Aesthetics

Discussing race in “black and white” requires the high light of differences between white European and black African “aesthetics”. Looking at Plato’s theory of knowledge as they related to European “aesthetics” as well as the Kugusa Mtima and how it relates to the African “aesthetic” helps explain the differences between the two.

To better understand the European aesthetic one must look at the worldview construct that its roots are based in. The cosmology supports a separateness/alienation, independence, human nature conflict, and control over nature. The ontology is rooted in a material basis of nature/existence/the universe. Lastly, the axiology places emphasis on person to object/human to object relations (Kambon, 122). “The fundamental assumption or ethos defining the European worldview may be categorized as a ‘humanity versus nature’ orientation” (Kambon, 128).

Plato’s theory of knowledge as it applied to the Greek “ideal state” is in many ways the basis of European “aesthetics”. Plato’s Academy came up with the theory of knowledge. In this theory knowledge must be certain and infallible. That which is real is contrasted with that in appearance. Therefore, anything that is real must be supported in truth and certainty. Plato also had a theory of state. It said that intellectuals govern the state, soldiers maintain the state through martial control, and the masses act in an emotional behavior. The two “senses” are derived from the mass and intellectual states. There is an elite sense which is based in conception. The study: that which is beautiful equals intellectual, scientific reason, and technical analysis. The “mass” sense is used to relate to an emotional socialization. The separations between elite (European) aesthetic vs. mass/emotional (African) goes back to Plato and can be used to support the fact that in Euro-“aesthetics”, they use themselves as the elite and based in truth while viewing every other culture as the masses based in emotional feelings.

With these components of worldview being the base of European “aesthetics” one can see European aesthetics visible in modernity. The Euro-aesthetic of education, beauty, and everyday discourse are rooted in the Euro-worldview. For example, standard American educational curricula are saturated in European cultural-centered tests that are used to evaluate all racial cultural groups in America (Kambon, 132). The European conception of beauty is based in the “Objectification” of the experience. European world constructs look to control the emotional experience of what is considered beautiful. A rationalistic discussion of the rules by which the experience of the beautiful takes place, is most often supported by a European “aesthetic”. “They objectify the experience; they tear it apart; they verbalize it, incessantly, and teach and are taught that in this way they come to understand the experience more- to better appreciate it (Ani, 202). The European utumawazo or “thoughts” are above all rationalistic, generating concepts with objectifying phenomena, thereby separating “thought” from “feeling” (Ani, 64).

“Aesthetic” is the perhaps the wrong word all together to describe the African perspective. Kugusa Mtima is the African version of “aesthetic” as suggested by Marimba Ani. The Kugusa Mtima or African “aesthetic” supports the notion of oneness, unity, emotional and spiritual ties to all things in existence. Kugusa Mtima can be described as expressions being powerful energies which act on reality and which act on us (Ani, 65). It is the experience of being touched or moved. Africans and people of African descent, experience much of life through being spiritual and feelings, not through analysis, as most Europeans do. The Kugusa Mtima has the power to transform the consciousness of a person, enabling a unification and increased understanding of the everyday situations that African people go through. “The African symbol is spiritual truth, no its representation (Ani, 68). The Kugusa Mtima is more conducive to explain the African experience because it is the fundamental in the African worldview of all things rooted in spirit, energy, feeling and emotion. Kugusa Mtima is used in explaining political consciousness in the Black community. The African creative expression of Kugusa Mtima is seen in how many contemporary African Americans behave, such as in language, song, dance, etc. The Kugusa Mtima is in a sense related to the deep structure of all African peoples. It is the fundamental source and spirit, and explains much of neo-Black culture.

In conclusion, the European and African aesthetics have very big differences. These differences at their roots go on to explain much of the differences between contemporary European and African cultures.