Negating, Resisting or Affirming Comsologies by Joy Dumsile Ndwandwe Page 47 The examination of cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems includes the Ethiopia, for analysing African leadership are introduced by Sumner (1986:17) as follows:
‘The Ethiopian universe is that of human beings and of human life; this does not mean that this world is completely divorced from the scientific way of thinking.’
This viewpoint is further elucidated by the Ethiopian philosopher, Zera Yacob’s (1599:
1692), discursive methods of knowing God on the subjection of faith, any faith, to a critical examination by intelligence or natural reason; which takes the form of honest searching or uncovering and known as Hasasa or Hatat (Kiros 2006). Hence cognitive justice and transformation by enlargement enables this study to examine cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems for analysing leadership.
According to Claude (1986), Zera Yacob’s articulated a basic principle:
The Goodness of the Created Nature: from this foundation he moves towards theodicy, ethics and psychology, his theodicy being mostly a creational one, his ethics accepting only that which is based on the goodness of the created thing, like that of married life and of food, thus rejecting the time honoured monastic life and fasting of traditional Ethiopia, and his psychology emphasizing man’s freedom and his superiority over the rest of creation.
This statements examines the cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems for analysing African leadership on heuristics of survival, ethics of memory, ethics, ethical choices, human actions and capacity and this continues as according to Claude (1986) on Zera Yacob’s edicts in Chapter III on the Eternity of God and the Division among Believers expresses the concept of Justice as follows:
‘If God is the guardian of men, how is it that their nature is thus deeply corrupted?’
On the other hand, in Chapter IV on the Investigation of Faith and of Prayer echoes the quest for Truth: ‘O my creator, wise among the wise and just among the just, who created me with intelligence, help me to understand, for men lack wisdom and truthfulness: as David said: ‘No man can be relied upon.’
Claude (1968) further argues Zera Yacob’s edicts in Chapter V: The Law of Moses and the Meditation of Mohammed states on the subject of truth:
‘To the person who seeks it, truth is immediately revealed. Indeed he who investigates with pure intelligence set by the creator in the heart of each man and scrutinizes the order and laws of creation, will discover truth.’ On Chapter VI: How to Recognize a False Faith: ‘….all men are equal in the presence of God, and all are intelligent, since they are his creatures; he did not assign one people for life, another for death, another for judgment. Our reason teaches us that this sort of discrimination cannot exist in the sight of God, who is perfect in all his works.’ Accordingly in Chapter VII: The Law of God and the Law of Man: ‘God sustains the world by his order which he himself
Negating, Resisting or Affirming Comsologies by Joy Dumsile Ndwandwe Page 48 has established and which man cannot destroy, because the order of God is stronger than the order of man.’
The above mentioned statements through cognitive justice and transformation by enlargement enable this research study to examine cosmological principles for analysing African leadership on heuristics of survival and ethics; this is further supported by Kiros (2005):
‘Death does not discriminate, it is the ultimate equalizer. The human body is not entitled to immortality, hence all persons given their intelligence, can understand God’s wishes through revelations which comes in the form of the deliverance of reason.’
Clearly, the Ethiopian cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems, according to Zera Yacob’s philosophy, explain the negotiation forces for the co-evolution of the spiritual, natural and human worlds based on ethics of memory, ethics and ethical choices.
This research study examines cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems further substantiated in Sumner’s (1986):
Part II on ‘The Horizontal Dimension of Ethiopian Philosophy’, which focuses on the following factors: method; wisdom; thought; rhythm; the image; the world; man;
society; morality; the heart.
For the purposes of investigating Ethiopian cosmological principles in this study will not focus on method, rhythm, the image and thought as the Zera Yacob’s philosophy has been discussed above:
On wisdom, the product, not of the speculation of one man who makes up the whole system, but of the experience of a whole people, from generation to generation; with popular wisdom being more or less identical among all people, comprising of a great number of truths in human life and experience. Whilst didactic wisdom does not formulate truths which are different from popular wisdom; it expresses itself under a less direct and spontaneous, but developed form, does not express wisdom in general but individual thought.
This statements examines the cosmological principles for analysing African leadership on heuristics of survival, ethics of memory, ethics, ethical choices, human action and capacity this is further supported by Sumner (1986), in a world based on the Book of the Philosophers ....there is no explicit definition of matter, however its characteristics are given such as spirit and elementary compositions: water, earth, fire; and temperature and degree of humidity and the two properties: space and time. There is little discourse on cosmic time, which regulates the cycles of nature; but historical time unfolding events as it is considered as a linear and successive continuum. The temporal dimension of creation, with its specification of past, present and future as well as the immanence of its reality are very frequently mentioned; it is within the temporal context that life obtains its
Negating, Resisting or Affirming Comsologies by Joy Dumsile Ndwandwe Page 49 significance. Man, in anticipating his final and irrevocable limit of presence in this world, assesses himself in the light of the finite possibilities which precede his end;
shoulders responsibility and, thus, gives an authentic sense to the entire duration of his existence, such as a death becomes a life, it is a wisdom in its temporal depth.
Beyond temporal death, there is the Platonician notion of immorality which presupposes dualism and the Semitic; and Biblical notion of resurrection which presupposes a unitary view of man, the former is the prevalent explanation.
According to Sumner (1986), in the Book of the Philosophers, the Ethiopian concept of Man:
....is expressed in unity or in one of his parts: nafs, soul; sega, flesh; and manfas, spirit; with no formal discussion on the unity of the soul or the diversity of its functions. None of these three terms express man in the totality of his complexity, with no trace of monism; for man is structured just like all creations in the universe.
However, the way the different parts of man are united is a mystery which disconcerts the human mind; as Man is unity and division, harmony and conflict, order and disorder, thus the difference between man and the animal is the soul and its relation to the body, the immortality of the soul.
This examination of cosmological principles for analysing leadership through cognitive justice and transformation by enlargement, based on the ancient idea that ethics is the theory of human actions and ethics of memory.
Sumner (1986) further states:
On the concept of Society, which according to the Book of Philosophers and the Hatatas; man is a social being, at the centre is the family and not the family as social unit but as paradigm of social relations anchored through the respect; the esteem; and the recognition of the dignity of others. Beyond the family, there is law and order, the law resides in the perfection of the action with God as the ultimate model; whilst order includes all that is directly related to the finality of man, the ensemble of norms and its model is the adaptation of each part of the cosmic universe.
The above statement examines cosmological principles of cosmic and social order, and harmonious human existence within family and society based on ethics of memory and human actions and capacity.
Sumner (1986:74) argues that
The concept of Morality is the central element of the Book of Philosophers, as cosmology, psychology and sociology hardly exist in their own right. The norm of morality may be (a) subjective, that is, existing in the human agent and giving him moral guidance in the placing of his human acts; (b) objective, existing outside the human agent in the order of objective reality. Morality therefore appears as a dialogue, in a simple, stark, naked transcendentalism, not the idealistic transcendentalism of Kant, but an ethical, ascetic transcendentalism which concentrates on the axiological sphere and the dialectics which crosses it through and
Negating, Resisting or Affirming Comsologies by Joy Dumsile Ndwandwe Page 50 through. Finally the concept of ‘Heart’ with its multiplicity of connotations:
opposition to flesh and identification with it, conflicting tendencies, internal centre, centre of intellectual operations, centre of emotions and centre of moral habits.
This examines cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems for analysing African leadership on ethics of memory, ethics, ethical choices, human actions and capacity, Sumner (1980) further argues:
In The Philosiologue, the heart is indeed an internal centre, but its relations are of a theological nature, with Christ through faith and prayer and with the demon through passion and sin. In the Book of the Philosophers, the heart or lebb is a frequent symbol, rich in significance and of a vast comprehension; as opposed to the flesh, never to the soul as man is led by flesh to the knowledge of man’s heart. The flesh is the revelation of the heart, which harbours inclinations which are not only different but conflicting; this is the stage for dramatic struggles between forces of evil and good, between the world and authentic wisdom, hence the centre of man.
The cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems examined for analysing African leadership, reflect the negotiation forces for the co-evolution of the spiritual, natural and human worlds based on ethics of memory and ethical choices.
The Amhara and the Tigre people of Ethiopia share a common cultural heritage and also dominate the country’s political and organisation. It is their cultural heritage within which all participants in the modernising sectors of the society. Korten (1972:50) states in this regard:
There are a number of basic individual and interpersonal beliefs and values that appear to be more or less operative throughout Ethiopian society, regardless of the specific role, status, authority or other institutional relationships involved. These beliefs and values can be roughly divided between those that tend to produce integrative forces of commitment, cohesion and coordination within the social system and those that tend to produce disintegrative forces of conflict, disunity, chaos and withdrawal. Although these opposing forces are present in nearly all social systems throughout the world, they stand out in sharp conflicting relief in the Ethiopian social system and are a source of many apparent paradoxes in both individual and group behaviour.
Korten (1970:55) further deliberates on both the integrative and disintegrative forces;
beginning with the following integrative ‘forces’: a) rigid standards of social etiquette, hospitality and respect for privacy, no is considered extremely rude and ‘tomorrow’
saves face; b) strong pressure to conform to social norms and to suppress individuality; c) observance of strict reciprocity in social relationships; and d) a predisposition towards hierarchical social structuring and an unquestioning acceptance of authority. The disintegrative forces which exert pressure on the social system include the following: a) the idealisation of the personal capacity for physical and verbal aggression; b) a belief in the basically evil nature of man, aggressiveness
Negating, Resisting or Affirming Comsologies by Joy Dumsile Ndwandwe Page 51 and untrustworthiness (possibility of ‘budas’ or possessors of the evil eye); c) a pervasive seeking of short-term self-interest activities by whatever means available, with self-protection against real and potential enemies and d) a view of social and material reward as more often resulting from the successful manipulation of others for personal productivity.
Korten (1970:69) has the following to say on the superior-subordinate relationships within the Ethiopia which is dominated by the Amhara culture:
Amhara culture divides the social universe into two: master and servant; the possessor and the possessed. Levine goes on even further in maintaining that the operation of the Amhara society does not involve any significant communal organization, but rather, depends for its central element of integration on ‘a highly personal relationship between superior and subordinate, with the subordinate existing essentially as an extension of the ego of the superior.’ The superior-subordinate relationships are: a) the mutual obligation of superior and subordinate; b) the dependency of the little man who receives grace and is expected to show absolute loyalty and deference in return;
c) the suppression of initiative as a sense of proving to subordinates who is superior and also create dependency; d) the office as reward versus the office as responsibility.
The social mobility by all means available and difficulties in legitimating; as people prefer to be led by man of noble birth, and this value impacts on the Ethiopian leadership.
Clearly the examined cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems for analysing African leadership reflect the affirmation and negation of negotiating forces of the co-evolution of the spiritual, natural and human worlds based on ethics of memory, ethics, ethical choices and human actions and capacity.