Question

What is sociology? Of what relevance is sociology to contemporary African nations?

Answer 1

WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?

Sociology is a discipline that can be conventionally called social science. It has been considered as the science of society which emerged during the 19th century as a discipline to uncover the basic or fundamental laws that are responsible for various societal phenomena and studies social relationships to solve various problems of society.

Sociologists point that collection of data and evidence concerning social life helps us to develop a clear understanding of various social processes that prevail in our society. They study the daily life phenomenon of of group, administer surveys and experiments, and conduct a deep analysis of census data, videotaped interactions, and interviews to gather evidence concerning various social phenomena. By analyzing deeper details of evidence help us to understand doors social processes that have indirect relation to our personal experiences and life outcomes.

RELEVANCE OF SOCIOLOGY TO CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN NATIONS

Sociology developed as a social science disciplines to understand various phenomena that prevail in Europe to gain better understanding of social order and industrial revolutions during that time. However, in the era of classical sociology it began spreading all over the world.

In Africa, scholars didn't talk about the model of sociology. However, many researchers study the impact of colonialism in Africa. Most Africans believe that the impact of this situation was moderate, but some others believed that it was catastrophic. This phenomena intersect with concepts such as domination and exploitation. One of the major social concepts is APARTHEID in which majority of black people were given inhuman treatment and exploitation by why white people who were in the minority.

Therefore, the existence of African sociology model is a result of the domination of Western ideologies and thoughts all over Africa. This resulted in criticism against Western ideology in various educational institutions this divided the group of social Scientist into two groups. The first group involves those scientists who idealized Euro- American ideologies in various educational sectors. They never saw anything wrong with the concepts and theories that had a basis in Sociology analysis. These sociologists believe that Euro centric concepts and theories can be applied to understand the history culture and ideologies of Africa.

The other group of scientists challenged Eurocentric concepts to not only understand the historical aspects, but they also emphasized that daily life issues or emerging issues can be studied with the concepts of Euro- America.

Contemporary sociologist felt responsible to populate public libraries that had indigenous materials that had bases in African culture.

Thus, it can be considered that there is relevance of sociology in not only understanding the historical aspects but also emerging issues in Africa.