Ayesha Naimah Johnson

Assignment #1

Principles of Literary Criticism

23 ebruary 2010

I. African World View

Part I.

The African world view makes the following points:

A. The concept of God’s supremacy over man retards growth and development.

B. While they respected God, they believed that His home was in the heavens and theirs on

Earth; they believed that they one should only visit as a guest and never overstay their

welcome.

C. Differing from other world views, the African view was that who was proud to live on Earth

and be a child of Earth and did not long to be somewhere else. They believed that to be

human, to feel sorrow and joy, the pangs of hunger and fullness, to love and be loved: that

this was the best existence possible and they relished in it.

D. African viewpoint says, respectfully, to God: “Move away” so that they can gain self-mastery.

They valued independence from their Creator.

E. Self-mastery is attained not by constantly praying to God for help, but by studying his

creations of nature, humanity and the person themselves in silence. This leads way to self-

knowledge.

F. Self-knowledge is not attained by the cultivation of one’s self but by viewing one’s self as

part of a whole and by reflecting not what others owe us but what we owe the world.

G. Everyone is born into the debt of our parents, community and past.
H. Though there are different religions throughout the continent, they all practice the “religion

of happiness.” Although different in terminology, form and practice their goals and means

are the same.

I. The fundamental belief that “oneness or nearness with God” is detrimental to the growth of

man is remarkable for its antiquity and daring. This is an idea that took other cultures two

thousand years. The Europeans did not embrace this concept until the 18 th century,

introduced to them by the Chinese.

J. African view point is anthropocentric, or man centered. It focuses on the uniqueness,

supremacy and welfare of man.

Part II.

The African viewpoint is very useful as it does respect God and acknowledges His existence,

however, it advocates a strong penchant for independence of human beings. Instead of

constantly knocking and annoying the divine work of God, humans are thought better off to

observe the creators work, such as the Earth and nature, to attain self-sufficiency and

knowledge. This still offers the comfort and humility of knowing there are greater forces than

your humanness, while still being very clear that one must work for what you want.

Additionally, their view that God is not some angry bi-polar man in the sky but a benevolent,

heavenly, quirky creator paints a kinder more approachable higher power. Their weaving of

kindness and community into the very definition of what it means to be human, as opposed to

other cultures who say that humans are inherently evil, sets high moral expectations without

scare tactics.