Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:18:13.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Philosophical Sketches on African Becomings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Jean-Godefroy Bidima

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

When the “object” gazed at is called Africa and when the gazing subject is Africa, the observer cannot help but conclude that any gaze that is related to Africa is an intersection of gazes calling forth several questions: Who is looking at Africa? What is Africa looking at? Who looks at the one who is looking at Africa? Two problems emerge from this: the identification of the subject, and the discrimination among objects and themes produced by the limited scope of these gazes. If the gaze at (or of) Africa is an intersection of perspectives, these perspectives will only find stability if they are related to the African history that is in the making. This is a plural history, for geographic diversity, and the multiplicity of acting figures and sociopolitical organizations give African history a “changeable and diverse” character. Any evaluation of the relationship of Africans to their history must be an attempt, a sketch that makes no pretense of providing a unique and certain interpretation of the African lived experience (Erlebnis) by implementing the kind of controlling philosophy of history that fixes the beginning, the length, and the order of a people's history. It is more a question of restating, with the uncertainty that characterizes any evaluation of a specific history, the problem of the relationship of African history to its becomings. How, by which conditions and through which actors does this plural history speak its moments of creation today? At its heart, how does it articulate the conflicting overlap of the gravity of existing institutions and the audacity of creation? The exploration of these questions first centers around the often discussed theme of African identity (self). The stakes at this level involve the detachment of the conditions of a dynamic re-appropriation from this notion of identity - at the very moment when globalization is conjugating itself by turns in the imperative, the indicative, and the conditional. Next, the examination will focus on relationships to otherness (the other). How can intersubjective relations be declined differently?

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 46 , Issue 184 , December 1998 , pp. 169 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

African Philosophy: A Concise Bibliography

Abraham, W.E. The Mind of Africa. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1963.Google Scholar
Anyanwu, L.-C., and Ruch, E.A.. African Philosophy. Rome, Officium Libri Cath, 1981.Google Scholar
Appiah, K.-A. In My Father's House, Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. New York, Oxford University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Bahoken, J.C. Clarières métaphysiques africaines. Paris, Présence africaine, 1967.Google Scholar
de Beer, C.-S., and Mouoton, J.. Philosophy in South Africa. Prétoria, Hum. Research Council, 1988.Google Scholar
Beidelman, T.O. Moral Imagination in Kaguru Modes of Thought. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Bidima, J.-G. Théorie critique et modernité négro-africaine. De l'École de Francfort à la “docta spes africana”. Paris, Publ. de la Sorbonne “Philosophie,” 1993CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bidima, J.-G., La philosophie négro-africaine, Paris, PUF, 1995.Google Scholar
Bodunrin, P., ed. Philosophy in Africa: Trends and Perspectives. Ife/Ile, Nigeria, University of Ife Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Burns, D. African Education, London, 1965.Google Scholar
Mbenga, Bwanga Wa. Philosophie du langage d'Alexis Kagame: contribution à la problématique sur la philosophie africaine. Ottignies, Noraf, 1988.Google Scholar
Degenaar, J. The Myth of African Nation. Le Cap, Idasa Occaisional Papers, 40, 1991.Google Scholar
Dieng, A.A. Contribution à l'étude des problèmes philosophiques en Afrique noire. Paris, Nubia, 1983.Google Scholar
Dieng, A.A., Le marxisme et l'Afrique noire. Paris, Nubia, 1985.Google Scholar
Dubois, W. E. B. A Vindication of the Negro-Race. New York, 1897.Google Scholar
Eboussi Boulaga, F. La Crise du Muntu. Authenticité africaine et philosophie. Paris, Présence africaine, 1977.Google Scholar
Elungu, E.-P. L'éveil philosophique africain. Paris, L'Harmattan, 1984.Google Scholar
Elungu, E.-P. —. Tradition africaine et rationalité moderne. Paris, L'Harmattan, 1987.Google Scholar
Floistad, G. (ed.), Contemporary Philosophy: a New Survey. Vol. 5 of African philosophy. Dordrecht, Nijhoff Publishers, 1987.Google Scholar
Guissé Mbargane, Y. Philosophie, culture et devenir social en Afrique. Dakar, Nea, 1980.Google Scholar
Gyeke, K. An Essay on African Philosophical Thought, the Akan Conceptual Scheme. London, Cambridge University Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Hallen, Sodipo, Knowledge Belief and Witchcraft. London, Ethnographica, 1986.Google Scholar
Harris, L. Philosophy Born of Struggle: Anthology of Afro-American philosophy from 1917. Dubuque, Iowa, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 1983.Google Scholar
Hountondji, P. Bilan de la recherche philosophique africaine: répertoire alphabétique. Vol. 1. Cotonou, Cip, 1987.Google Scholar
Hountondji, P., Sur la philosophie africaine. Paris, Maspero, 1976.Google Scholar
Kagame, A. La philosophie bantu comparée. Paris, Présence africaine, 1976.Google Scholar
Kagame, A. —. La philosophie bantu rwandaise de l'Etre. Brussels, Arsc, 1956.Google Scholar
Kimmerle, H. Philosophie in Afrika: Afrikanische Philosophie. Frankfurt, Qumran, 1990.Google Scholar
Kinyongo, J. Epiphanies de la philosophie africaine et afro-américaine. Munich/Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Publications Universitaires africaines, 1989.Google Scholar
Laleye, I.P. La conception de la personne dans la pensée traditionelle yomba, approche “phénoménologique”. Berne, Peter Lang, 1970.Google Scholar
Laleye, I.P., La philosophie? Pourquoi en Afrique? Berne, Peter Lang 1975.Google Scholar
Lufuluabo, F.M. Vers une théodicée bantoue. Tournai, Casterman, 1962.Google Scholar
Makarakiza, A. La dialectique des Burundi. Brussels, Arsc, 1959.Google Scholar
Masolo, D. African Philosophy in Search of Identity. Indiana University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Maurier, H. Philosophie de L'Afrique noire. St Augustin, Anthropos, 1985.Google Scholar
Mbiti, J. Religions et philosophies africaines. Ydé, Clé, 1981.Google Scholar
Molefi, K.A. Afrocentricity. Trenton, Africa World Press Inc., 1989.Google Scholar
Mudimbe, V.Y., ed. The Surreptitious Speech, Présence Africaine and the Politics of Otherness 1947-1982. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Mudimbe, V.Y., The Invention of Africa. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Mujynya, E. L'homme dans l'univers des Bantu. Lubumbashi, Puz, 1972.Google Scholar
Ndaw, A. La pensée africaine. Dakar, Nea, 1983.Google Scholar
Neugebauer, C. Einfiihrung in die Afrikanische Philosophie. African University Studies. Munich, 1989.Google Scholar
Ngal-Docekal, H., Wimmer, F.M., and Neugebauer, S.. Postkoloniales philosophieren: Afrika. Vienne, R. Oldenburg, 1992.Google Scholar
Ngoenha, S. O retorno do bom selvagem, una perspectiva filosofica-africana do problema ecologico, Porto, Salesianas, 1994.Google Scholar
Niekerke, A. Rasionaliteir en relativisme. Prétoria, HSRC, 1993.Google Scholar
Njoku, J. Traditionalism vs. Modernism at Death. Ed. Melen 1988, Lubumbashi, Publications Universitaires africaines 1989.Google Scholar
Njoroge, R.G., and Bennars, G.A.. Philosophy and Education in Africa. Nairobi, Transafrican Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Oleko, Nkombe. Métaphore et métonymie dans les symboles paréimmologiques. L'Intersubjectivité dans les proverbes Tetela. Kinshasa, Faculté de théologie catholique, 1979.Google Scholar
Nkrumah, K. Le consciencisme, Paris, Présence africaine, 1976.Google Scholar
Obenga, T. La philosophie africaine de la période pharaonique, Paris, L'Harmattan, 1990.Google Scholar
Ochieng-Odhiambo, E. African Philosophy, an Introduction. Nairobi, Consolata Institute of Philosophy Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Okechukwu, R. African Symbols, Proverbs and Myths, The Hermeneutics of Destiny. Frankfurt, Peter Lang, 1994.Google Scholar
Olela, H. An Introduction to the History of Philosophy: from Ancient Afrika to Ancient Greece. Atlanta, Georgia, Select Publishing Co., 1980.Google Scholar
Oruka, H.O., Ojwang, J.B., and Mugambi, J.K.N.. The Rational Path. Nairobi, Standard Textbooks Publishers, 1989.Google Scholar
Oruka, O., and Masolo, D.. Philosophy and Cultures. Nairobi, Bookwise Publishers, 1983.Google Scholar
Oruka, O. (ed.), Philosophy, Humanity and Ecology, Philosophy of Nature and Environment Ethics. Acts Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Oruka, O. Ethics. Nairobi University Press, 1990Google Scholar
Oruka, O. —. The Philosophy of Liberty, an Essay on Political Philosophy. Nairobi, Text Books and Graphics, 1991Google Scholar
Oruka, O., Sage Philosophy. Nairobi, ACTS Press, 1990CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oruka, O., Trends in Contemporary African Philosophy. Nairobi, Shirikon Publ., 1990.Google Scholar
Outlaw, L. On Race and Philosophy. New York, Routledge, 1996.Google Scholar
Percy, E. Johnston. Afro-American Philosophies. New Jersey, Montclair State Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Rauche, G.-A. Selected Philosophical Papers. University of Fort Hare Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Ruwa'ichi, T. The Constitution of Muntu. Frankfurt, Peter Lang, 1990.Google Scholar
Serequeberhan, T. The Constitution of Muntu. New York, Paragon House, 1991.Google Scholar
Shutte, A. Philosophy in Africa. University of Cape Town Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Smet, A.-J. Philosophie africaine. 2 vols. Kinshasa, Puz, 1975.Google Scholar
Smet, A.-J. Philosophie africaine, Textes choisis. 2 vols. Kinshasa, Puz, 1972.Google Scholar
Sumner, C. The Book of the Wise Philosophers. Addis Ababa, Central Printing Press, 1974.Google Scholar
Tempels, P. La philosophie bantoue. Paris, Présence africaine, 2nd edition, 1949.Google Scholar
Theron, S. Africa, Philosophy and the Western Tradition. Frankfurt, Peter Lang, 1995.Google Scholar
Thiam, A. Parole aux négresses. Paris, Denoël/Gonthier, 1978.Google Scholar
Towa, M. Essai sur la problématique philosophique dans l'Afrique actuelle. Yaoundé, Clé, 1971.Google Scholar
Towa, M. —. L'idée d'une philosophie négro-africaine. Yaoundé, Clé, 1979.Google Scholar
Wiredu, K. Philosophy and African Culture. London, Cambridge University Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Wright, R. African Philosophy: an Introduction. Washington, University Press of America, 1977.Google Scholar