May I Understand Martin Heidegger’s Words to the Nazis in the Context of the Time Since 2000?

In times of deep social troubles our so-called light holders, that is to say, the intellectuals, can be blinded by their own lights and may astonish and embarrass through their speeches and intentions to defend what is usually shocking to common sense; as if they were knocked down by the sudden uprising of a new order, they behave like those they should “teach” and lead to the lights of real development rather than the fires of destruction. Among such intellectuals, some will name the great German philosopher Martin Heidegger because of his short “connection” with the Nazi regime. They condemn him in that respect since he became engaged in that narrow politics in spite of his wide knowledge. However, amid the social and political crises I have lived through since 2000 I am, perhaps, able to understand the wide-thinking German Heidegger and his narrower political way: but how far? That is the topic of this chapter. How to be able to understand the distant Heidegger from my own doorstep? As a black African interested in German matters, particularly Heidegger’s connection with Nazism, I experienced the crisis known to some intellectuals here at home when my country Ivory Coast was confronted with a deep crisis of its own and began searching for ways and means to restore peaceful social living. Since then, I have been thinking of Heidegger’s involvement with Nazism and attempting to understand to what extent, in the name of “native blood,” intellectuals directly or indirectly take part in bloodshed or the dissemination of threat among citizens. Based on Heidegger’s example, I shall try to explain how Africa suffers from its intellectuals’ involvement in situations that destroy peace and social living, examining the example of my country since 2002.