Page 76 - CONSCIENCISM By Kwame Nkrumah_Neat
P. 76
70 CONSCIENCISM SOCIETY AND IDEOLOGY 7 I
upon implicitly as repositories of all those staid and conservative nature, to impose such transformations upon nature, as will
virtues indispensable to any exploiter administration. They, as it
develop the environment of the society for its better fulfilment.
were, paid the registration fee for membership ofa class which was The changed environment, in bringing about a better fulfilment of
now associated with social power and authority.
the society, thereby alters the society. Society placed in nature is
Such education as we were all given put before us right from our therefore caught in the correlation oftransformation with develop
infancy ideals of the metropolitan countries, ideals which could ment. This correlation represents the toil of man both as a social
seldom be seen as representing the scheme, the harmony and being and as an individual. This kind of correlation has achieved
progress of African society. The scale and type of economic expression in various social-political theories. For a social-political
activity, the idea ofthe accountability ofthe individual conscience theory has a section which determines the wayin which social forces
introduced by the Christian religion, countless other silent are to be deployed in order to increase the transformation ofsociety.
influences, these have all made an indelible impression upon Slavery and feudalism represent social-political theories in which
African society. the deployment of forces is not a problematic question. In both
But neither economic nor political subjugation could be slavery and feudalism, workers, the people whose toil transforms
considered as being in tune with the traditional African egalitarian nature for the development ofsociety, are dissociated from any say
view of man and society. Colonialism had in any case to be done in rule. By a vicious division oflabour, one class ofcitizen toils and
away with. The African Hercules has his club poised ready to smite
another reaps where it has not sown. In the slave society, as in the
any new head which the colonialist hydra may care to put out. feudal society, that part ofsociety whose labours transform nature
With true independence regained, however, a new harmony is not the same as the part which is better fulfilled as a result ofthis
needs to be forged, a harmony that will allow the combined transformation. If by their fruits we shall know them, they must
presence of traditional Africa, Islamic Africa and Euro-Christian first grow the fruits. In slave and feudal society, the fruit-eaters are
Africa, so that this presence is in tune with the original humanist not the fruit-growers. This is the cardinal factor in exploitation,
principles underlying African society. Our society is not the old that the section ofa society whose labours transform nature is not
society, but a new society enlarged by Islamic and Euro-Christian the same as the section which is better fulfilled as a result of this
influences. A new emergent ideology is therefore required, an transformation.
ideology which can solidify in a philosophical statement, but at the In every non-socialist society, there can be found two strata
same time an ideology which will not abandon the original which correspond to that of the oppressor and the oppressed, the
humanist principles ofAfrica. exploiter and the exploited. In all such societies, the essential
Such a philosophical statement will be born out of the crisis of relation between the two strata is the same as that between masters
the African conscience confronted with the three strands ofpresent and slaves, lords and serfS. In capitalism, which is only a social
African society. Such a philosophical statement I propose to name political theory in which the important aspects of slavery and
philosophical consciencism, for it will give the theoretical basis for an feudalism are refined, a stratified society is required for its proper
ideology whose aim shall be to contain the African experience of functioning, a society is required in which the working class is
Islamic and Euro-Christian presence as well as the experience ofthe oppressed by the ruling class; for, under capitalism, that portion of
traditional African society, and, by gestation, employ them for the society whose labours transform nature and produce goods is not
harmonious growth and development of that society. the portion ofsociety which enjoys the fruits ofthis transformation
Every society is placed in nature. And it seeks to influence and productivity. Nor is it the whole ofsociety which is so enhanced.
