Valentin Mudimbe - Archaeology of Practices of Philosophy in Africa

African-American Philosophy, Race, and the Geography of Reason

Lewis Gordon

by Lewis Gordon, 2006

African-American philosophy has been one of the most recently developed areas of theoretical reflection in African-American Studies. Its emergence is in many ways marked by the  realization of many scholars that philosophy offered much to the enterprise of studying the  African diaspora, and the unique categories of thought endemic to that diaspora offers many challenges to modern and contemporary philosophy. Central in this development has been the importance of philosophical anthropology in the study of race and the challenges posed by race to our understanding of philosophical anthropology. Added to this insight is the anxiety that is a function of studying Africana communities and the ideas they stimulate. 

Biko: Africana Existentialist Philosopher

by Mabogo More, Alternation, 2004

This paper, following Lewis Gordon's extensive phenomenological work on Frantz Fanon, seeks to locate Bantu Steve biko within the philosophical terrain, more pointedly the Africana existentialist tradition.

African Philosophy: Myth and Reality

African Philosophy

by Paulin J. Hountondji

Introduction by Abiola Irele

 "Hountondji . . . writes not as an 'African' philosopher but as a philosopher on Africa. . . . Hountondji's deep understanding of any civilization as necessarily pluralistic, and often even self-contradicting as it evolves, is simply magisterial. . . . This is a precious gem of a book for anyone who wishes to reflect on civilization and culture." —Choice

In this incisive, original exploration of the nature and future of African philosophy, Paulin J. Hountondji attacks a myth popularized by ethnophilosophers such as Placide Tempels and Alexis Kagame that there is an indigenous, collective African philosophy separate and distinct from the Western philosophical tradition. Hountondji contends that ideological manifestations of this view that stress the uniqueness of the African experience are protonationalist reactions against colonialism conducted, paradoxically, in the terms of colonialist discourse.

The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy and the Order of Knowledge

by V.Y. Mudimbe 

"... groundbreaking... clear, straightforward, and economical.... seminal... " -- American Anthropologist

"This is a challenging book... a remarkable contribution to African intellectual history." -- International Journal of African Historical Studies

"Mudimbe's description of the struggles over Africa's self-invention are vivid and rewarding. From Blyden to Sartre, Temples to Senghor, Mudimbe provides a bold and versatile resume of Africa's literary inventors." -- Village Voice Literary Supplement

"... a landmark achievement in African studies."  -- Journal of Religion in Africa

Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought

by Lewis Gordon

The intellectual history of the last quarter of the 20th century has been marked by the growing influence of Africana thought - an area of philosophy that focuses on issues raised by the struggle over ideas in African cultures and their hybrid forms in Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean. This book presents an introduction to the field of Africana philosophy and aims to help define this rapidly growing field. Lewis R. Gordon introduces and discusses Africana existential thought for a general audience, covering a range of both classic and contemporary thinkers - from Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois to Frantz Fanon, Angela Davis and Naomi Zack.

An Introduction to Africana Philosophy

Lewis R. Gordon offers the first comprehensive treatment of Africana philosophy, beginning with the emergence of an Africana (i.e. African diasporic) consciousness in the Afro-Arabic world of the Middle Ages. He argues that much of modern thought emerged out of early conflicts between Islam and Christianity that culminated in the expulsion of the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula, and from the subsequent expansion of racism, enslavement, and colonialism which in their turn stimulated reflections on reason, liberation, and the meaning of being human. His book takes the student reader on a journey from Africa through Europe, North and South America, the Caribbean, and back to Africa, as he explores the challenges posed to our understanding of knowledge and freedom today, and the response to them which can be found within Africana philosophy.

Paget Henry's Caliban's Reason: Introducing Afro-Caribbean Philosophy

Caliban's Reason introduces the general reader to Afro-Caribbean philosophy. 

In this ground-breaking work, Paget Henry traces the roots of this discourse in traditional African thought and in the Christian and Enlightenment traditions of Western Europe. Since Afro-Caribbean thought is inherently hybrid in nature and marked by strong competition between its European and African orientations, Henry highlights its four main influences--traditional African philosophy, the Afro-Christian school, Poeticism and Historicism--as his organizing principle for discussion.