Lexington Books Reason in History: Hegel and Social Changes in Africa

Has there been or can there ever be a structural change that would reveal an internal dynamic to African societies? In this investigation, the elements determining the forms and laws of social change are of less interest than the possibility of change itself. Is change universal or just a property of a certain type of social totality? Reason in History examines these questions through a critical analysis of Hegelian theses on Africa. Going beyond the negative theses, Hegel's theories can ultimately be read to do Africa justice. A closer scrutiny reveals that his ideas do acknowledge the true reality of traditional African societies and recognize that Africa is not and never has been static. The book fosters a greater appreciation of the grandeur and complexity of Hegel's dialectic as well. He is still judging our world, despite what postmodernist scholars and ethnophilosophers might think. Review Babacar Camara has provided a remarkable study of Hegel's thought in the context of colonialism, neocolonialism, and anti-colonial struggles for social change in Africa. He gives scholars devoted to rethinking Hegel and dialectical thought much for thought, whether from the perspective of literature, philosophy, or political economy, and especially in the African context. Camara offers a nuanced critique of fetishism and other obstacles to a reflective anthropology of freedom, where articulating the movement of the rational and the real emerges from sources about which liberationists are most ambivalent. As with C.L.R. James, who saw the importance of exploring Hegel's thought to understand Marx's, Camara reminds us, in no mixed terms, of the enduring value of genuine struggles with the proverbial source. In so doing, he reminds us of the conditions by which contradictions could be productive through engagements with African Diasporic thought--Lewis R. Gordon, Professor of Philosophy and Africana Studies, University of Connecticut Babacar Camara undertakes a complex project of simultaneously critiquing Hegel's infamous assessment of Africa, while refreshing Hegelianism itself. Camara reveals Africa to be a construction that contemporary 'Africans' need to confront in order to engage in meaningful social change. In the process, Camara seeks to invert core and periphery and argue nothing less than 'the world is African.' It is a challenging read that holds much promise for renewing Hegelian studies while making a solid contribution to Africana studies.--Randall Halle, University of Pittsburgh About the Author Babacar Camara is associate professor of Black World Studies, Comparative Literature, and French at Miami University in Ohio.