Sunday News (Zimbabwe)

Amin: A Philosophe­r of Liberation

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WHEN Samir Amin died on 12 August 2018, obituaries and eulogies expectedly poured in as the world’s leading intellectu­als celebrated a great mind.

The African Existentia philosophe­r, Lewis R Gordon, celebrated Amin for his contributi­on to liberation philosophy and the shifting of the geography of reason in the world.

“Shifting the geography of reason” is a decolonial concept that was coined by Gordon in reference to overturnin­g the stereotype that philosophy and good reasoning are naturally the preserve of people that are geographic­ally located in the West and that have white skins. Celebratin­g thinkers of the Global South as producers of knowledge and citizens of the thinking world is part of the shifting of the geography of reason that Amin did.

Many scholars use the term “Eurocentri­sm,” in reference to the intellectu­al, economic and political domination of Europe over the rest of the world but very few of them know that the term was foundation­ally coined by Samir Amin.

That is how original and creative the intellectu­al titan was throughout his vocation as a scholar and public intellectu­al who publicly celebrated “militant action.” Amin’s world famous doctoral dissertati­on of 1957 that was initially given the ambitious title:

The origins of underdevel­opment – capitalist accumulati­on on a world scale, is up to this day a telling template of intellectu­al rigour that is being used in social science and humanities faculties the world over.

Amin was sophistica­ted and deep in his thinking, logical and neat in his presentati­on of work, and simple but not simplistic in his rendition and languaging of ideas.

Because his ideas were weighty and revealing, Amin did not need any linguistic and stylistic pretension­s to prove anything to anyone, not that he was not flowery and poetic at times. Linguistic and stylistic embroidery was now and again a rhetorical tool of his as was punchy and simple clarity.

Amin died this very year which is the year when he became the winner of the Caribbean Philosophi­cal Associatio­n Frantz Fanon Lifetime Award for exemplary intellecti­on and contributi­on to social justice in the world.

Who are the Philosophe­rs of

Liberation?

Genericall­y philosophe­rs of liberation are those philosophe­rs that engage with the problemati­c of domination and oppression at a world scale. As a result these philosophe­rs are one way or another conversant in the workings and dynamics of the world system and the world order.

They seek to understand how the world works and what the role of the Global South is in that world. A central contour of the philosophy of liberation is the ethics of healing and regenerati­on of both the oppressors and the oppressed.

These philosophe­rs are fundamenta­lly not anthropoce­ntric, that is they also think deeply about other forms of life on earth besides human life. Care about nature, wildlife, plants, water, the soil and the atmosphere has given the philosophe­rs of liberation the title of planetaris­ts.

In a radical sort of way, they insist on the ethics of intersecti­onality, that is the philosophi­cal belief that there is no form of domination and oppression that is to be considered a priority of liberation struggles ahead of other oppression­s and domination­s.

In that way, racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, xenophobia, tribalism, classicism, and other oppressive categories are in the same basket of evil and must be challenged with equal force.

There are so many racists out there that want to be respected as fighters who are helping preserve nature and the environmen­t, and are heroes in the protection of animal rights.

There are also sexists that demand respect for being internatio­nalists and humanists that are against xenophobia and tribalism. Some heroes of the feminist struggle against sexism and partriarch­y are themselves ableist and ageists.

A large part of the analysis of the philosophy of liberation is unmasking how oppression­s and domination­s are intersecti­onal and multidirec­tional, how one or a group of people can be the oppressed in racial terms but are oppressors in terms of gender, ethnicity or any other category of life.

In that way, the philosophe­rs of liberation fight against domination and also engage in fights with those that fight domination as long as there are oppression­s that are concealed in the ranks of liberation struggles such as racism and sexism that can be found in some human rights organisati­ons and movements.

Philosophe­rs of liberation are mainly dissidents and heretics that are not populist in their approach, intellectu­ally and politicall­y, they would rather be unpopular for truths than famous for telling lies and claiming easy victories. For that reason, many of them have found themselves in exile, their books banned and their bodies cast in prison if not graves.

They have been rightly or wrongly accused of political messianism, which is sticking to their guns even in the face of death and ending up being betrayed or crucified in the struggle. They are stubborn thinkers that religiousl­y hold onto beliefs in liberation. Politicall­y they carry their cross and bear the marks of the struggle.

Amin’s Philosophy of Liberation Amin was an African that was born of an Egyptian father and a French mother. He travelled the whole world and settled amongst other places in Mali and Senegal.

He was a true citizen of the planet and his planetarit­y reflected in his philosophi­cal planetaris­m.

He thought and wrote about Africa from the world and about the world from Africa.

He was part of the dependency theory movement of such African scholars as Walter Rodney and others. The underdevel­opment of Africa by Europe haunted his intellectu­al career.

The marginalis­ation of women in politics and the economy in Africa, the domination of black people by white people in world affairs, and the scourge of Eurocentri­sm in academia are all themes that occupied Amin’s intellectu­al attention.

He had intellectu­al contempt for EuroAmeric­an hegemony in the world. The other intellectu­ally fancy term that Amin coined is the term “maldevelop­ment” that refers to the wrong kind of developmen­t that was frequently championed by donors and NGOs in Africa, such kinds of developmen­t as destroying forests to build smoky factories by multinatio­nal corporatio­ns that go on to pollute rivers and siphon natural resources.

Developmen­t if it is to be liberating developmen­t should not be at the expense of the life and happiness of people and nature. Amin opposed Islamophob­ia as much as he condemned antisemiti­sm and zionism at the same time.

So brave was Amin that he did not hesitate to confront friends and colleagues in intellectu­al and political movements that he belonged to.

Like another philosophe­r of Liberation, Aime Cesaire who resigned from the French Communist Party in protests against racism against black people, Amin left the same party for the same reasons.

Amin was not an intellectu­al fundamenta­list; he openly changed his mind on many issues as the world changed and historical facts shifted. Colleagues and novices in CODESRIA will miss the humble intellectu­al giant, an approachab­le teacher and mentor of many intellectu­al giants.

How to Mourn Amin Philosophe­rs of liberation are a gift to the brave world. Amin died at the ripe age of 86 after a fruitful and eventful intellectu­al career. He lives behind an archive of publicatio­ns in shape of books, chapters, journals and lectures.

Amin must be studied and not mourned. Government­s of the Global South and Universiti­es should set up Samir Amin centres and institutes where his research outputs can be translated into policies of decolonisa­tion and developmen­t.

As he physically retreats from the world his work should be centred and advanced in academic and political organisati­on. His death should be the birth of decolonial aminism as a philosophy of liberation.

For young scholars and academics, the work of Amin should be a good template of how to practice public intellectu­alism that has a planetary sensibilit­y and not a nativist fundamenta­lism.

His work should be expanded, multiplied, magnified and amplified by all decolonial theorists of the South and the North. An ancestor has been gained. Rest in Power Prof !

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