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European Exploration and Africa' Self-Discovery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Ali A. Mazrui
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Extract

The spirit of geographical exploration in Africa is historically linked both to science as a social commitment and to anti-science as an intellectual rebellion. This article is a reflection on this basic ambivalence in the meaning and philosophical implications of a transient episode in African history. What needs to be remembered is that men cast in certain roles, such as explorers, become not merely historical figures but also intellectual symbols. I leave it to the historians to study the explorers as figures in history, being here concerned with them as symbols in thought. What have these men and their activities meant in the interplay of ideas between Europe and Africa? What impact have they had on African self-consciousness? What is their place in the evolution of the scientific spirit in Africa? What bearing do they have on the quest for a scientific approach to the study of Africa's past? These questions are, indeed, too large to be adequately handled in a short article. But they need to be asked, and may thus help to define its context.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , December 1969 , pp. 661 - 676
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

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