In the world civilizational process, two trends are becoming more pronounced: the universalization of spiritual life and self-identification in the field of autochthonous cultures, the understanding of one's own spiritual heritage. During the period of social upheavals, the identity crisis becomes a part of the general socio-cultural crisis, i.e. the collapse of stable ties and relations in society, the devaluation of values and norms that hold together the structure of society, groups, and individuals. As a result, devalued values and norms cease to satisfy people and they look for patterns of behavior, new objects of identification in other cultures, usually represented by societies with a higher level and quality of life. New values and patterns of behavior are promoted and perceived as more "civilized", "universal", however, for a productive cultural dialogue, it is necessary to find and realize one's own cultural space, because only in it can a person find a support for orientation in the world of other people's values, only in it can he take place as a person who is able to set sail foreign seas.

The crisis of collective and individual identity began in Africa during the colonial era. New relations (market, capitalist) were superimposed, sometimes very superficially, on traditional-tribal, communal and caste relations; monotheistic religions (Islam, Christianity), new values and norms disturbed the balance in a balanced mythological worldview, value system, norms of behavior, and social orientations, causing a serious cultural and psychological shock.

In the context of independent development and accelerating modernization processes, the traditional mythological universe was hit with new blows: Western "civilized" forms of life and behaviors; Western education; unusual values - the concentration of wealth, the accumulation of money and things that are unacceptable in a traditional society. The identity crisis and the search for new forms of identification have also manifested themselves in the field of politics and State-building.

The end of the 20th century was marked by new problems and conflicts. The tasks of establishing democratic institutions, creating a civil society, building nation-states, and entering the world community, i.e., searching for a new identity, have come up against the processes of actualizing particularistic identities - ethnic and religious [see: Otayek, 1999, pp. 5-12].

This topic was developed with the assistance of the Russian Foundation for Scientific Research (project No. 05-04-04271a).

page 84

A few words to the question of the concepts of " identity "and" identification", which are widely used in African studies, but not always correctly enough (as, indeed, in domestic studies). As a worker, one can accept the definition of identity as a conscious and emotionally experienced self-determination of a social subject (individual, group, community) in relation to broader communities, as a conscious acceptance of values, norms, and behavioral patterns of this broader community with which the subject identifies himself. Identification is the process of acquiring an identity (consciously or unconsciously) or searching for new identities to replace those lost as a result of a crisis.

The intelligentsia is always and everywhere particularly susceptible to the processes taking place in society and to external influences. The position of the African intelligentsia is specific-it is determined by the conditions of a kind of "crossroads", the intersection of the influences of various ideological and cultural flows, civilizations. That is why she is particularly sensitive to the identity crisis, and it is in her environment that the answers to it are maturing.

I would like to outline the main aspects of the content of the category "African intelligentsia". (By the way, in Africa, and in the West, the term "intellectual"is more accepted.) This category usually includes those groups of the population who "are part of a certain structure of education and knowledge, "work with their heads"" [Intelligentsia..., 1981, p. 17.], and also have a more or less clear self-consciousness, and hence occupy a leading position in the main spheres of public life. The African intelligentsia is not a well-defined and homogeneous group. When applied to Africa, the category "intelligentsia" can be understood broadly, its boundaries are blurred. If for developed countries even a person who has received a higher education does not always belong to the category of intellectuals, then for Africa, the intellectual leader for their fellow countrymen (especially in rural areas) is a person who has received a minimum education.

First of all, in the African intelligentsia, one should distinguish between the top (theoretical scientists, technocrats, artists and literary figures, lawyers, and higher clergy. Part of this elite is part of the ruling elite, occupies the highest levels of the state and party structure and is the bearer of official ideology) and its lower layer - the "audience", i.e. ordinary knowledge workers, students, rural teachers, self-taught literates, etc.However, the lower layer of the intelligentsia often plays a fairly important role in Africa. A minor official, a village teacher, an orderly, or just a literate person is an authority for their illiterate tribesmen, although they occupy a subordinate position in the service hierarchy.

There is a question of classifying as intelligentsia those strata of traditional society that are the keepers and communicators of traditional knowledge (healers, chroniclers who pass on oral historical traditions, keepers of esoteric knowledge, griots - transmitters of information and conductors of collective folk art, etc.). In traditional society, these people are engaged in "intellectual work", they are the main actors of the traditional society. they play a key role in education and identification, forming a public worldview, and perform management functions. In contrast to the intelligentsia who received European education, the French researcher Jean Copans calls the traditional intelligentsia "invisible" (Copans, 1993, p.7). This category of intellectuals does not have such painful identification problems as European-educated intellectuals, although the identity crisis has affected all segments of the local population. The invisible presence and relentless influence of traditional intellectual circles must be constantly taken into account in the analysis of African problems. For it is the intellectuals who are the bearers and translators of the traditional worldview and traditional values.

page 85

cultural values, they personify the traditional complex, without which it is impossible to understand Africa today. The influence of this complex is paradoxically growing, and it is no accident that African researchers raise the question of trends in retraditionalism, the dynamics and power of the "invisible" in modern Africa, and the spread of witchcraft practices not only in everyday life,but also in politics [Roi-voirs..., 2000, p. 18-20].

In the traditional intelligentsia, a certain subgroup can be distinguished. Over the centuries, the development of autochthonous African cultures and traditional spiritual values have been strongly influenced by first Muslim and then Christian civilizations. As a result of this influence, in addition to the traditional autochthonous intelligentsia (priests, guardians of esoteric wisdom, griots), a secondary traditional intelligentsia was formed: Muslim and Christian (sheikhs, members of Muslim orders, preachers of Afro-Christian sects and movements, etc.). its representatives live a traditional life, are guides to the Africanization of Islam and Christianity, adapting these religions to autochthonous cultures with their values, norms, and basic worldview.On the other hand, they are familiar with world religions and their sacred books. The traditional environment, its carriers and translators-intellectuals-have a huge impact on intellectuals who have received Western education, determining their living and spiritual autochthonous space, to which they inevitably return, even after leaving their native lands for a long time.

Due to their heightened sensitivity and ability to absorb internal and external influences, the intelligentsia as a social group and intellectuals as individuals become the focus of contradictions and social tension.

The personality of an African intellectual inevitably contains the features of the so-called basic personality, which is characterized by a mythological worldview, traditional values of life, kinship, and ethnic ties. These personality traits of the intellectual are stable, because they are determined by his real existence, which is integral (and quite significant) a component of which is traditional ties with the native village (the ancestral homeland), with relatives, and the observance of traditional rituals. Violation of traditional norms (and it often happens) is fraught with serious consequences, because an intellectual in any of his endeavors cannot do without the support of his fellow countrymen, his clan. An African, even with high academic degrees, titles, and responsible positions in the party or state apparatus, inevitably remains at the same time a member of a traditional collective - an ethnic group, caste, or community, occupying a certain place in the traditional hierarchy, and therefore he is obliged to observe his traditional and religious duties. We can cite the following facts: in the 80's. Last century, the President of the National Assembly of Madagascar, who received his doctorate in France, interrupted his state affairs to perform in his native village the duties of the leader of the annual traditional rite. The President of the People's Republic of the Congo, M. Ngouabi, flew to his native village before each state decision to get the approval of the elders, and his reports were discussed with them at party congresses.

African intellectuals also have marginal personality traits. It can be said that the intersection of the influences of different civilizations, epochs, ideological and cultural flows passes through the souls of intellectuals, causing them a state of frustration, social tension, forming a "psychologically split" personality type in which traditions and modernity, mysticism and rationalism, archaic prejudices and scientific knowledge, religious contemplation and political thinking coexist. dynamism [Starostin, 1984, p. 244].

page 86

The contradictory position of the intelligentsia forms its specific mentality. Traditional mental forms seem to envelop new thinking impulses, new ideas and theories. The dominant role in this process belongs to myth-making. Mythological consciousness remains the most important aspect of the African mentality, hence the form of myths are clothed and thinking innovations both at the level of the people and at the level of intellectuals. New myths are being born - socio-political, ideological, and religious. They arise mainly in the urban, intelligent environment. But the changes in mentality are also reflected at the level of traditional consciousness, in the mentality of rural residents who live, it would seem, the same traditional life.

The identity crisis in different periods of development of African countries took specific forms and caused various responses to it. The introduction of foreign values and cultural patterns in the 19th and early 20th centuries was accompanied by the humiliation of Africans, whose thinking was considered inferior, and whose culture was considered primitive. In Western ethnology, there was and still is a so-called ethnopsychiatry, which considers such mental features of Africans as myth - making in everyday life, the pagan nature of traditional beliefs, the important role of emotional and intuitive perception, etc. to be a mental pathology [Bidima, 2000, p.90-95].

The humiliations suffered by Africans were tragically realized by African intellectuals, who developed a complex that the modern African philosopher J.-G. Vidima called the "we too" complex (we are also people, we can also think, we also have a philosophy, etc.).

One of the earliest clear responses to the African identity crisis was the concept of negitude (Moseyko, 1975).

ONCE AGAIN ABOUT NEGRITUDE

This concept was formed in the late 1920s in Paris among young intellectuals from Africa and the Antilles. Its founders were Senegalese Leopold Senghor, Martinicians Aimee Sezer and Rene Mesnil, Leon Damas (Guiana) and others.

In its earliest form, the theory of Negroism was based on the assertion of the unity of all the peoples of the Negroid race, whether they lived in Africa, the Antilles or America. Thus, the commonality of the Negro culture, which has a single ancestral homeland - Africa, was established. Genetically, the theory of blackness was associated with the "Harlem Renaissance" movement that emerged in the 1920s in the United States, from which she took the idea of"returning to Africa". "Return to Africa" became a symbol that called for a rejection of Western values and a return to specifically African values. "Return to Africa" is a desire to gain pride in the black race, its history, culture, art, customs and traditions, and to establish the identity of the Negro, even through self-praise and self-aggrandizement.

In the Black community, the racism of the colonialists was contrasted with "anti-racist racism", i.e., black racism, which in the historical circumstances of the struggle against colonialism was partially justified.

Repulsion from the world of whites was due to the desire to avoid "alienation from themselves", to get rid of the hypnosis of European civilization, to get away from the danger of assimilation. However, the paradox of Negritude was that its creators, rejecting and denying everything European, could not get rid of the influence of the socio-cultural environment of Europe. The ideas of Negroes have been strongly influenced as a socio-political phenomenon.-

page 87

the European climate of the period between the two World Wars, as well as European philosophical, social, and aesthetic theories.

Negroism as a theory grew out of practice, out of a progressive nationalist movement for the liberation of the shackled spirit of the colonized by rehabilitating the spiritual values of African peoples, asserting the dignity of a person of the Negroid race. In this sense, the theory of blackness has become an element of the ideology of the national liberation movement. Negritude has never been a desk theory; its practical meaning lies in the term itself, which is an attempt to rehabilitate the offensive name "Negro". The term "negroism" is a challenge to those who insulted people of the Black race, it is a statement of black skin as a cultural symbol, pride in it. The Negro movement played a positive role in the struggle of African peoples for independence. African poets and writers promoted the ideas of Negroity in a passionate, emotional artistic form, giving them an anti-colonial orientation.

The ideas of protest against colonialism were most developed in the 1940s and 1950s of the last century. In 1947, the first issue of the magazine "Presence africaine" was published in Paris, which was recognized as the organ of Negrytude, around which figures of African culture and art began to group, and the publishing house "Presence Africaine" was created, in which the first "Anthology of new Negro and Malgash Poetry" was published in 1948. Sartre's "Black Orpheus" (Sartre, 1948).

During this period, the conceptual content of negitude is determined, primarily in the works of L. S. Senghor. The theoretical foundations of Negritude are formed both on the basis of the autochthonous mythological worldview, and under the influence of Western theories: existentialism and phenomenology, surrealism and intuitionism, the ideas of Leo Frobenius and representatives of ethnic characterology (G. Berger, P. Grieger).

Negativity as a concept of the Negroafrican civilization interweaves subjectively idealistic, irrationalist ideas with Christian ideas and mythological reminiscences in a unique way. Cosmogonic tribal myths are supplemented by existentialist theses, and the Christian idea of one god is combined with the provisions of phenomenology and intuitionism. The philosophical system of Negritude is obviously eclectic, which is fully explained by the specific circumstances of its origin. It is especially necessary to emphasize the influence of the book "Bantu Philosophy" by the Belgian missionary Placid Tempels [Tempels, 1949], which sets out (allegedly derived from African mythology) the foundations of the philosophical system, which, according to P. Tempels, contains the harbingers of the Christian worldview.

Dominant in the concept of negritude is the idea of the complete opposite of two types of people: Black-African and European (white). These two types of people are opposite in everything: their position in the world and their relationships with the world, nature, and other people are specific; their thinking patterns and social organization. L. Senghor in his speech at the VI Pan-African Congress formulates the thesis that" every nation has an original and strictly defined mental structure that generates feelings and ideas, faith and its own institutions, art and literature " [Senegal carrefour, 1968, N 5].

To prove the specifics of the Black African and determine his place in the world, Senghor presents the following scheme of the world structure: existence, i.e., life, is at the center of the world system. The life force is the source of being, it exists before being, creates it. Life force is understood as a substratum of spiritual values, something immortal and continuous. Life forces animate each object "from God to a grain of sand", located in a strict hierarchy. At the top is the one God-creator, as the main life force that determines "existence, meaning and meaning".

page 88

multiplication of other forces." At the next level are the ancestors, "like God", who are the founders of clans, even lower are the people who live now, at the very bottom - the classes of animals, plants and minerals, each of which has its own strict hierarchy. In this system, the main place belongs to a person as "existing", i.e., able to increase his strength, embody himself in a person, "becoming more and more free in the bosom of solidarity community" (Senghor, 1964, p. 204-205).

A public organization is part of the universal order of the world. The main element of this organization is the family. In traditional African society, the family was the bearer of traditions and customs, raised the young and passed on their knowledge and accumulated experience. The goal of the family is eternal reproduction of vital forces. The family is a link in the chain that unites God with people through" God-like " ancestors, establishes the unity of the dead with the living, and is the guardian of traditional values and vitality. In this sense, the family appears as a microcosm, an image of the universe. In order to maintain the constant unity of the past and present, the dead and the living, ancestors and modern people, magical rites are necessary, the main one of which is sacrifice. The head of the family, making a sacrifice, enters into a relationship with the ancestor, opens a dialogue "you" and "I". This communication, which reaches the point of identification, gives a sense of life to the deceased ancestor; in turn, its power flows into the donor and the collective that it embodies. The rite of sacrifice, Senghor says, "is the most typical illustration of the basic law of interaction of the life forces of the universe" (Senghor, 1964, pp. 205-206).

All things in the world, Senghor goes on to say, are connected to each other as communicating vessels - this follows from the theory of being. The principle of" communicating vessels", according to the author, is the basis of the theory of knowledge. In essence, there is no cognition as such, there is a harmonious connection of everything with everything. At the heart of the unity of man with the world is the connection of man with a certain superreality (surreality) of the world - the forces that animate all things. "For the Negro, above the material and sensual aspects, there is the world of the soul... spiritual forces that animate every creature, every plant, and every thing, " Senghor wrote (1962, p. 12-13).

Cognition is understood by him as the identification of the subject with the object, as an emotional, intuitive comprehension of the world, and emotion is interpreted not only as a reaction to the world, but also as a way of its magical transformation, an action directed at oneself, and through oneself - at the world. The main antinomy of Negrohood: "white - Negroafrican" leads to the conclusion that if a white person uses tools, tools, exploring, conquering the world in his pragmatic attitude to the world, then the Negroafrican influences himself, he merges with the object, empathizes with it, feels its breath, its movement, he is involved in its life. According to L. Senghor, this is why a Black African is able to perceive cosmic life forces that are hidden behind things, but rule them, animating visible things, giving them life, rhythm, feeling, meaning [Senghor, 1962, p. 14-15].

The discursive mind of white Negroes was contrasted with the intuitive, "partial" mind of a Black African; the cold, pragmatic attitude to the world -merging with the world (the unity of "everything with everything") in a Black African; scientific thinking -poetic expressiveness; Western art of copying, imitating the world -the art of creating images-symbols that convey the essence of things; the "deadening technicism" of industrial countries - proximity to nature, rural - partriarchal way of life in Africa; European social models - a specifically African path of socio-economic development.

The theory of negrihood concludes that the specific feature of a Black-African person, in contrast to a European alienated from the world, is

page 89

its organic unity, proximity to the world, complete harmony of its psychophysiological rhythms with the rhythms of the cosmos, identification of physical and spiritual manifestations [Senghor, 1963, p. 37-38]. On this basis, the conclusion is drawn about the advantages of an African over a white person, a European, about his greater vitality, and also that the future belongs to the Negroid race.

The Negro movement was aimed not only at colonized Africans, but also at all members of the Negroid race, as well as whites, the entire "white world". Negroism was supposed to draw attention to the Negroafrican civilization, to its values ,to "declare itself". In it, especially in the 1960s, the idea of a universal civilization, to which the peoples of the Negroid race should, even must, contribute, is transformed into the concept of the historical mission of the Negroes, who "must pour their hot blood into the flabby veins of the dying white civilization."

The concept of negroity was thus a hymn to the black man. Unbridled praise of the Black African, mythological in its essence, is a vivid and tragic response to humiliation, loss of identity. The tragedy of the situation in which the supporters of the Negro - African intellectuals found themselves-has its roots in their marginality. In fact, proving the exclusivity of the Negroafrican man and his natural existence, they themselves have already left this existence, have become" almost " Europeans. That little "almost" is the crux of the problem. Living in Europe or Africa, imitating European life, they felt like strangers everywhere. Having raised the insulting name "negro" as a banner, they continued to suffer from their "tragic dissimilarity," said the well-known political figure and publicist Franz Fanon. In his book "Black skin, white masks", he wrote that he constantly feels like a prisoner of the hellish circle. If they love me, it's because of my skin; if they hate me, they say it's not because of my skin.

The myth of Negroes has gained enormous popularity in Africa, as well as among the Negroid population of the United States and Latin America. Negroism goes much further than the first heralds of African nationalism, who prove that Africans are full-fledged people. Negroism proclaims the superiority of the African over people of other races, and hence its special purpose. All the theses of negrud, which are given above, confirm this main idea of his.

When I visited Senegal and other African countries in the 1970s and 1980s, I observed that the negro was a true national symbol for the people of that generation. Very few people understood the philosophical or quasi-philosophical arguments of L. Senghor, but everyone knew the essence of Negroes, and this inspired pride in their race, a sense of dignity, and belonging to high values in the conditions of the most severe identity crisis. As with any myth, proof of this was not required, and the philosophical works of L. Senogr were not so popular. It can be said that negritude was the most important Black-African political myth, the influence of which is still evident today.

The concept of Negrohood was widely criticized both in the West and in Africa, but even its critics could not deny its significance as a kind of popular ideology (national idea), which helped primarily the young intelligentsia of Africa to find an identity in new conditions. Modern researchers refer to the significance of this theory and cite it as an example of the role of cultural myths in the process of new identification.

THE PROBLEM OF AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY

Another identification myth was the myth of the existence of an autochthonous African philosophy, which developed and became popular among the African intelligentsia in the last decades of the XX century.

page 90

European researchers were the first to turn to the study of African philosophy. In the works of the already mentioned Belgian missionary Placid Tempels "Bantu Philosophy" (Tempels, 1949), the French ethnologist Marcel Griol "The God of Water. Conversations with Ogotemmeli "[Griaule, 1948], West German researcher of African culture Janheinz Jan "Muntu. Contours of Neo-African Culture "[Jahn, 1961] and others attempt to discover philosophical systems that are implicitly contained in the religions, myths, and rituals of African peoples. At first glance, these studies of European scientists pursue a noble goal - they refute the theses about the lack of rationalization abilities in Africans, about the inferiority of their reason. However, upon closer analysis, it turns out that these studies are aimed at Europeans, moreover, they solve along the way a certain utilitarian task - they seek to help them penetrate deeper into the "impenetrable" traditional consciousness of African peoples, to find some basis for developing the best ways to communicate with Africans, ways of non-disinterested penetration into their souls. It is no coincidence that the last chapter of Tempels 'book" Bantu Philosophy "is called"Bantu Philosophy and our civilizing mission".

A key role in the emergence of the concept of African philosophy belongs to P. Tempels, who in his book undertook the reconstruction of the philosophical system, allegedly contained implicitly in the cultures of African peoples. According to Tempels, the Bantu ontology is based on the following principles::

"dynamic Being is force, and force is Being. Power is not only a reality, but also a value, so we are talking about the life force that is endowed with everything that exists "from God to a grain of sand". The dynamism of being manifests itself in the metaphysical relationship of creation with the creator, "everything with everything" according to the law of participation;

- there is a hierarchy of forces that governs the entire world order, including the social order: at the top, God is the spirit and creator; then-the founding fathers of the clans, to whom God transmitted the life force; then-the ancestors, through whom the life force is transmitted to the members of the tribe. Each group has its own chain of command, which must be taken into account by the colonial administration and missionaries, to whom P. Tempels addressed his book.

The influence of the work of P. Tempels, which the Beninese philosopher P. Hountondji called the "Tempels effect" [Hountondji, 1989, p. 1472], was experienced by many African researchers (L. Senghor, A. Kagame [Kagame, 1956; Kagame, 1976], N. Memel-Fote [Memel-Fote, 1979], Zh. Mbiti [Mbiti, 1972], V. Mulago [Mulago, 1965], F. Lufuluabo [Lufuluabo, 1962], J. Baoken [Bahoken, 1967], B. Fouda [Fouda, 1967], etc.). The ideas presented in his work fell on fertile ground, because the very principle of searching for new information is very important. in African mythology, religious beliefs, and the language of philosophical systems equivalent to European ones, it is undoubtedly attractive to African intellectuals. These searches themselves represented a noticeable and important phenomenon in the development of the culture of African peoples and their mentality and testified to the emergence of philosophical reflection in this region.

African philosophers who were educated in Europe tried to go beyond the mytho-philosophical research of L. Senghor and find some evidence for the existence of philosophical systems in African cultures, based on the analysis of African myths, beliefs, rituals, symbols, and linguistic realities. Thus, the works of the Rwandan priest and scholar Alexis Kagame "Bantu-the Rwandan Philosophy of Being" and "Comparative Bantu Philosophy" were created under the influence of Tempels ' concept, but they have a number of differences. First of all, Kagame doubts the existence of a philosophical system among the peoples of Africa in the full sense of the word and confines himself to the recognition of certain unchangeable "philosophical principles", "intuitive philosophy".

page 91

The research of worldview representations is undertaken by A. Kagame by analyzing the structure of the Kinyarwanda language, in which he discovers materialized worldview principles, ways of perception of the world by Rwandans, and the beginning of epistemology. Thus, he notes that the Bantu idea of man, unlike the European one, is inseparable, i.e. it is not divided into the idea of body and soul, which is confirmed by the absence of the Kinyarwanda term for soul. People's individual destinies depend on God and are expressed in their own names. Starting from the Kinyarwanda language structure, Kagame builds a system of ontological categories that represent, in his opinion, the "reified" worldview of the Bantu-Rwandan peoples. There are four such categories, and together they represent, according to Kagame, the concept of peace:

1. umuntu (plural abantu) - a person; being endowed with reason; 2. ikuntu (plural ibintu) - a thing; being devoid of reason; 3. ahanto-place-time; 4. ukuntu-modality.

At the same time, Kagame writes, "living their own philosophy without philosophers, the Bantu did not have the opportunity to express the full depth of the concepts that they empirically embodied in their, of course, regional, but basically unified languages." In the chapter devoted to the category of "place-time", he declares the superiority of a collective system of thought that is not subject to rethinking. However, A. Kagame repeatedly emphasizes the points that bring Bantu philosophy closer to European philosophy, and above all, the identity of logic of thinking in all cultures.

It is worth noting the study of the Ivorian scholar Harris Memel-Fote "The idea of peace in Black African cultures" (Memel-Fote, 1979), where he tries to formulate a holistic concept of peace among African peoples based on the analysis of religious and mythological representations, rituals, religious symbols, oral folk art, everyday life, initiation, etc. by H. Memel-Fote It characterizes the essence of African socio-cultural specifics as "Africanism", which corresponds to a certain "idea of the world", where the world appears as a kind of totality. A holistic view of the world, according to X. Memel-Fote is implicitly contained in all religious and mythological beliefs that are an element of diverse African cultures. Due to the difficulties of their research - some of them have not yet revealed their ideas about the world, others remain unexplored due to language difficulties-the author bases his conclusions on studying the worldview of the Dogon, Bambara and residents of Rwanda.

Special attention is paid to X. Memel-Fote symbolism as a means of combining various objects and developing an integral view of the world, its origin. For example, the Dogon baobab is a symbol of God. The eight drums, which differ from each other in their sound, symbolize the eight original families that descended from eight ancestors, the differentiation of modern languages, and the specialization of various social groups. Myths, legends, fairy tales, proverbs and sayings, the author writes, reveal the genesis of the world, humanity, civilization, as well as the origin of the gods. "Myths are philosophical in nature, because they give justification and meaning to everything that exists or is conceivable," he writes (Memel-Fote, 1979).

A holistic view of the world involves revealing its genesis, which is associated either with the original emptiness (in Bambara), or with the originally filled space, being, or with the activity of some agent, which can be impersonal forces, a single god, or cultural heroes-ancestors. For some peoples, cosmogonic myths are only outlined, while for others, for example, the Dogon, these myths represent a fairly detailed picture of the universe. H. Memel-Fote notes a statement in the metaphysical history of the world.

page 92

human activity - in the cult of mythical ancestors. Characteristic, in the author's opinion, is such an element of a complete picture of the world as its strict hierarchy, super-natural order, on which the natural order is based, as well as social order. The world order, which presupposes the unity of the world, does not exclude the existence of opposites (in the history of the world - between emptiness and filled space, between God and his creation; in the structure of the world - pairs, sex differences between gods and people). In Bantu mythology, everything from god to plants and minerals has an inner power, while in Dogon mythology, there is a universal energy or life force in the world. The myths of these peoples, Memel-Fote writes, outline the laws of conservation of forces, their evolution and interaction, hierarchy and unity, which obviously brings the meaning of the myths of African peoples closer to European philosophical and theological concepts (Memel-Fote, 1979). Memel-Fote notes that in the religious and mythological views of African peoples, a holistic picture of the world includes the idea of society, its genesis, hierarchical order, unity and inconsistency. In the mythological picture of the world, the hierarchical order of society does not exclude its contradictory structure, where there are bipolar combinations:

in social terms

freemen and slaves,

in the economic sector

different castes,

in the gender and age range

men and women, old and young,

according to birth

elite and common people

Revealing the cosmic meaning of the mythological concept of society, H. Memel-Fote writes that Africans represent their history as the metaphysical history of all mankind, and their forefather and forefather as the ancestors of all peoples; represent the members of this group as authentic people; the place in which they live - as the center of the earth. Assessing the significance of his analysis and, in general, the meaning of referring to the traditional worldview, Memel-Fote notes that the archaic worldview has not lost its significance and its interpretation today has an important social significance. Myths, says the author, postulated the imperfection of the world, its restoration after destruction, its progressive movement, the constancy that lies behind change, as well as the triumph of life over death.

Kenyan theologian John S. Mbiti [Mbiti, 1970; Mbiti, 1972] notes that the philosophical systems of various African peoples are not yet fully formulated, but elements of these systems can be found in the religion, oral tradition, ethics and morals of the studied society. Describing the African ontology, Mbiti distinguishes five categories in it: god; spirits; people; animals and plants; phenomena and objects. In addition to these categories, he names the force or energy that fills the entire universe. Mbiti specifically stipulates that this force has nothing to do with the life force of P. Tempels, but the general connection of his concepts with Tempels ' work, especially in ontological terms, is obvious.

A distinctive feature of Mbiti's constructions is his analysis of the category of time, which, in his opinion, is the key to understanding the religious and philosophical concepts of traditional African societies. First of all, time, like other abstract concepts in African mythology, is concretized, connected with natural phenomena, seasons, the movement of the moon and sun, and with the practical life of people. So, the age of a person can be calculated by the number of rainy seasons, the event is associated with the lunar months. In some pastoral peoples, whose practical life is regulated by the care of livestock, the time of day is divided into hours associated with specific actions of the pastoralist. Not in the mythological consciousness.

page 93

the concepts of the irreversibility of time, its linearity, development in one direction - from the past to the future. In the traditional mentality, time is cyclical. The past is not lost to the present and is in an indissoluble unity with it. The present can actively influence the past, the existence of generations that have passed into oblivion through sacrifices.

J. S. Mbiti in his book "African Religions and Philosophy" examines the concept of time in the mythological consciousness of Africans based on the analysis of concepts denoting time in the Akamba and Kikuyu languages (Kenya). These peoples have two concepts of time - "sasa"and " zamani". Sasa is the period of time when and where a person lives. It has the meaning of the present, the recent past (yesterday), and the near future (tomorrow, in 2-3 months). Zamani is a kind of macro-time, the most important time for a person, because everything that happens in sasa is absorbed by zamani. Sasa feeds the zamani, because before events sink into zamani, they must be realized in sasa (Mbiti, 1972).

Time, therefore, evolves in the direction from the present to the past. Sasa is the period of real life, zamani is the period of myth, which is the foundation of sasa and guarantees its safety. Mbiti writes that Africans do not know the expectation of a" golden age", progress or, conversely, the end of the world, they do not have the idea of moving from the lower to the higher. All things move in one direction - towards the Zamani, and this unbroken rhythm is the basis of human life: birth, maturity, initiation, marriage, procreation, old age, death, joining the community of the dead, and finally joining the host of spirits. The concept of time is associated with the mythological consciousness ' ideas about the existence of people in different dimensions, about life and death, and about their ancestors. Life and death are existence in different time dimensions. Death is just a transition to the category of ancestors, another time continuum.

The authors mentioned above, as well as V. Mulago (Zaire), J. K. Bagonen (Cameroon), R. Andriamanzatu (Madagascar), W. Abraham (Ghana), J. Auolalu (Nigeria), A. Ndav (Senegal), I. P. Laley (Benin) and others, are characterized by the recognition of a certain collective philosophy that is implicitly contained in the culture of African peoples, which our ancestors created without realizing that they were engaged in philosophy. The principles of this philosophy, according to these authors, are eternal truths that are characteristic of Africans and determine the specifics of their culture, their human qualities.

list of literature

Intelligentsia and Social Progress in developing countries of Asia and Africa, Moscow, 1981.

Moseyko A. "Negritude" and modern philosophical-ethical and theoretical-literary struggle in the countries of Tropical Africa.Teorii, shkoly, kontseptsii (kriticheskie analizy) [Theories, Schools, Concepts (critical analyses)]. Art Process and Ideological Struggle, Moscow, 1975.

B. Starostin. The liberated Countries: society and personality, Moscow, 1984.

Bahoken I.C. Clairieres metaphysique africaines. P., 1967.

Bidima J-G. L'ethnopsychiatrie et ses revers. Dire la fragilite de l'Autre // Diogene. 2000. N 189.

Copans J. Intellectuels visibles, intellectuels invisibles // Politique Africaine. 1993. N51.

Fouda In J. La philosophie negro-africaine de l'existence. These. Lille, 1967.

Griaule M. Dieu d'eau. Entretiens avec Ogotemmeli. P., 1948.

Hountondji P. L'effet Tempels / /L' univers philosophique. Encyclopedie philosophique universelle. P.: IPUF, 1989.

Jahn J. Muntu. L'homme africain et culture neoafricaine. P., 1961.

Kagame A. La philosophie Bantu rwandaise de l'etre. Bruxelles, 1956.

Kagame A. La philosophie bantu comparee. P., 1976.

Lufuluabo F.M. Vers une theodicee bantoue. Tournai, Casterman, 1962.

page 94

Mbiti J.S. Concepts of God in Africa. L., 1970. Mbiti J.S. Religions etphilosophies africaines. Yaounde, 1972.

Memel-Fote H. L'idee du monde dans les cultures negro-africaines //Presence africaine. P., 1979. N 73. Mulago V. Un visage africaine du christianisme. P., 1965.

Otayek R. La democratie entre mobilisations identitaires et besoin d'Etat: y a-t-il une "exception" africaine? // Af-rique: les identites contre la democratie? P., 1999.

Pouvoirs sorciers / /P olitique Africaine. 2000. N 79.

Sartre J. -P. L'Orphee noir // Anthologie de la nouvelle poesie negre et malgache de langue francaise. P., 1948.

Senegal carrefour. 1968. N 5.

Senghor L.S. De la negritude. Psychologie du Negro-africane // Diogene. 1962. N 37.

Senghor L.S. L'art du conteur negro-africain // Anthologie africaine et malgache. P., 1963.

Senghor L.S. Liberte I. Negritude et humanisme. P., 1964.

Tempels P. La philosophie Bantu. P., 1949.

Permanent link to this publication: