)

Following the steps of Teilhard de Chardin, Senghor acknowledges the complementarity of races and cultures. According to Senghor, the Négritude movement

[...] welcomes the complementary values of Europe and the white man, and indeed of all other races and continents. But it welcomes them in order to fertilize and reinvigorate its own values, which it then offers for the construction of a civilization which shall embrace all mankind. The neo-humanism of the twentieth century stands at the crossroads where the paths of all nations, races and continents meet, where the four winds of the spirit blow.^51(*)

Above all, the search for the Civilization of the Universal must not become an excuse for introducing a new cultural colonialism. This implies an independence of the mind, which is the necessary prerequisite of other independences: political, economic and social; that is, the right and the possibility of thinking for oneself, of choosing values for oneself, of acting by oneself and of being oneself. Such independence must imply not merely the rejection of the former colonial rule as being the absolute culture, but also of any other culture or value system which has not been fully integrated into that of one's own people. Every man is part of a social context: he has a country, a colour, a history and a civilization.

* ⁴⁸ Kenneth Kaunda, in Ruch, E., (ed.), African Philosophy, Rome, 1981, p. 238.

* ⁴⁹ Frantz Fanon, Black skin, White Masks, Great Britain, 1970, p. 12.

* ⁵⁰ Léopold Sédar Senghor, in Ruch, E., (ed.), African Philosophy, Rome, 1981, p. 226.

* ⁵¹ Léopold Sédar Senghor, in Ruch, E., (ed.), African Philosophy, Rome, 1981, pp. 226-227.