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Abstract

Philosophy of History, as an academic discipline, challenges the choices that we make, motivated by our respective historical circumstances. Hegel considers Africa as an unhistorical continent, whose inhabitants can only be equated to animals or worthless article, bound to remain in slavery and in subhuman conditions. On the other hand, Léopold Sedar Senghor, in his Négritude ideology, portrays the values embedded in the African cultural and traditional practices. The intellectual aptness of the Africans, in this work is manifested in the very ideas of Senghor which we are using to contest those of Hegel. Some call Hegel a racist, others say he was driven by ignorance. Amidst such a debate, we call on our readers not to be insensitive to the socio-political and infrastructural deficiencies in Africa, in terms of economic and political instability, corruption, poverty illiteracy and disease. Can the extremes of such deficiencies justify the Hegelian claims concerning Africa? Who may be blamed for the predicaments of Africa; God, as Hegel seems to insinuate or the western world or the Africans themselves? As we endeavor to answer these questions, we are also positing our own solutions that can enable Africa to emerge.

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