The African Symposium (ISSN TX 6-342-323)

Borrowing from other spheres of knowledge, social constructionism seems to have seeped into sociological thinking through micro-sociological theories. Unlike earlier classical and 'modern' sociological theories, micro-sociology tends to circumscribe analysis of human behavior to 'everyday sociology' and the social construction of experiential knowledge. Thus, human behavior is not perceived as being informed by a 'top-bottom' /society/individual but that in which individuals create and re-create their social situation. As such, rather than the colonial creation often adduced for the underdevelopment of Africa, the argument drops in the lap of Africans! What have they made of their independence? The paper argues that the construction of the history of sociology, in its micro-sociological bent, has continued to perpetuate the peripheral status of Africa as it delimits the impact of received knowledge in the reconstructions of African societies. In other words, it is almost inconceivable to understand the cultural creations, or otherwise, without the impact of the 'global' requirements.