1 - Transcontinentality versus Afrocentricity
Corresponding Author(s) : Wim M. J. van Binsbergen
Africa Review of Books,
Vol. 13 No. 2 (2017): Africa Review of Books, volume 13, n° 2, 2017
Abstract
Wim M. J. van Binsbergen’s work, Before the Presocratics (2012), presents a kaleidoscopic assessment of regional and global epistemic traditions and configurations before the advent of ancient Greek thought (see also 2011a–d; 2012b–f;
2013). He is concerned about interrogating worlds that relate to Afrocentricity, employing an impressive assemblage of specialties, namely, protohistory, archaeology, comparative ethnography, comparative mythology, comparative linguistics
and genetics. His central thesis is that rather than viewing different regional epistemic formations as singular and distinct,
it is more appropriate to understand them as being part of a global and historical continuum of knowledge traditions
that are perpetually subject to migration and transformation – in short, all the elements of transplantation and dispersal. In this light, the strict separation between regional and ethnic knowledge becomes
misguided and often preposterous.
Keywords
- Asante, M. K., 1990, Kemet, Afrocentricity, and Knowledge, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
- Bernal, Martin Gardiner, 1987–2006, Black Athena, 3 vols.,New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
- Press.
- Bernal, Martin Gardiner, 2001, Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics,edited by D. Chioni Moore, Durham & London: Duke University Press.
- Durkheim, E., 1965, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, New York: Free Press (Original French, 1912).
- Flemming, Harold C., 1987, ‘Proto-Gongan Consonant Phonemes: Stage One,’in Leo Reinisch, Werk und Erbe, edited by Hans G. Mukarovsky, Wien: Verl. dÖsterreich. Akad. d. Wiss.
- Jaspers, Karl, 2011, The Origin and Goal of History, translated by Michael Bullock, London: Routledge.
- Nabudere, D. Wadada, 2011, Afrikology, Philosophy, and Wholeness: An Epistemol- ogy, Pretoria: Africa Institute for South Africa.
- ———, 2012, Afrikology and Transdisciplinarity: A Restorative Epistemology, Pre- toria: Africa Institute for South Africa.
- Starostin, Sergei A., 1989, ‘Nostratic and Sino-Caucasian,’ in V. Shevoroshkin, ed., Exploration in Language Macrofamilies, Bochum: Brockmeyer.
- ———, 1991, ‘On the Hypothesis of a Genetic Connection between the Sino-Tibetan Languages and the Yeniseian and North-Caucasian Languages [Translation and Introduction by W. Baxter III],’ in V.
- Shevoroshkin, ed., Dene-Sino-Caucasian Languages: Materials from the First International Interdisciplinary Symposium on Language and Prehistory. Ann Arbor, Michigan, November 1988, Bochum: Brockmeyer.
- Van Binsbergen, Wim M. J., 1995, ‘Divination and Board-Games: Exploring the Links between Geomantic Divination and Mancala Board-Games in Africa and Asia,’ paper read at the 1995 International Colloquium on Board-Games in Academia, Leiden, April 9–13; published as ‘Rethinking Africa’s Contribution to Global Cultural History: Lessons from a Comparative Historical Analysis of Mancala Board-Games and Geomantic Divination,’ special issue, Tatlana: Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society 29: 221–54; revised version at
- http://www.shikanda.net/ancient_models/gen3/mankala.html.
- ———, 2008, ‘Transcontinental mythological patterns in prehistory: A multivariate contents analysis of flood myths worldwide challenges Oppenheimer’s claim that the core mythologies of the Ancient Near East and the Bible originate from early Holocene South East Asia,’Cosmos: The Journal of the Traditional Cosmology Society, 23: 29–80.
- ———, 2011a, ‘Existential Dilemmas of a North Atlantic Anthropologist in the Production of Relevant Africanist Knowledge,’ in René Devisch and Francis B. Nyamnjoh, eds., The Postcolonial Turn: Re-Imagining Anthropology and Africa, Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa/Leiden:/African Studies Centre.
- ———, 2011b, ‘Is There a Future for Afrocentrism Despite Stephen Howe’s Dismis- sive 1998 Study?’ in Van Binsbergen, ed., Black Athena Comes of Age, 253–82.
- ———, 2011c, ‘The Limits of the Black Athena Thesis and of Afrocentricity as Empirical Explanatory Models: The “Borean” Hypothesis, the Back-into-Africa Hypothesis and the Pelasgian Hypothesis as Suggestive of a Common, West Asian Origin for the Continuities between Ancient Egypt and the Aegean, with a New Identity for the Goddess Athena,’ in Van Binsbergen, ed., Black Athena Comes of Age, 297–338.
- ———, 2011f, ‘Matthew Schoffeleers on Malawian Suitor Stories: A Perspective from Comparative
- Mythology,’ in Louis Nthenda and Lupeaga Mphande, eds., ‘A Tribute to the Life of Fr. Matthew
- Schoffeleers (1928–2011): Malawianist, Renaissance Man and Free-Thinker,’ special memorial edition, The Society of Malawi Journal, 64, no. 3: 6–94.
- ———, 2011d, ‘Shimmerings of the Rainbow Serpent: Towards the Interpretation of Crosshatching Motifs in Palaeolithic Art: Comparative Mythological and Archaeo- astronomical Explorations Inspired by the Incised Blombos Red Ochre Block, South Africa, 70 ka BP, and Nkoya Female Puberty Rites, 20th c.CE.’, http://shikanda. net/ancient_models/crosshatching_FINAL.pdf
- ———, 2012, Before the Presocratics. Cyclicity, Transformation, and Element Cosmology: The Case of Transcontinental Pre- or Protohistoric Cosmological Substrates Linking Africa, Eurasia, and North America, Leiden: African Studies Centre (This volume has an excellent bibliography of other works by Wim van Binsbergen regarding this and related topics).
- ———, 2012b, ‘A Note on the Oppenheimer-Tauchmann Thesis on Extensive South and South East Asian Demographic and Cultural Impact on Sub-Saharan Affica in Pre- and Protohistory,’ paper read at the International Conference on Rethinking Africa’s Transcontinental Continuities in Pre- and Protohistory,’ Afirican Studies Centre, Leiden, April 12–13, http://tinyurl.com/pszl8tt.
- ———, 2012c, ‘Production, Class Formation, and the Penetration of Capitalism in the Kaoma Rural
- District, Zambia, 1800–1978,’ in Cristiana Panella, ed., Lives in Motion, Indeed: Interdisciplinary
- Perspectives on Social Change in Honour of Danielle de Lame, Studies in Social Sciences and
- Humanities 174, Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa.
- ———, 2012d, ‘The Relevance of Buddhism and Hinduism for the Study of Asian- African
- Transcontinental Continuities,’ paper read at the International Conference on Rethinking Africa’s
- Transcontinental Continuities in Pre- and Protohistory, African Studies Centre, Leiden, April
- –13. http://www.shikanda.net/topicalities/ Mwendanjangula_final.pdf.
- ———, 2012e, ‘Rethinking Africa’s Transcontinental Continuities in Pre- and Proto- history,’ keynote paper read at the International Conference on Rethinking Africa’s Transcontinental Continuities in Pre- and Protohistory,’ African Studies Centre, Leiden, April 12 13,http://tinyurl.com/oyzb98n.
- ———, 2012f, ‘Towards a Pre- and Proto-Historic Transcontinental Maritime Net- work: Africa’s Pre-Modern Chinese Connections in the Light of a Critical Assess- ment of Gavin Menzies’ Work’, http://tinyurl.com/oq2hpo8.
- ———, 2013, ‘African Divination Across Time and Space: Typology and Intercultural Epistemology,’ in Walter E. A. van Beek and Philip Peek, eds., Realities Revealed. Divination in sub-Saharan Africa,
- Berlin: Munster/Boston: LIT.
- Winters, Clyde A, 1980, ‘A Note on the Unity of Black Civilizations in Africa, Indo-China, and China,’in PISAS 1979, Hong Kong: Asian Research Service.
References
Asante, M. K., 1990, Kemet, Afrocentricity, and Knowledge, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Bernal, Martin Gardiner, 1987–2006, Black Athena, 3 vols.,New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
Press.
Bernal, Martin Gardiner, 2001, Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics,edited by D. Chioni Moore, Durham & London: Duke University Press.
Durkheim, E., 1965, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, New York: Free Press (Original French, 1912).
Flemming, Harold C., 1987, ‘Proto-Gongan Consonant Phonemes: Stage One,’in Leo Reinisch, Werk und Erbe, edited by Hans G. Mukarovsky, Wien: Verl. dÖsterreich. Akad. d. Wiss.
Jaspers, Karl, 2011, The Origin and Goal of History, translated by Michael Bullock, London: Routledge.
Nabudere, D. Wadada, 2011, Afrikology, Philosophy, and Wholeness: An Epistemol- ogy, Pretoria: Africa Institute for South Africa.
———, 2012, Afrikology and Transdisciplinarity: A Restorative Epistemology, Pre- toria: Africa Institute for South Africa.
Starostin, Sergei A., 1989, ‘Nostratic and Sino-Caucasian,’ in V. Shevoroshkin, ed., Exploration in Language Macrofamilies, Bochum: Brockmeyer.
———, 1991, ‘On the Hypothesis of a Genetic Connection between the Sino-Tibetan Languages and the Yeniseian and North-Caucasian Languages [Translation and Introduction by W. Baxter III],’ in V.
Shevoroshkin, ed., Dene-Sino-Caucasian Languages: Materials from the First International Interdisciplinary Symposium on Language and Prehistory. Ann Arbor, Michigan, November 1988, Bochum: Brockmeyer.
Van Binsbergen, Wim M. J., 1995, ‘Divination and Board-Games: Exploring the Links between Geomantic Divination and Mancala Board-Games in Africa and Asia,’ paper read at the 1995 International Colloquium on Board-Games in Academia, Leiden, April 9–13; published as ‘Rethinking Africa’s Contribution to Global Cultural History: Lessons from a Comparative Historical Analysis of Mancala Board-Games and Geomantic Divination,’ special issue, Tatlana: Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society 29: 221–54; revised version at
http://www.shikanda.net/ancient_models/gen3/mankala.html.
———, 2008, ‘Transcontinental mythological patterns in prehistory: A multivariate contents analysis of flood myths worldwide challenges Oppenheimer’s claim that the core mythologies of the Ancient Near East and the Bible originate from early Holocene South East Asia,’Cosmos: The Journal of the Traditional Cosmology Society, 23: 29–80.
———, 2011a, ‘Existential Dilemmas of a North Atlantic Anthropologist in the Production of Relevant Africanist Knowledge,’ in René Devisch and Francis B. Nyamnjoh, eds., The Postcolonial Turn: Re-Imagining Anthropology and Africa, Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa/Leiden:/African Studies Centre.
———, 2011b, ‘Is There a Future for Afrocentrism Despite Stephen Howe’s Dismis- sive 1998 Study?’ in Van Binsbergen, ed., Black Athena Comes of Age, 253–82.
———, 2011c, ‘The Limits of the Black Athena Thesis and of Afrocentricity as Empirical Explanatory Models: The “Borean” Hypothesis, the Back-into-Africa Hypothesis and the Pelasgian Hypothesis as Suggestive of a Common, West Asian Origin for the Continuities between Ancient Egypt and the Aegean, with a New Identity for the Goddess Athena,’ in Van Binsbergen, ed., Black Athena Comes of Age, 297–338.
———, 2011f, ‘Matthew Schoffeleers on Malawian Suitor Stories: A Perspective from Comparative
Mythology,’ in Louis Nthenda and Lupeaga Mphande, eds., ‘A Tribute to the Life of Fr. Matthew
Schoffeleers (1928–2011): Malawianist, Renaissance Man and Free-Thinker,’ special memorial edition, The Society of Malawi Journal, 64, no. 3: 6–94.
———, 2011d, ‘Shimmerings of the Rainbow Serpent: Towards the Interpretation of Crosshatching Motifs in Palaeolithic Art: Comparative Mythological and Archaeo- astronomical Explorations Inspired by the Incised Blombos Red Ochre Block, South Africa, 70 ka BP, and Nkoya Female Puberty Rites, 20th c.CE.’, http://shikanda. net/ancient_models/crosshatching_FINAL.pdf
———, 2012, Before the Presocratics. Cyclicity, Transformation, and Element Cosmology: The Case of Transcontinental Pre- or Protohistoric Cosmological Substrates Linking Africa, Eurasia, and North America, Leiden: African Studies Centre (This volume has an excellent bibliography of other works by Wim van Binsbergen regarding this and related topics).
———, 2012b, ‘A Note on the Oppenheimer-Tauchmann Thesis on Extensive South and South East Asian Demographic and Cultural Impact on Sub-Saharan Affica in Pre- and Protohistory,’ paper read at the International Conference on Rethinking Africa’s Transcontinental Continuities in Pre- and Protohistory,’ Afirican Studies Centre, Leiden, April 12–13, http://tinyurl.com/pszl8tt.
———, 2012c, ‘Production, Class Formation, and the Penetration of Capitalism in the Kaoma Rural
District, Zambia, 1800–1978,’ in Cristiana Panella, ed., Lives in Motion, Indeed: Interdisciplinary
Perspectives on Social Change in Honour of Danielle de Lame, Studies in Social Sciences and
Humanities 174, Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa.
———, 2012d, ‘The Relevance of Buddhism and Hinduism for the Study of Asian- African
Transcontinental Continuities,’ paper read at the International Conference on Rethinking Africa’s
Transcontinental Continuities in Pre- and Protohistory, African Studies Centre, Leiden, April
–13. http://www.shikanda.net/topicalities/ Mwendanjangula_final.pdf.
———, 2012e, ‘Rethinking Africa’s Transcontinental Continuities in Pre- and Proto- history,’ keynote paper read at the International Conference on Rethinking Africa’s Transcontinental Continuities in Pre- and Protohistory,’ African Studies Centre, Leiden, April 12 13,http://tinyurl.com/oyzb98n.
———, 2012f, ‘Towards a Pre- and Proto-Historic Transcontinental Maritime Net- work: Africa’s Pre-Modern Chinese Connections in the Light of a Critical Assess- ment of Gavin Menzies’ Work’, http://tinyurl.com/oq2hpo8.
———, 2013, ‘African Divination Across Time and Space: Typology and Intercultural Epistemology,’ in Walter E. A. van Beek and Philip Peek, eds., Realities Revealed. Divination in sub-Saharan Africa,
Berlin: Munster/Boston: LIT.
Winters, Clyde A, 1980, ‘A Note on the Unity of Black Civilizations in Africa, Indo-China, and China,’in PISAS 1979, Hong Kong: Asian Research Service.