Cutting Through Intellectual Colonialism
(written for Fasil)
Western intellectuals love to play with diversity like it’s an accessory. They fetishize non-Western thought, pretending to embrace Asian philosophy, Nigerian literature, or indigenous wisdom—but only as long as it stays in a form they can consume.
They’ll feature Ken Saro-Wiwa in their reading lists, but only if it fits their political agenda—or if they just want to name-drop someone with an exotic-sounding name to signal their worldliness.
They’ll praise Zera Yacob, but only if they can call him "the Ethiopian Descartes."
They’ll call themselves international, but their entire worldview remains Western at its core.
Materialist Spirituality: How the West Consumes Authenticity
What we see in the West today is not real engagement with non-Western thought—it’s materialist spirituality. A hollow, curated experience of "the other," repackaged for cultural consumption without commitment.
-They praise Eastern mysticism but live in a hyper-rationalist system.
-They romanticize indigenous wisdom but destroy the lands indigenous people live on.
-They quote African proverbs but would not survive a single day in a nomadic Ethiopian community.
This is not real engagement—it’s intellectual tourism.
The Western academic treats African thought like a rare spice in their philosophical kitchen.
Something to sprinkle on their discourse for flavor, but never the main course. They want enough multiculturalism to seem progressive, but never enough to challenge their worldview.
They don’t actually want Ethiopian philosophy.
They just want the credibility of being seen engaging with it.
They Wouldn’t Survive a Day in the Ethiopian Highlands
Let’s be honest. If these Western intellectuals were dropped into an rural Ethiopian community, they would break. No Starbucks. No comfort. No neatly organized conference panels. Just raw, untamed life.
They wouldn’t last.
Because Ethiopian philosophy wasn’t born in university halls—it was forged in the mountains, deserts, and deep-rooted traditions of a civilization that never broke under colonial rule.
The West admires what it cannot replicate, but fears what it cannot control.
That’s why Western intellectuals want African philosophy to be academic, sanitized, and footnoted.
They want to study it from a comfortable distance, in the same way they study ancient ruins—as something fascinating, but ultimately dead.
But Ethiopian philosophy isn’t dead. It never was. And it never needed their approval to exist.
Final Punchline: Call Out the Hypocrisy
The next time a Western intellectual celebrates their love for Ethiopian thought, ask them bluntly:
Do you actually admire Ethiopian Philosophy, or is it just another souvenir for your multicultural collection?
Because if all you’re doing is collecting "exotic" ideas, then you’re not engaging with African thought—you’re simply consuming it through a colonial mindset, repackaged as intellectual curiosity.
And that is the greatest intellectual fraud of all.