THE FALSITY OF HEGEL'S THESES ON AFRICA

Camara / HEGEL’S THESES ON AFRICA 95
NOTES
1. Léopold Sédar Senghor, poet, essayist, scholar, and statesman, is considered the theorist
of Negritude.
2. The Hegelian theses on Africa are gathered in his The Philosophy of History (1991).
3. Civilisation de l’Universel is the universal civilization: the ultimate civilization that
incorporates the special and unique aspects of all cultures because it springs from the contact
and dialogue between cultures.
4. Senghor (1971) was well aware of the anteriority of Black African civilizations. He
says, “Egypt founded the first of the historical civilizations. Europeans have tried in vain to
refuse it this honor. In any event, it is the first of African civilizations” (p. 88). See also Diop
(1967/1974, 1987).
5. For Senghor, one of Africa’s specificities is its classless society (Markovitz, 1969).
6. For Hegel on the state, see Hegel’s (1967) Philosophy of Right, pp. 115-223.
7. Amin’s economic theory of “the deterioration of the terms of exchange” is often criticized
as being moderate or disguising the fact that the West exploits an Africa already made
dependent since colonization (see Amin, 1978).
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