African Philosophical Transcendence

By Mocholoko (Dr), Zulumathabo Zulu © 2020

 

The Preamble

The Basotho philosophy known as Nahanosene boasts five categories of rich and deep philosophical thought namely (1) Phe; (2) Tse; (3) Ra; (4) Pha and (5) Tshe. For purposes of this segment of the article, we confine ourselves to Category 4 of Pha.

Pha refers to an ontological primacy of transcendence. Philosophical constructs like Phahama (arise); Phahamela (transcend); Phaphama (awake from sleep); Phahla (offer libation to the ancestors); Phapha (take to the sky to climb to greater heights) and Phaphatha (venerate the gods) awaken our consciousness to the higher science of cosmologic reflection.

It is when we reflect like this that we are in a position to break the shackles that have been crushing our souls for too long! More than 523 years of being shackled by the vestiges of the ECC (Euro-Christian Colonial) system is the most brutal experience a human being can ever be subjected to. No remorse on the part of the colonial descendants! No reparations on the part of the colonial descendants! For them it is business as usual.

As a corollary, we are defined by the machinations of the hegemonic systems in the hands of the misanthropists. They have no remorse for the criminal aggression against the African Natives through no fault of their own on account of the Pavlovian conditioning they have received from their breastfeeding experience. Everyone who finds themselves under the circumstances would turn out the same (me included). It would be inhuman not to be shaped by the omnipresent Pavlovian environment.

About Pavlovian Theory

A Pavlovian environment refers to the utilization of a Pavlovian Theory of the Russian experimental scientist Ivan Pavlov wherein there is a case of paired conditional stimulus and conditioned or learned response as a result of the neural association on the part of the subject between the stimulus (object or event) and the response (social behaviour). In the case of Pavlov, he paired the food (the conditional stimulus) and the bell (neutral stimulus) to trigger a conditioned response (dog salivation). Whenever Pavlov’s dog heard the bell ring, it secreted a mouth saliva to show that over time it had learned to associate a non-food acoustic stimulus with food.

I modified this experiment using brown bread inside a plastic bag after discovering that dogs love brown bread. Overtime, they associated the acoustic sound of unwrapping the plastic bag with food even when the plastic bag is hidden from them. Whenever, I unwrapped a bread plastic bag, they started humming; wagging their tail and salivating. This pairing of a conditional stimulus with a conditioned response is a very powerful principle of reinforcement.

Notwithstanding, when one is defined by the environment then one has no control over one’s destiny. It cannot be the case that we are on this planet as the architects of destiny and yet we do not have the wherewithal to become the architects of destiny. We must vibrate as we were intended to vibrate in accordance with the sacrosanct vibration of the erudite ancestors who have gone before us.

Our challenge is to understand the interfaces of the blackbox that we have been dealt. We have to work with the cards that we are dealt until such time that we can deal the cards. There is no written manual for the blackbox. Our ability to retake our role as the inalienable architects of destiny necessitates that we gain an instinctive grasp of the permuted interfaces of the blackbox. This calls for an enterprising spirit that resists the urges of the flesh and defers self-gratification for future success. As destiny would have it, the enterprising spirit is always rewarded in accordance with the inputs made.

The enterprising spirit must have the superior processing skills of a cybernetic design so that some outputs are re-entered as new inputs like a regression analysis in order to accumulate the interpolation data points that are closer to the regression line. It is this kind of thought processing that will produce the right outcome for the benefit of the future generations. In this way, the African Motherland and the Diaspora shall be emancipated so that Mother Afrika is free from ethnic/religious/civil conflict; free from poverty; free from pestilence; free from immorality and free from miseducation and thus to rise and to prosper as an inalienable architect of destiny. Under the conducive circumstences, Mother Afrika can vibrate as she was intended to vibrate unimpeded by the colonial; apartheid and slavery experience of the past for the survival benefit of the future generations of Thari/Imbeleko/The Melanin. Without further ado, we present the literary piece Philosophical Transcendence.

Philosophical Transcendence
By Mocholoko (Dr), Zulumathabo Zulu © 2020

gutsy spirit risk traverse,
undefined by the adverse.
To render inconsequential
As if there was no problem
Hitherto, a sightless anger
Hereafter, never to linger
Clarity of mind transcendence

to subdue the vexation,
to depart from fixation.
Provocation like non-exist
Muted struggle with agonist
To preserve the identity
To chart the independence
To resist the Suzerain

Contextual Commentary

In this segment of the article, we discuss the three entanglements of adversity and the Basotho philosophy of transcendence.

The Three Entanglements

The thesis of pessimism is premised on three factors namely (1) time; (2) space and (3) iteration.

The Stranglehold of Time

Every time you take the time to give credence to pessimism, you allow pessimism to have a temporal stranglehold on you. Once you are in the timeline of pessimism, you extend time to attract more pessimism. We refer to this as a stranglehold of time on the pessimist

The Spatial Stranglehold

In addition to a temporal hold on you, pessimism also needs a spatial hold so that you are inextricably bound inside the space. For this to happen, you need to create a space for pessimism and the pessimistic thoughts. You are the source of energy which pessimism requires to exhaust your spiritual batteries. It is this space that creates a spatial stranglehold on the pessimist.

The Iterative Stranglehold

The third most important factor for pessimism is the iteration. This calls for you to rehash the pessimistic experience over and over. There is never an end to this iteration. When you are in a social discourse, you find a way to inject the pessimistic narrative. The iteration turns your mind into an iterator that traverses the endless loops of pessimism. It is this loop that creates an iterative stranglehold on the pessimist.

Defining The Transcendence

Transcendence is defined as “undefined” in the book The Sacred Knowledge of the Desert: African Philosophical Transcendence: Madisebo University College Press. The philosophical principle of transcendence is inspired by Nahanosene (Basotho Philosophy) in the taxonomy of the Basotho Origin of Philosophy. The infinitive of Nahanosene with respect to transcendence is to make a metaphysical commitment so that “to transcend” is “to undefine” the clutches of adversity. The transmundane maxim of transcendence reduces the material consequence of misfortune for the survival benefit of the enterprising desert flower Mponeng. This is like disassembling the molecular structure of adversity so that adversity has no fangs to inject its lethal toxins.

 

The implication herein is that Mponeng is in an enviable position to conceptualise about the adverse situation like an exiguous phenomenon that has no override on the will to stay alive. The shackles of the adverse conditions are disabled for Mponeng as a result of espousing the higher science of philosophical transcendence. It is unshakably confirmed that Mponeng is unshackled. The effect of misfortunes has expired and has no amplitude; weight or vestigial arrest on the enterprising spirit. The hallowed spirit sets in motion the invocation of a vertical lift to climb to greater heights to enhance the imperative survival experience in the terrestrial space unmindful of the harsh perturbations which the agnostic troposphere agitates to slow down and to confuse the voyager.

The undefined principle of transcendence is confirmed by other organisms such as the undefined African fish that is born and socialised in a salty water environment but when you catch it, it does not have the salt. The African fish refuses to be defined by the salty environment. The fish does not internalise the Trojan environment. The fish does not allow the salty particles to penetrate the internals of its being. The fish that is covered in the protective mucus membrane maintains a flawless distinction between the perturbation of the environment and the tranquillity of the internals of its sacrosanct spirit. In this way, the African fish vibrates as it was intended to vibrate unimpeded by the adverse conditions of the salty bodies of water.

La lucha continua! (The struggle continues); No rendirse! (No surrender); Nunca jamas! (Never, never); El destino es nuestro! (The destiny is ours); Ezamathongo! Tsamaroko! (For the Ancestors); Siyathokoza Makhosi! (High Veneration to the Ancestors).

 

References

Zulu, Z. (2014). The Sacred Knowledge of the Desert: African Philosophical Transcendence. Madisebo University College Press: Johannesburg. (2014).

Zulu, Z .(2009). ‘The African Philosophy of Coexistentialism’, Unpublished, Ottawa, Canada.

Zulu, Z. (2019) “African Metaphysical Science and Decolonisation”, Faculty of Education, North West University – Potchefstroom, North West Province, Azania.

Zulu, Z. Ontological States of the Object, Unpublished, Ottawa, Canada.

Zulu, Z. Nahanosene: Basotho Origin of Philosophy, Unpublished, Madisebo University Press, Azania (South Africa).