Difficulties of Research and Innovation on African Humanities: Case Study of African Martial Arts

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ABSTRACT:

Study Focus: This article put forward the thorny problem of researching on African Humanities. It uses African martial arts as case study to demonstrates that some historical underpinnings must be fixed to make possible any authentic research and innovation from historical perspectives on African Humanities.

Methodology: The content of this paper relies on written documents (including books, scientific journals, articles, and official reports) from primary and secondary sources most of which are available online as well as on the author’s teaching experience in Chinese and African Universities.

Findings: (1) The dilemma on the existence of an African history that sparked century old debates among world scholars, going from denial to recognition of Africa’s contribution to the world civilization, unfortunately is not yet settled, for they are still lack of consensus on certain issues, especially regarding the Nile civilization. (2) Cut off from its historical roots of Ancient Egyptian civilization, the study of African Martial Arts in particular and the African Humanities in general will be simply meaningless, for Ancient Egyptian civilization have provided solid archeological evidences for over 3000 to 5000 years history of African humanities despite heated debates still surrounding the Black African Ownership of “Ancient Egyptian Civilization”. (3) The scarcity of African writing systems, the lack of African historical classics, the geographical vastitude and the ethnic complexity of the African continent are among important factors hindering the research and innovation on the field of African Humanities.

Conclusion & Suggestions: Unless African humanists dare to settle some imperative questions regarding ancient Egypt so that Black African can fully take responsibility of their Egyptian historical legacy, otherwise the Study of African humanities and the sociocultural development of Africa could not and will not be handled properly.

 

Keywords: African Humanities; Research and Innovation; African Martial Arts; Sociocultural Development;