{"id":26844,"date":"2022-03-09T02:00:26","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T02:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalafricasciences.org\/series-issues\/the-transformation-of-africas-knowledge-thinking-african-futures-in-response-to-global-challenges\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T21:58:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:58:04","slug":"the-transformation-of-africas-knowledge-thinking-african-futures-in-response-to-global-challenges","status":"publish","type":"series-issues","link":"https:\/\/www.globalafricasciences.org\/fr\/issues\/numero-1\/the-transformation-of-africas-knowledge-thinking-african-futures-in-response-to-global-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"The Transformation of Africa\u2019s Knowledge: Thinking African futures in response to global challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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La condition humaine, les projets de l\u2019homme, la collaboration entre les hommes pour des t\u00e2ches qui augmentent la totalit\u00e9 de l\u2019homme sont des probl\u00e8mes neufs qui exigent de v\u00e9ritables inventions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, 1963 [1961]<\/p>\n\n

\n

Pour la premi\u00e8re fois dans l\u2019histoire humaine, le nom N\u00e8gre ne renvoie plus seulement \u00e0 la condition faite aux gens d\u2019origine africaine \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9poque du premier capitalisme (d\u00e9pr\u00e9dations de divers ordres, d\u00e9possession de tout pouvoir d\u2019autod\u00e9termination et, surtout, du futur et du temps, ces deux matrices du possible). C\u2019est cette fongibilit\u00e9 nouvelle, cette solubilit\u00e9, son institutionnalisation en tant que nouvelle norme d\u2019existence et sa g\u00e9n\u00e9ralisation \u00e0 l\u2019ensemble de la plan\u00e8te que nous appelons le devenir-n\u00e8gre du monde. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Achille Mbembe, Critique of Black Reason, 2017 [2015].<\/p>\n\n

L\u2019Afrique et l\u2019enchev\u00eatrement des futurs du continent et de la plan\u00e8te<\/h2>\n\n

Ce texte est un plaidoyer pour des r\u00e9ponses africaines aux d\u00e9fis globaux. Sa proposition centrale consiste \u00e0 soutenir que le d\u00e9fi africain du XXIe si\u00e8cle est le devenir-savant de l\u2019Afrique[1], expression par laquelle nous indiquons que l\u2019Afrique et la plan\u00e8te sont deux fronts \u00ab\u2009enchev\u00eatr\u00e9s\u2009\u00bb, dont les d\u00e9fis et les r\u00e9ponses doivent \u00eatre articul\u00e9s ensemble, et que la cr\u00e9ation de connaissances adressant simultan\u00e9ment le bien-\u00eatre durable et la gouvernance environnementale africaine et mondiale s\u2019impose par cons\u00e9quent comme l\u2019agenda prioritaire d\u2019une transition scientifique et technologique africaine qui a longtemps \u00e9t\u00e9 esp\u00e9r\u00e9e, mais jamais r\u00e9alis\u00e9e[2]. C\u2019est parce qu\u2019une telle transition ne s\u2019est jamais mise en place que l\u2019Afrique occupe aujourd\u2019hui la position subalterne qui est la sienne sur la sc\u00e8ne mondiale. \u00c0 moins de r\u00e9ussir cette transition, le risque est non seulement une d\u00e9pendance num\u00e9rique venant se surajouter \u00e0 celles qui eurent lieu durant les trois premi\u00e8res r\u00e9volutions industrielles, mais aussi et surtout l\u2019ingouvernabilit\u00e9 de g\u00e9n\u00e9rations qui ne sauraient, elles, s\u2019accommoder de repl\u00e2trages en guise de politiques publiques et de l\u2019approfondissement des in\u00e9galit\u00e9s globales. Sans compter la question de la survie m\u00eame de la plan\u00e8te qui sera plus taraudante encore si l\u2019Afrique reproduit les chemins de d\u00e9veloppement de l\u2019Occident et de l\u2019Asie. <\/p>\n\n

We are, then, very likely at a critical juncture that requires an explicit change of plan, far beyond reforming the research sector, in so far as \u201cwe cannot separate science from broader social forces and make the development of scientific knowledge a focus of interest only to science, for the fundamental issue is social change\u201d (Ake 1980: 5).<\/p>\n\n

In proposing that there is no African presence, to the self or to the world, without epistemic re-framing, we are saying nothing that is not based on already classic observations[3]. What we add is that Africa\u2019s coming knowledge could be, perhaps through a trick of History, the (best) response to the Becoming Black of the world, which Mbembe has set out in detail, or, more broadly, to the Capitalocene. Research alone can obviously not achieve all the rethinking and redoing this concept calls for; however, we can say with Amin, Atta-Mills, Bujra and Mkandawire (1978: 23) that \u201cwe believe [\u2026] that intellectual efforts interact with social forces, and can at crucial times influence them.\u201d The role of research does not end with understanding the existing transformations of our world, or with innovation. To make these transitions meaningful, and to support them, societies must put in place and train a new generation of world citizens. <\/p>\n\n

If, in this text, we treat Africa as a comprehensible, analysable whole on which the analysis of \u201cits\u201d future can be projected\u2014despite the term referring to such different actors, institutions, and realities\u2014it is that, beyond the geographical \u201ccontinent\u201d form, we locate an important aspiration: a feeling of belonging (I am African) and a designation (you are African). The question then becomes: How do we build a \u201ccommon\u201d future on sentiment? And at what scale are these sentiments most effective for collective action? These sentiments, like Pan-Africanism, are real, powerful, and respectable. We also adopt, here, Valentin-Yves Mudimbe\u2019s reflection on the epithet \u201cAfrican\u201d as attached to the university. This quality, according to this philosopher, does not hinge on a university\u2019s geographical location (being established in a country on the continent), nor on its composition (a university run by Africans) nor even on the teaching provided there (African subjects). These are \u201csecondary considerations\u201d; the university is African \u201cwhen it contributes as much as possible to understanding and resolving the contradictions at play in African societies, and fulfils its appropriate role in creating new social forms, in an Africa that confronts the challenge of its development, and of its adaptation to the modern world. If it does not do so, it is certainly not African, even if it is composed, from top to bottom, of Africans.\u201d (Mudimbe 1982: 101). <\/p>\n\n

Ce point pr\u00e9cis\u00e9, notre proposition d\u2019aligner l\u2019analyse de la situation et des futurs africains sur celle de la situation et des futurs plan\u00e9taires ressort de quatre raisons intimement li\u00e9es. La premi\u00e8re est que la d\u00e9gradation a \u00e9t\u00e9 et demeure le r\u00e9gime commun de l\u2019Afrique et de la plan\u00e8te\u2009: l\u2019une et l\u2019autre sont prises en otage depuis des si\u00e8cles par l\u2019\u00e9conomie capitaliste mondiale. Si en effet la plan\u00e8te a \u00e9t\u00e9 surexploit\u00e9e et les \u00e9cosyst\u00e8mes naturels partout d\u00e9vast\u00e9s, c\u2019est notamment dans cet espace appel\u00e9 Afrique que l\u2019exploitation a \u00e9t\u00e9 et demeure l\u2019une des plus violentes, des moins soumises au droit, des plus excessives et des plus continues (hommes, femmes et enfants, ressources naturelles, mati\u00e8res premi\u00e8res, cr\u00e9ations culturelles, flux financiers illicites, donn\u00e9es \u00e0 caract\u00e8re personnel). Deuxi\u00e8mement, partant du fait que l\u2019extractivisme est le caract\u00e8re permanent de l\u2019ultralib\u00e9ralisme et la condition de sa reproduction, on peut consid\u00e9rer que les logiques qui sous-tendent la pouss\u00e9e contre la souverainet\u00e9 politique, \u00e9conomique et culturelle de l\u2019Afrique et celle contre une nouvelle option civilisationnelle bas\u00e9e sur l\u2019\u00e9cologie ont fondamentalement partie li\u00e9e. <\/p>\n\n

C\u2019est pourquoi, troisi\u00e8me raison, la radicalit\u00e9 de la lutte pour la souverainet\u00e9 totale de l\u2019Afrique devra \u00eatre la m\u00eame que celle pour l\u2019advenue d\u2019une civilisation \u00e9cologique. Enfin, c\u2019est en emportant ce double pari que les r\u00e9ponses africaines enclencheront la sortie hors du devenir-n\u00e8gre du monde, et donc du capitaloc\u00e8ne4 , contribuant du m\u00eame coup \u00e0 remettre l\u2019Humain et la Nature au c\u0153ur des projets de soci\u00e9t\u00e9. <\/p>\n\n

Telle est la port\u00e9e du devenir-savant de l\u2019Afrique. Il permet de tenir l\u2019humanit\u00e9 comme horizon \u00e9thique, de restaurer \u2013 apr\u00e8s des si\u00e8cles de violence \u00e9pist\u00e9mique \u2013 \u00e0 nouveau la confiance de toute une g\u00e9n\u00e9ration dans les capacit\u00e9s du continent \u00e0 proposer des r\u00e9ponses pour le monde, \u00e0 penser local et plan\u00e9taire, \u00e0 \u00e9viter d\u2019isoler les probl\u00e8mes int\u00e9rieurs et les probl\u00e8mes globaux, et ce faisant, de r\u00e9inventer la formation des chercheurs citoyens du XXIe si\u00e8cle, de r\u00e9orienter les priorit\u00e9s en termes de recherche, \u00e0 probl\u00e9matiser ad\u00e9quatement les enjeux, c\u2019est-\u00e0-dire de mani\u00e8re v\u00e9ritablement interdisciplinaire et critique, arm\u00e9 des concepts appropri\u00e9s. Cette perspective invite \u00e9galement \u00e0 s\u2019interroger sur les politiques de connaissance et de coop\u00e9ration scientifique \u00e0 \u00e9laborer et \u00e0 mettre en \u0153uvre en tirant parti des exp\u00e9riences ant\u00e9rieures, \u00e0 en r\u00e9v\u00e9ler les conditions de possibilit\u00e9 et les obstacles, \u00e0 \u00e9tudier les interactions entre science, pouvoir et d\u00e9veloppement dans le contexte africain, et \u00e0 voir ses implications diff\u00e9rentielles pour les divers groupes sociaux (femmes, jeunes, intellectuels, agriculteurs), \u00e0 identifier alli\u00e9s et adversaires5 . Devenir-savant comporte aussi le d\u00e9fi de la cr\u00e9ation de connaissances innovantes pour le monde, qui mettent la qu\u00eate de la v\u00e9rit\u00e9 au m\u00eame niveau que la qu\u00eate de soin pour le vivant, humain et non humain, un des enjeux majeurs de notre si\u00e8cle. <\/p>\n\n

Libert\u00e9 et volont\u00e9 de penser l\u2019Afrique-monde6 , confiance en soi, qu\u00eate de la v\u00e9rit\u00e9, soin attach\u00e9 au vivant\u2009: tel est le programme.<\/p>\n\n

La question de la faisabilit\u00e9 d\u2019un tel programme intellectuel et politique se pose imm\u00e9diatement quand on connait les contradictions vertigineuses dans lesquelles se meut le continent, car si ses atouts sont immenses, ses d\u00e9veines le sont tout autant.<\/p>\n\n

In a general way, African societies remain still \u201ctrapped in a permanent crisis of authoritarianism, the failure of states, and economic collapse\u201d (Heilbrunn 2009: 255), which undermines human security, peace and development, thus exacerbating the vulnerability of millions of individuals, and driving the exodus of thousands of young people. Enormous groups of people live in endemic poverty[7], precariousness, marginality, and oppression, including, in particular, informal-sector workers, rural people, small producers, and women and children. Young people, without training or diplomas, need decent employment, a role in society, access to basic social services, to energy and infrastructures, and an active role in determining the future of their countries. <\/p>\n\n

Ces d\u00e9fis domestiques et r\u00e9gionaux complexes s\u2019enchev\u00eatrent par ailleurs dans une conjoncture internationale marqu\u00e9e par les in\u00e9galit\u00e9s persistantes, la fatigue d\u00e9mocratique, l\u2019incertitude \u00e9conomico-financi\u00e8re \u00e0 pr\u00e9sent exacerb\u00e9e par les crises pand\u00e9miques, la peur du (bio)terrorisme, et par la transformation profonde de l\u2019environnement et des ressources sous l\u2019effet du changement climatique.<\/p>\n\n

These unprecedented and complex international challenges unfold under the regime of urgency, uncertainty and catastrophe, leading to a kind of fear of the future, and the disintegration of confidence in oneself and others. Africa, indeed together with the rest of the world, is witnessing an alarming scene of ecological crisis, for which the Anthropocene is known[8]: extensive human interference in natural ecosystems, the depletion and erosion of soils, unprecedented levels of pollution, the disruption of the water cycle, deforestation, ocean acidification, and never before seen demographic pressure on land systems (Magny 2021: 4). According to projections, Africa, due to its high exposure to all these challenges, and its low capacity for adaptation, will be among the continents most affected by and most vulnerable to climate change (IPCC 2014; IPBES 2019). <\/p>\n\n

However, the accumulation of heterogeneous challenges, from artificial intelligence to the consolidation of the deliberative welfare state via climate change, economic growth, human security, rural development, urbanisation, mobility, peace-building, human rights, and gender equality, present only one common denominator: the continent remains practically absent from the work of theorising, projection, and the anticipatory analysis of these questions, even if these challenges affect Africa more than any other place in the world. For example, climate change is slated to negatively affect African countries\u2019 economic development; average climate-induced economic losses range from 10% to 15% of GDP growth per capita, with the majority of African economies ill-prepared to adapt to new climatic conditions, particularly in West and Central Africa (Baarsch et al. 2019). And yet, publications by African scholars represent only 2% of all publications in this domain (McSweensey 2015). The same can be said about global inequalities, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, data protection, etc. Africa is hesitant and uncertain in the consideration of its own future and, simultaneously, of existing and future global conditions. <\/p>\n\n

At the origin of this absence from oneself and from the world is the crisis, beginning in the 1980s, of African higher education institutions, which gradually became unable to maintain and develop the standards of knowledge essential to the inclusion of African voices in global debates. The unfortunately well-known politics of Structural Adjustment (1980\u20132000) carried out by the World Bank and the IMF[9] favoured downsizing and the dismantling of research institutions and public universities. Excellence in international research, including in African Studies, became firmly anchored in the Global North, confirming a \u201cgeopolitics of knowledge\u201d (Mignolo 2002) that views Africa as the source of empirical data to be extracted (the raw material), while pure research is carried out in the Global North. <\/p>\n\n

Pourtant, la n\u00e9cessit\u00e9 d\u2019une cr\u00e9ation de savoirs \u00e9mancipateurs et protecteurs de l\u2019Humain et de la Nature, pour lesquels recherche fondamentale et recherche appliqu\u00e9e s\u2019alimenteraient mutuellement, n\u2019a jamais \u00e9t\u00e9 aussi criante. Le d\u00e9fi africain contemporain est bien l\u00e0\u2009: transformer le concret, l\u2019existant, dans une approche attentive aux limites plan\u00e9taires par une d\u00e9f\u00e9tichisation, un d\u00e9passement du concret. Ce travail de repr\u00e9sentation ad\u00e9quate des r\u00e9alit\u00e9s et des int\u00e9r\u00eats du continent \u2013 travail essentiel qui ne se confond pas avec l\u2019\u00e9grenage des statistiques du d\u00e9sastre ou de l\u2019euphorie \u2013 demeure la t\u00e2che incontournable depuis Berlin en 1885. La restauration de l\u2019initiative intellectuelle des Africains s\u2019incarne en effet dans la critique de l\u2019\u00e9conomie politique int\u00e9rieure et globalis\u00e9e, mais aussi dans le r\u00e9tablissement de l\u2019estime de soi, du sens du discernement, de l\u2019esprit critique, de l\u2019esprit de libert\u00e9 et d\u2019innovation. <\/p>\n\n

Consequently, starting from Africa, for Africa and the world, we must produce a restorative science, fundamental, \u201cplural\u201d and \u201cparticipatory\u201d (Coutellec 2015), centred on and mobilised for sustainability. This 21st-century science must define its own action, not in terms of scientific disciplines, but in terms of peoples\u2019 crucial priorities and aspirations. This science will offer answers that can emancipate individuals, generate innovative, useful knowledges, enlarge the role of Africa in the global creation of protective knowledges, speed the advent of a low-carbon, blue, and circular economy based on accessible renewable energy, and inform policy, favouring effective and timely interventions. <\/p>\n\n

\u00c0 partir de l\u00e0, un nouvel ensemble d\u2019interrogations \u00e9merge\u2009:<\/p>\n\n