Paper short abstract:

What could Europe learn from Africa? One answer could be insignificance and insouciance; two concepts that can feed, inspire and co-exist with Euro-American science. At the same time, they confront science with the wisdom of people who do not care about science.

Paper long abstract:

What might Europe learn from Africa? One answer could be insignificance and insouciance; two concepts that I attempt to develop, at the intersection of uncertainty and destiny, through a comparative discussion between my experiences in Europe since August 2021 and what would have happened in similar circumstances in my home country, Guinea. This comparison will serve to discuss the reciprocity of perspectives (in terms of knowledge production) through the prism of human interactions from four angles: i) the relationship of the human to the state with its rules and machinations, ii) the relationship of the human to the economic with its quest for monetarisation, iii) the relationship of the human to the human with its modes of socialisation and iv) the relationship of the human to knowledge with its uncertainties. I will use this comparison to question the sui generis applicability of concepts produced in non-African environments on African realities. In the end, I will argue for the emergence of new paradigms based on the postulates of insignificance and insouciance that can feed, inspire and co-exist with Euro-American science. They will, at the same time, be paradigms that confront science with the wisdom of people who don't care about science (for good reasons).