Philosophy Against Empire an Ancient Egyptian Renaissance

8/12/2019 Philosophy Against Empire an Ancient Egyptian Renaissance

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/philosophy-against-empire-an-ancient-egyptian-renaissance 1/17



PHILOSOPHY AGAINST

EMPIRE

An

Ancient

Egyptian

Renaissance

CHARLESC.

VERHAREN

Howard

University

What should be the

politics

of

Afrocentricity?

How should

Afrocentrists

fight globalization'sempire,

the continuationof

slavery by

other means?

This article

groundspolitical

resistance o

empire

in

an ancient

Egyptian

philosophy

of holism. The article's heme is thatfour

powerful

movements

are

converging

on a

new

philosophy.Paradoxically,

his

"new"

philosophy

is

prefigured

n

the oldest

recorded

philosophy,

hat

of

ancient

Egypt.

The

four

converging

philosophies

are

Afrocentricity,

cofeminism,

deep

ecol-

ogy

or

radical

environmentalism,

nd Marxism.These movementsare con-

temporary

xpressions

of

resistance o centuries

f

not millenniaof violent

oppression.The article'saim is to createa synergyamong hese movements

to

build a coalition

thatcan

challengeempire.

The article

briefly

examines

the

historicalcareerof

holism

in

the area of

ontology

before

considering

expressions

of

holism in the

areasof ethics and

politics.

Keywords:

ancient

Egypt;

Afrocentricity; eep ecology;

ethics;

ecofemi-

nism;

empire;

holism;

Ma

at;Marxism;

ntology;philosophy;

politics

What

should be the

politics

of

Afrocentricity?

How should

Afrocentristsfight globalization's empire, the continuation of

slaveryby

other

means?This

article

groundspolitical

resistance o

empire

in

an

ancient

Egyptian

philosophy

of holism.1

Abstractly

considered,

holism

is a

philosophy

that addresses

ontology's pri-

mary question:

What

exists?

However,

a

philosophy's

answer to

that

question

dictates ts

ethical

ground:

What s valuable?

Together

these

two

studiesdictatea holistic

philosophy's

answer

o

the

most

practical

question:

What

actions shouldI

take to

stop empire?

The

article's

theme is that four

powerful

movementsare con-

vergingon a newphilosophy.Paradoxically,his "new"philosophy

JOURNAL

OF BLACK

STUDIES,

Vol. 36 No.

6,

July

2006 958-973

DOI:

10.1177/0021934705286128

© 2006

Sage

Publications

958

This content downloaded from 190.20.17.16 on Wed, 4 Sep 2013 23:45:40 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp





Verharen ANCIENTEGYPTIANRENAISSANCE 959

is

prefigured

n

the oldestrecorded

hilosophy,

hatof ancient

Egypt.

The four

convergingphilosophies

are

Afrocentricity,

cofeminism,

deep ecology

or radical

nvironmentalism,

ndMarxism.

They

con-

verge

in their

foundation

n holistic

ontology

and

in

their

passion

for social

justice.

These

movements are

contemporary xpressions

of resistance

to

centuries

if

not millennia of violent

oppression.

The article's

aim is to create a

synergy

among

these movements to

build a

coalition that

can

challenge empire.

The

article

briefly

examines

the historicalcareer

of holism in the

area

of

ontology

before

con-

sideringexpressions

of holism in the areas of

ethics and

politics.

HOLISM IN

THE

HISTORY OF

THOUGHT

As the

history

of the universe moves in the

directionof

com-

plexity,

the

history

of

thought

moves in

the directionof

simplicity.

By complexity

mean variation

n

the

range

of

experience.

The

universe

tarts

with

a

"big

bang"

of the

simplest

element,

hydrogen,

which contains

only

one

electron,

one

proton,

and

one neutron.

After he

big bang,

the

universebecomes

frightfully omplex.

More

than 100 more elements

join hydrogen,

ife

follows the

origin

of

the

solar

system,

and humanscome on the scene to

transform ur

planet's

ife

in

complex ways.

In contrast o

complexity,

simplicity

means a reduction

n

the

number

of

symbols required

or an

adequatedescription

of

ever

more

complicated

human

experience.

Human

thinkingappears

o

follow the "KISS"

principle.

The usual

formulation

of

that

princi-

ple

is

expressed

as,

"Keep

t

simple, stupid "

However,

he

history

of

thought

has shown

that someone who can

trulykeep

it

simple

is

the wisest of

human

beings

a Solomon rather han a

simpleton.

Unlike

the

history

of

the

universe,

the

history

of

thought

has moved

in the direction

of

simplicity,

defined as the smallest

number

of

symbols capable

of

describing

the

greatest range

of

experience.

The most

stunning

moves

in

that

history

eliminate

multiple

categories

of

symbols.

The manifold of our

sensory

experience

collapses

into the

single-mindedness

of

thought.

Some







960 JOURNALOFBLACK STUDIES JULY2006

ancient

Egyptian

and

pre-Socratic philosophers,

for

example,

reducedthe

origins

of the world to

a

single

cause

water.

The ultimatereductionof

complexity

to

simplicity

is

found

in

a

philosophy

of

holism. Holism can be understood

n

at least three

different

ways

(Marietta,

1995).

First,

it can be the claim

that

a

single

principle

binds all existence

together. Virtually

all the

ancientEgyptiancosmologies attribute heoriginsof the universe

to a

single principle

such as Nun. As we saw

above,

contemporary

science

argues

for the

origins

of

the universe

n

the

big bang

of a

single

element,

hydrogen.

A

second version of

holism makes the claim that all

reality

constitutes a

single

being.

A

contemporary xample

of this

phi-

losophy

is

the

hypothesis

that the whole earth

comprises

a

single

organism

called

Gaia. Just as our bodies are

composed

of

primi-

tive cells

that once had

an

independent

existence,

so the earth

as

an

organism

s

composed

of

billions of

organisms

hat sustain

their

lives

only

as

parts

of the

organic

whole we call the earth

(Schwartzman,

1999).

The third

version of

holism is

perhaps

the least

controversial

because it does

not

require

a commitment o beliefs

thatcannot

be

verified.

This holism

is

simply

a

commitment o

join together

what

has been

split apart.

n

their

infancy,

humanshave

radicallysepa-

ratedwhole

categories

of

beings

from

one another:heavens from

the

earth,

humans rom

animals,

men

from

women,

Africans rom

non-Africans,

and

spirit

from matter.The

most heraldedhumans

have been

precisely

those who have

unitedwhat their

predecessors

have

split

apart.

Christunited

the "chosen"

people

with

all

other

humans.

Newton

oined

the

heavenswith the earthwith his univer-

sal

laws of

gravitation.

Darwin

notoriously

and

reluctantly oined

humans

together

with

animals.

Feminists

joined

men

together

with

women,

and

abolitionists

oined

Africans

together

with non-

Africans.

The

ancient

Egyptians oined

spirit ogether

with matter.

Unlike

many

of their

successors,however,

he

ancient

Egyptians

did

not

separate

matter

and

spirit

n

the first

place.

In

the

Egyptian

cosmology

described

by

Cheikh

Anta

Diop

(1981/1991),

the

spiri-

tual

reality

of Ra

evolves

throughKhepera

rom

Nun,

the

primordial

chaotic

water.

Neither

did the

Egyptians

separate

humans from







Verharen ANCIENT EGYPTIANRENAISSANCE 961

animals or

gods

Unaware

f

the

sophistication

f

Egyptian hought,

Hegel

(1892/1956,

p.

208)

criticized he

animalistic

Egyptian epre-

sentations f

gods.

Ancient

Egyptians

used

together

all of human-

ity,

whether

Nubian,

Hyksos,

or

Egyptian,

under the

authority

of

Ma'at And an

Egyptianqueen

ruled he united

kingdom

of

Egypt.

Holistic

philosophies

have

exerted

a

powerful

hold on

human

imagination.

Part of the reason

may

be

found

in

the

origins

of

these

patterns

of

thought.

Holistic

philosophies

are

expressions

of

the mind at work.We think

by

means of

concepts,

literally "grab-

bings together."

A

concept performs

he

miracle of

conjoining

even to

the

point

of

perfect identity objects

that are

physically

distinct.

What

cannot

be

synthesized

n

the world of

sensoryexpe-

rience is

perfectly

fused

in

the field of

mental

experience.

Binding together arge

areas of

experience

under

simple

con-

cepts

enablesus to

predict

he

future,

hereby

enhancing

our

ability

to surviveand thrive.From

somewherearound

200,000

yearsago

to the

present,

we Homo

sapiens sapiens

have

grown

from

a

small handful o more than six billion

strong.

We are

small,

slow,

weak,

dimly

sensing, tasty

morsels to the other

top predators

with

whom

we

compete,

but we have

engineered

he near

extinction

or

perhaps

wholesale

extinction of

most

of

ourrival

op predators.

What'snext?

We

are

engineering

our own

destruction To

prove

this

bold

statement,

we need not cite contentious laims

about

global

warming

and its

possible

effects on hurricanes uch as

Katrina.We

need

only

recall

the readinessof the

United States and the former

Soviet Union

to use nuclear

weapons

in

the Cuban

Missile Crisis.

Neither

President

Kennedy

nor PremierKhrushchevknew that a

major

nuclear

weapon exchange

would mean the end of life

on

earth

as we know it. That was

not found out until

the 1980s. And

when the

whole worldknew that

using

nuclear

weapons

meantsui-

cide for

humanity,

till

we

did not

abolishnuclear

weapons.

We have

not abolished

nuclear

weapons.

And we cannot abolish

nuclear

weapons

unless

we return o

Africa.

What can

we do to

fight

the

empire

bent on the destructionof

life on

the

planet?

Return o our roots The roots of all

humans,

as

the

whole

world is

finally beginning

to

discover,

are

in

Africa.







962 JOURNALOFBLACK STUDIES / JULY 2006

HOLISM IN

ACTION:

THE

ANCIENT

EGYPTIANS

Ancient

Egyptian

holism

foreshadows

the

history

of science

that

may

be seen as the

story

of the mind

recreating

he

world

n

its

own

image.

The ancient

Egyptians

race the

origins

of

the cosmos

to

Nun,

the

primeval

chaotic water.Ancient

Egyptian

cosmology

claims

that a

powerful, ntelligentbeing

evolves

through

a

process

of

becoming

out of an

original

chaotic matter.

Through

hat same

creative

process,

Khepera,

he basic

physical

elements

come into

being,

and from

those elements evolve the

gods,

humans,

and the

world as we know

it. Ancient

Egyptianontology

makes no

radical

distinction

between

spirit

and matter.Hierarchies hat flow

from

such

distinctionshave no

place

in

the

Egyptian

canon

of

being

(Diop,

1981/1991;

Hornung,

1971/1982).

The

analogy

between ancient

Egyptiancosmology

and

contem-

porary

osmology

llustrates olism's

history.

The

ancient

Egyptians

tracethe

origins

of the

cosmos to a

single principle,

Nun. Contem-

porary

osmologists

tracethe

origin

of the universe o the

simplest

element,

hydrogen.

The role of

Khepera

or

becoming

is

analogous

to

the role of

evolution

n

contemporary

cience. Forboth cosmolo-

gies,

intense

usions of

energy

andmatter

pin

off the elementsnec-

essary

for the

creation of

life.

In

the

Egyptian system,

Ra the

luminous and

powerful

intelligence

that

organizes

the visible

sun

creates

out

of

itself

elements that

in

turn

produce

other ele-

ments

thatmake

ife on earth

possible.

In

the

contemporaryystem,

the sun radiates

energy

to the earth to set

up

the

cycle

of life

(Verharen,

002).

ANCIENT

EGYPTIAN

ETHICS

Parallelsbetween

Egyptian

and modern

physics

might

seem to

be fine

points

that have

little

bearing

on the

fight against

empire.

However,ontology

furnishesa

foundation or

ethics. The

guiding

ethical

principle

of

the

ancient

Egyptians

s the

goddess

Ma'

at,

or

the

principle

of

order,

harmony,

and

justice.

To be

ethical,

we








must follow the

precepts

of Ma'at. These

prescriptions

bear

a

remarkable esemblance

o the commandments f

the

religions

of

the Book

give

drink

to the

thirsty,

food to the

hungry,

and the

like

yet they may

be

2,000

years

older thanthe first

books of the

Bible

(Assman,

1998).

To sin

against

Ma'at is to

bring

chaos into life

-

before its time.

Chaos

is not

intrinsically

evil

because the universe

begins

in a

chaotic state

that is reveredas the

protean

creatorof the

universe,

Nun.

Disorder s evil

only

when a well-orderedstate of

affairs s

reduced to chaos

in

advance

of its natural

cycle.

In

a holistic

ontology, good

and

evil are intrinsicto all

existence,

not

separate

forms

of existence.

The

Egyptian

osmology

finds

good

in

the midst of evil andvice

versa: Seth

is not

only

the murderer f Osiris but a force

against

the

disintegration

f the cosmos

into

chaos. Seth

fights

the forces

of chaos

nightly

to restorethe sun at dawn. The classical icon of

Egyptian

cosmology

is the

ouroboros,

he

figure

of a snake

con-

suming

tself

by

eating

ts tail. The snake s the dread

god

Apophis,

the embodiment

f chaos. The whole universemust return o

chaos

in

the

end,

but it will

be

reborn

out of that chaos. For the

ancient

Egyptians,

evil does not have an

independent

xistence,

like Satan

in

the

religions

of the

Book. Evil is

simply

chaos at a time when

Ma'at

should rule

rather han

Apophis.

Even

Apophis

is not irre-

deemably

evil

because it is natural

for the cosmos to returnto

chaos,

in its infinite

cycle

between Nun and Ma'at. The ancient

Egyptians

recognize

that

good

and evil are

inseparable.

One can

never

riumph

ver the other

or all

eternity Hornung,

1971/1982).

To

contrast

Egyptian

and

nonholistic

thics,

consider he ethics

of

three

major eligions:

They

are

iterally

ut of this world The version

of

Christianity

n

which

I

was raised

proclaimed

hat this life is

only

a

test;

real

life

begins

only

after

death,

f

heavenshould

be our

reward.

So much

for

this life Buddhism

laims thatwe must over-

come

one of

the two

features hatmake

us

human,

ur

desires,

hould

we

wish to achieve

nirvana.

Hinduismholds

this life is not real but

only

a

dream

romwhich

we mustbe liberated

hrough

moksha.

Egyptian

ethics,

by

contrast,

is

utterly

down to earth At the

same

time,

Egyptian

ethics

is

heavenly

because it advocates no

separation

of the

physical

and

spiritual.







964 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES / JULY 2006

HOLISTIC ETHICS

In

contrast to these three out-of-this-world

ethics,

the first

principle

of a holistic ethics takes life as its foundation.

Life is

an ordered set of

connections that

replicate

themselves.

Living

beings

are

completely dependent

or their survivaland

flourishing

on

nonlivingbeings.No fundamental,ntrinsicprincipleseparates

the

two,

inasmuchas both

constitutean indissoluble

whole.

The

meaning

or

purpose

of life is

not to

be found outside of

life. The universe

as we

know

it

brought

ife into existence.

If

a

force outside the

universe

brought

the universe itself into

being,

then a

holistic

philosophy

demands hat we

change

our definition

of the

universe to include

that force.

If

there is an afterlife that

gives

continuity

o the

day-to-day

ives thatwe

lead,

then we must

change

our

definitionof life

to include the afterlife.No existential

principle

can

separate

the

universe from its

origins,

or this life

from

all

possible

forms of

life,

because a holistic

philosophy

can-

not

brook the

separation

of

any being

from

any

other

being.

In

a

holistic

ethics,

evil

is

precisely

what the

ancient

Egyptians

defined it to be:

the absence of

harmony

or order where both

should be.

Death is

not an evil

in

itself or a

blessing

in

disguise

as

the

portal

to

a beatific

afterlife. Death in

fact makes life

possible.

Death

only

becomes

evil when

it comes before its

time. Our

eth-

ical

duty

is to

resist

death with all our

power,

unless the

appropri-

ate

moment for death

has

come.

The

first

commandmentof

a holistic

ethics, then,

is that

we

must

cherish

ife and

pass

it on

to our

successors.

A

holistic ethics

does

not

discriminate

between human

and otherforms of life. The

universal

law that

follows from this

principle

is that we cannot

break he

connective

issue of life

except

to makenew connections.

We

have the

right

to

destroy

the lives

of nonhumans

only

in

cases

where we

cannot sustain

our own

connectivity

without

destroying

theirs.

Current

hinking

about

capitalpunishment

an

illustrateevolu-

tion

towarda

holistic

ethics. The ethics

of

capitalpunishment

has

become a

matter of

wide-spread

debate

only recently

in

history.

The

reason is

in

part

a

matterof economics. If

an individual

pre-

sents a clear

and

present

danger

o a

community

hatdoes not

have







Verharen ANCIENTEGYPTIANRENAISSANCE 965

the resources o restrain he

individual,

hen

capitalpunishment

s

its first ine of defense.

If

a

community

has

abundant esources or

humane and reliable restraint

systems,

then the

ethics of

capital

punishment

s at risk.

Under

the ethical

principle

of not

breaking

a

connection

except

to make a better

connection,

the

community

would be best off

if it

had the

power

to reverse he

conditionsthat

made

the

person dangerous

and

reintegrate

he

person

into the

community.

The folk wisdom that

capitalpunishment

s a

deterrent

lacks

empirical

evidence. And

using capital punishment

o

take

vengeance

on a criminal s

beginning

o be

regarded

as

barbaric

at least

in some circles.

A

holistic ethics

proscribes

demonizing

human

beings

or

nations.

Using capitalpunishment

as a

form

of

vengeance

s tanta-

mount o

claiming

thata human

being

is evil

incarnate nd

beyond

any hope

of

restoration

in

even the most

limitedform to

a com-

munity.

A

community

that must terminate he

life of one of

its

members

o

protect

tself

is

simply confessing

its

powerlessness

n

the face of that individual.

A

powerful

community

would

restore

an errantmember to full

membershipby

curing

the

disease

that

warranted xile. We do not have that kind of

power

now

because

we do not have an effective

psychology

of

criminalbehavior.

And

we cannothave thatkind of

power

until we live

Ma'at.

HOLISTICPOLITICAL

PHILOSOPHY

The first

responsibility

of a

community guided by

a holistic

ethics is

to seize the

power

thatwill enable

it

to

surviveand thrive.

This

principle

follows the universal law of holistic

ethics: We

should

care

enough

about ife to

pass

it on. What

separates

a holis-

tic

community

rom all other communities hat

imagine they

have

a

primary

obligation

to sustain and cultivatetheir existence?

The

holistic

community

annot

magine

hat

any

fundamental

rinciples

separate

t from

any

other

community

whether

human, animal,

organic,

or

inorganic.

What

I

have said

to this

point

may

seem self-evidentas the

objec-

tive of

any political

body:

survivaland

thriving.

What s distinctive







966 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES / JULY2006

abouta holistic

political

philosophy

s thatall the earth's

populations

constitutea

single

body politic including

both its

living

and its

nonliving,

nonhuman

members.

A

holistic

politicalphilosophy

s a

whole earth

philosophy.Any

action hat he

body politic

of the earth

might

wish

to take

must

consult the

wishes

of

its

every

member,

using

human

rationality

s

a

surrogate

where

necessary.

Just as an individualbody any one of us intent on pursuing

survivaland

thrivingdevelops

her or his

capacities

to her or his

peak

performance,

o the

body politic

must

guarantee

universal

health

care and

universaleducation dare

I

say

it to the

college

level

for all its

humanmembers

Du

Bois, 1973,

p.

79).

All the non-

human

membersof

the

body politic

also

have

rights

o

develop

heir

capacities

o their

fullest. It is a truism

o

say

thatthe healthof the

body

is

a function

of the health of all

its

parts.

No

healthyperson

would

permit any

aspect

of her or his

body

to lose its

powers

unless it

were

completelybeyond

her

or his

power

to

prevent

hat.

Only

a

political

body

with less

than

full

control of its circum-

stances

would

permit any

of its

constituentmembers humanor

not to

be less than

they

can

be.

A

healthybody politic

also

demandsan

equitable

distribution

f

economic

resources

to

promote

its

well-being.

The whole

group

must

contribute o the

project

of

surviving

and

thriving.

can best

accomplish

my

tasks if I

have

expert

helpers.

Their

expertise,

n

a

holistic

political

economy,

s not a

threat o

my well-being

but the

means of

its

realization.

A

holistic

philosophy

seeks to

cherish not

simply

the life of

the

individual citizen

or a

particularbody

politic

such as

the

United States. A

holistic

philosophy

cultivates

all life

human

and

nonhuman and

the

inorganic

eaturesof the

planet

that sus-

tain

ife,

where

that

s

possible,

not for

their

utility

but for

their ndi-

visibility

fromthe

whole.

A

holistic

philosophy

aims at the freedom

of

life

and the

planet

to the

degree

that

s

possible.

No form of life

has

the

right

to

destroy

another ife in

pursuit

of its freedom

unless

thatform

of life is

so

powerless

hat t must

destroy

he free-

dom of

another

o

cultivate ts own.

Finally,

a

holistic

philosophy

pursues

happiness

only

under he

conditionsof social

justice

for

all

the

membersof

this vast

body politic

we

call

planet

earth.








HOLISM IN ACTION:

AFROCENTRICITY,

ECOFEMINISM,

DEEP

ECOLOGY,

AND MARXISM

The article's final

task

is

to examine

contemporary

holistic

philosophies.

What is most

important

o bear

in

mind is that all

four

of

these

revolutionaryphilosophies

are revisions and

rever-

sions of

ancient

Egyptian

holism. With the

exception

of

the

founders

of

Afrocentricity,

Cheikh

Anta

Diop

and

Molefi

Asante,

none of

the

originators

of these

philosophies

has

paid explicit

attention

o the ancientAfrican model.

A

robust,

contemporary

AfricanAmerican

philosophy

exhibits

an

historical

inkage

with the holism of ancient

Egypt.

The African

American

hinker,

Asante

(1990),

who has

given

Afrocentricity

ts

name

quotes

a

Zulu

aphorism

o

affirmhis holism:

"I

am

river,

am

mountain,

am

tree,

I

am

love,

I

am

emotion,

am

beauty,

am

lake,

I

am

cloud,

I

am

sun,

I am

sky,

I am

mind,

I

am one with one"

(p.

83).

Modern African holism can be traced back

to ancient

Egyptians

who "understoodhat we were

literally

childrenof the

earth,

products

of the

organic system" (p.

109).

Because humans

could

not be "of a different

rder rom

othermaterials f the

earth,"

we

must be

intimately

"connected o

everyone

and

everything"

(p.

109).

Asanteclaimsthatourfirst

ethical ask s

to know oneself n

the

contextof one's own

historical radition. he second

ethical ask

is to

expand

one's

self-knowledge

utward o

encompass

he

world's

complex

diverseselves.

Like the Ancient

Egyptians,

Asante claims

the ethical

principle

of Ma'at as his

guiding ight.

He

enjoins

us

to

preserve

rder,

harmony,

nd

ustice

to the

degreepossible.

Asante

(1987,

p.

8)

explicitly points

out

a

strong

resemblance

between

Afrocentric

and feminist

epistemologies.

Ecofeminist

KarenWarren

1993)

argues

hatall

knowledge

s

perspectival,

with

a

strong

oundation

n

cultural

and

genderedexperience.

Warren's

holism

is

epistemological

rather han

ontological,

and her

primary

concentration

s on ethics.

She advocatesa set

of

"boundary

ondi-

tions"

or ethics

thatwould resist

tendenciesof

racism,sexism,

and

classism

to set boundaries

between one

group

and another.Her

ethics

emphasizes

the

claims

issuing

from the "felt

experiences

and

perspectives

f

oppressedpersons";

he stressesvalues such as







968 JOURNALOF BLACKSTUDIES / JULY2006

"care,

love,

friendship,

and

appropriate

rust"over the

objective

measuresof value

stressed

by

utilitarians nd

deontologists

Warren

1993,

p.

333).

Warren s

reluctant o

pursue

a full-blown holism

in the field

of

ontology

because

of

her conviction that

exaggerated

claims

of

unity may

lead to the

depreciation

of

difference.

Hegel's

holism,

for

example,dismissesnon-Europeanormsof rationality,specially

those of

Africans

whom

he

thinks have no claim on

rationality.

Europeans,

Hegel

(1892/1956)

ays,

find"the

peculiarly

African

har-

acter

. . difficult

o

comprehend,

or the

very

reason

hat

n

reference

to

it,

we must

quitegive

up

the

principle

which

naturally ccompanies

all

of our

[italics

added]

deas the

category

f

Universality"p.

93).

Perhaps

the most

fully developed example

of

contemporary

holism is

to be

found

in

deep ecology. Relying

on holistic

metaphors

rom Hinduism

and

Taoism,

Arne

Naess

(1993),

one of

the first

proponents

of

deep ecology,

stresses the

importance

of

converting

abstract

philosophical thought

into

practical

action.

Environmental

hilosophers

such as Naess

hope

to

turn

"egoism

into

environmentalism"with

the

metaphor

of the

world as "one's

extended

body"

(Callicott,

cited in

Des

Jardins,

1997,

p.

193).

The

Gaia

hypothesis

that

the world is

a

single living organism

s the

best

illustrationof

Naess'

radicalenvironmentalism.

In

concluding

his

final

section,

I

want o

pass

for a briefmoment

from

philosophical

o more

practical

political

reflections. s therea

bodypoliticexisting

in

the

world

today

that models a holistic

phi-

losophy

in

action?

I

would

argue

that Cuba has done

more to

put

holism

into

practice

hanhas

any

other

contemporary

ation.

Cuba

has a

universal

health care

system

that

achieves

many

results

comparable

o

those of

the United

States

in

spite

of an

economy

shattered

by

the

U.S.

embargo

on Cuba.

Cuba's

iteracy

rates

match

those of

the

United

States,

and Castro now

contem-

plates

raising

Cuba's

universal

education

system

to the

university

level.

Castro

speaks

of

his dream

of a "nation

becoming

a univer-

sity"(Castro,

cited

in

de

la

Osa,2004).

A

common

saying

in

Cuba

is

that

"the

revolution

s

education."

The

most

concrete

evidence of

Cuba's

embrace of a holistic

ethics is to

be

found

n

Cuba's

efforts o educate

oreigners

rom

the








most

impoverished

nations

n

the

world,

both at

home and abroad.

Cubaoffers 6

years

of medical education

with all

expenses paid

to

10,000

qualified

students rom

the world's

poorest

countries or

districts.

Among

the latest recruits

o the medical

school for for-

eigners

just

outside Havanaare

some

80 AfricanAmericans

rom

the

Mississippi

Delta who

could neverafford he

expense

of a U.S.

medical

school. Cubancitizens make

great

economic sacrifices

to

support

his medical school for

impoverished

oreign

students.

I

visited the school

in the summer

of

2005,

and its

physical

facilities

are far

superior

o those of the

University

of

Havana,

Fidel

Castro's

own alma mater.

Why

does this

extraordinary assion

for

social

justice

exist

in

Cuba?

Why

does Cubaexhibit his vision of a holistic

political

ife?

Perhaps

he reason ies

in

part

because of the

African nfluence

on

Cuban ife. The briefest

acquaintance

with Cuban

music shows how

strong

an influenceAfricahas on Cubanculture.

Africansand their

descendantshave constituteda

majority

of the Cuban

population

for

nearly

500

years

(Gott, 2004).

Cuba

may very

well

be the New

World'sbest

contemporaryxample

of anAfrocentric

ife.

Unfortu-

nately,

we cannot

pursue

hat

topic

further

n

this brief

article.

HOLISM VERSUS

EMPIRE

Imminent hreats

o life

impel

us to take drastic

action. But the

action

mustuniterather han

divide,

without

compromising

he

prin-

ciples

of a holistic

ethics.

September

11,

2001

may

be a

watershed

in

the

history

of ethics.

Before

9/11

only large, technologically

advanced

nations

could threaten life on earth

by deploying

weapons

of

mass destruction.

And the

only weapons

that had this

potential

were

nuclear.After 9/1

1 we

realize

that a small

group

of

well-educated,

determined

eople

can have the

potential

o

destroy

huge

numbers.

Using jetliners

as

primitive

cruise missiles is a

minuscule

irst

step

on the

path

to

biological weapons

thathave the

potential

to cause incalculable

damage

to life. Never before in

history

have

largepolitical

bodies had reasonto fear their destruc-

tion

through

he efforts

of a small

group.

Small

groups

do

not

yet







970 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES JULY2006

have the

potential

o

threaten ife

itself,

but

nothingprevents

hem

from

trying

to

acquire

he

knowledge

to do that.

After

9/11

empires

are at

risk in

ways

that

they

have neverbeen

before. In

part

because of the actions of a few

persons

on that

day,

the

United States is

engaged

in wars in two countries at a

daily

cost of

millions of dollars.Externalcreditors o the United States

now

have the means

to ensure the collapse of the U.S. currency

because of the size

of its debt. Personal freedom

in the

United

States

diminishes underthe

aegis

of homeland

protection.

Empires

are

political

bodies that secure

ife,

liberty,

and

pursuit

of

happiness

or a select

few at the

expense

of vast

populations.

Statistics about

the

disproportionate

.S.

consumption

of

global

resources

need

not

be cited

here.

In

fact,

the UnitedStates

s

simply

one

facetof the

real

empire

abroadn

the world

oday

globalization.

Can we

find a

philosophy

that

will

unite the world's

peoples

whose

lives do not fall

under he

protection

of

empire

and those

who

despise

the

security

of

empire

because of its social

injustice?

The

demandfor

such a

philosophy

is critical now because of the

threats

posed

by

the

widespreadavailability

of

weapons

of mass

destruction.

Our current

crisis is

not the end of

history,

as conservative

thinkerssuch

as

Francis

Fukuyama

1993)

would have it.

Rather,

it's

the

threatof the

end of life on

earth,

he end of the

possibility

of

history.

The nuclear

confrontation

between the United States

and the

former

Soviet

Union

demonstrates he

speciescidal

char-

acter of

contemporary

mpire.

The need

for a

philosophy raging

against

empire

is

more

urgent

than ever

before. Humansof

good

will

aroundthe

globe

must strive

not

simply

to

end

just

another

empire,

the

latest in

a

long

line.

Rather,

hey

must

struggle

to end

the

very

concept

of

empire

(Hart

&

Negri,

2000).

That

end,

let us

hope,

will

be the

beginning

of a

global

community grounded

n

cultural

diversity

and

social

justice.

Ancient

Egyptian

thinkers

ashioned the

groundwork

or

such

a

community

some

5,000 years ago.

Afrocentric hinkerssuch

as

Cheikh

Anta

Diop

and

Molefi

Asante have

helped

resuscitate he

Egyptian

vision,

so

tragically

lost to the

world for

nearly

2,000

years

under

the

Greek,

Roman,

and

Arabic

conquests

of ancient








Egypt.

Is there

any

hope

thatAfrocentricholistic vision can

help

shape

the world's

future?

The ethical

revolutionsof the

past

8 millennia furnish

reasons

for

optimism.2

JaredDiamond

(1997)

announced he first ethical

revolution:

"With he rise of chiefdoms around

7,500

years ago,

people

had to

learn,

for the

first time in

history,

how to encounter

strangers egularly

without

attempting

o

kill

them"

(p.

143).

The second

ethical

leap

decrees that we have ethical

bonds to

every

other

human

being

as much as we have them to

ourselves.

The first intimations

of this radical sentiment are found in

the

ancient

Egyptian

injunctions

to

live Ma'

at. Later versions

origi-

nating

both

in the near and far East ask us to "love

one anotheras

I

have loved

you."

This love finds its essence

in

self-sacrifice or

altruism

even at the cost of one's own

good.

Howard

University's

Alain Locke

(1987)

expresses

the third

revolutionary

thical

insight

that humans must be

united

by

rea-

son of their differences rather

han

their commonalities.

Writing

in

the

period

between the two World

Wars

of

the

past

century,

Locke advocateda

global community

that

supported

he cultural

differences

of its

members,

thereby avoiding

one of the

gravest

mistakes

of

globalization.

The

fourth revolution

in

ethics stretches Locke's conviction

aboutdifference

as the

ground

of

unity

to its limits.

Afrocentricity

recognizes

all humans

as Africans

in

the first African

diaspora

some

50,000

to

100,000

years ago.

Ecofeminism shatters he

age-

old moral and

intellectualdistinctionsbetween

men

and women.

Deep

ecology

affirmsthe

unity

of all life forms with one another

and

the

inorganic

ground

of life.

Marxism,

n its

most robustver-

sions,

highlights

a vision

of social

justice

thatreinforcesa revolu-

tionary

ethics

(Verharen,

003).

What is

most

important

o note

in

closing

is that none of these

revolutionary

hilosophies

with the

exception

of

Afrocentricity

recognizes

that its roots

may

be found

in

ancient Africa.

Afrocentricity

elf-consciously grounds

itself

in its African her-

itage.

But

the other radical

philosophies

unite what the ancient

Egyptians

did not

divide.

Proclaiming

herself

pharaoh

nd

wearing

the

false beard

of a

pharaoh,

he

queen Hatshepsut eigned

over







972 JOURNALOF BLACK STUDIES/ JULY 2006

men and women 35 centuries

ago

in

Egypt.

The

Egyptian

portrayal

of their

gods

as both human

and animal

igures

showed

theirbelief

in

the

kinship

of life.

And the

pharaohs'

subservience

o

Ma'at

demonstrated he ancient

Egyptian

conviction

that

justice

is the

overarching

thical

principle.

To

summarize,

a holistic

ontology

is an

expression

of what

the

mind s all about:unificationhroughabstraction,

search

or

com-

monality,

a denialof difference.

Ancient

Egyptian

holism

prefigures

the

history

of

science,

or the

story

of the mind

recreating

he world

in

its own

image.

The ancient

Egyptian

kingdom

also foreshadows

holism as the

overarching

heme

of

history.

Families

give

way

to

tribesand tribes o nations.Nations

give way

to

empires.

However,

we should

now

recognize

hatthe dominion

of

empire

hreatens

he

extinction

of human ife. We must

give up

dominion or

a commu-

nion thatembracesall humansas

Africans

n

the

original

and

ancient

African

diaspora.

Thatcommunion

must nclude

he whole

earth hat

makes

our lives

possible.

AncientAfricanholism

now can

become

key

to humansurvival

n

the

contemporary

orld.

NOTES

1. CheikhAnta

Diop

(1981/1991)

expresses

his claim that

ancient

Egypt

should

serve

as the foundation or an

African renaissance

hroughout

his works but

most

forcefully

in

the introduction o

Civilization

or Barbarism.

In

his The Secret

Lore

of Egypt:

Its

Impact

on the

West,

ontemporary

wiss

Egyptologist

Erik

Hornungproposes

ancient

Egypt

as the

locus

for

a second

global

renaissance more

powerful

than the

European

renaissance

grounded

n

ancient Greece.

2.

Remarkably,

a recent

study suggests

that the

intergroup

aggression

death rates

of

early

human

communities

are much

higher

than are those of

20th-century

ommunities

in

spite

of the

latter's

global

wars and

genocide (Wrangham,

004).

REFERENCES

Asante,

M. K.

(1987).

The

Afrocentric

dea.

Philadelphia:Temple University

Press.

Asante,

M. K.

(1990).

Kemet,

Afrocentricity

nd

knowledge.

Trenton,

NJ:

AfricaWorldPress.

Assman,

J.

(1998).

Moses the

Egyptian:

The

memory of Egypt

in western monotheism.

Cambridge,

MA: Harvard

University

Press.








de la

Osa,

J.

(2004,

February

9).

Aggressions

have become a

great

school for

our

people.

Granma

International. Retrieved

May

22, 2005,

from

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/

2004/febrero/lun9/7ideas.html

Des

Jardins,

J. R.

(1997).

Environmental thics.

Belmont,

CA: Wadsworth.

Diamond,

J.

(1997).

Guns,

germs

and steel: The

ates of

human

ocieties. New York:Norton.

Diop,

C. A.

(1991).

Civilization

or

barbarism: An

authentic

anthropology

(Y.-L.

M.

Ngemi,

Trans.).

Chicago:

LawrenceHill.

(Original

work

published

1981)

Du

Bois,

W. E. B.

(1973).

The education

of

Black

people

(H.

Aptheker,

Ed.).

New

York:

Monthly

Review Press.

Fukuyama,

F.

(1993).

The end

of

history

and

the

last

man. New

York:Perennial.

Gott,

R.

(2004).

Cuba:

A

new

history.

New

Haven,

CT:Yale

University

Press.

Hart,M,

&

Negri,

A.

(2000).

Empire.Cambridge,

MA:

Harvard

University

Press.

Hegel,

G. W. F.

(1956).

The

philosophy of

history

(J.

Sibree,

Trans.).

New York:

Dover

Publications.

Original

work

published

1892)

Hornung,

E.

(1982).

The

valley

of

the

kings:

Horizon

of eternity

(D.

Warburton,

rans.).

New York:Timken.

(Original

work

published

1971)

Locke,

A. L.

(1987).

The

philosophy of

Alain Locke

(L.

Harris,

Ed.).

Philadelphia:

Temple

University

Press.

Marietta,

D. E.

(1995).

For

people

and the

planet:

Holism and humanism n environmen-

tal ethics.

Philadelphia:Temple

University

Press.

Naess, A. (1993).

The

deep ecological

movement:Some

philosophicalaspects.

In

M. E.

Zimmerman,

.

B.

Callicot,

J.

Clark,

& K. J. Warren

Eds.),

Environmental

hilosophy:

From

animal

rights

o radical

ecology

(pp.

193-212).

Englewood

Cliffs,

NJ: PrenticeHall.

Schwartzman,

D.

(1999).

Life, temperature,

nd the earth. New York:Columbia

University

Press.

Verharen,

C.

C.

(2002).

Philosophy's

roles in Afrocentric education.

Journal

of

Black

Studies, 32,295-321.

Verharen,

C. C.

(2003).

Afrocentricity,

cocentrism,

and ecofeminism: New alliances for

socialism.

Socialism

and

Democracy,

17(2),

73-90.

Warren,

K.

(1993).

The

power

and

promise

of

ecological

feminism. In M.

E.

Zimmerman,

J.

B.

Callicot,

J.

Clark,

& K. J. Warren

Eds.),

Environmental

hilosophy:

From

animal

rights

to radical

ecology

(pp.

320-341).

Englewood

Cliffs,

NJ: PrenticeHall.

Wrangham,R. (2004). Killerspecies.Daedalus, 133(4), 25-35.

Charles

C. Verharen

s a

graduate

professorof philosophy

and director

of graduate

studies n

the

philosophy

department

t Howard

University.

His

primary

research s

in the

field

of philosophy

and culture.His

published

works include

Rationality

n

Philosophy

and Science

and articles

in

journals

such as WesternJournalof Black

Studies,

Journal

f

Negro

Education,

Presence

Africaine,

Socialism

and

Democracy,

Radical

Philosophy

Review,

Philosophical

Forum,

and

TeachingPhilosophy.

Documents

Philosophy Against Empire an Ancient Egyptian Renaissance