Reflections on ‘African personality’

Somewhat different meanings and interpretations exist concerning the concept of ‘African Personality’. The late leader of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, was its ardent promoter and spokesman at the First Conference of Independent African States in 1958. The true meaning of African Personality emerges fully in the context of colonial experience and the consequent effort of the African to construct the truth of his being and reassert himself as the master of his world. Its notion is essentially cultural and, hence, dynamic and practical. ‘Personality’ concretizes itself through human achievements, initiative, and assumption of responsibility. On both the personal and the collective level, it realizes and temporizes itself through the various struggles and challenges of its social, cultural, and political environment. The wider task of the African Personality is related to Negritude. The ideal African Personality at a collective level is still very much in process, a not-yet. In this respect the continued existence of the apartheid system in South Africa is an ultimate challenge. Notes, ref.