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African Philosophy for the Twenty-First Century

Acts of Transition

Edited by Jean Godefroy Bidima and Laura Hengehold

In Africa, the twenty-first century began with new challenges surrounding and regarding philosophical
discourses. Questions of economic and political liberation, the displacement of populations and the process
of urbanization present ongoing challenges, linked to problems such as endemic diseases and famine, the
restructure of the traditional family, gender and the position of women, the transmission of culture from
past to future generations. Changes in labor relations resulting from introduction of financial speculation,
cutting edge technologies, and differential access to digital and older cultural forms have placed real
demands on Africans and Africanists working in philosophy.
This volume explores the ways in which African philosophies express “transitional acts,” those acts by which
thought interacts with history as it is being made and by which it assures its own renewal in proposing
provisional solutions to historical problems. A transitional act combines both the audacity of confrontation
and the novelty of creation, prudence in the face of risks and anticipation in the face of the unexpected.
Influential and emerging thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic consider this dual activity in the realm of
criticism and imagination, public spaces in Africa, and the relationship between historical politics and
historical poetics.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International

Pages: 226 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-5381-5416-8 • Hardback • November 2021 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-5381-5418-2 • Paperback • August 2023 • $40.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-5381-5417-5 • eBook • November 2021 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Political, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African Studies, Philosophy / Movements / Humanism

African Philosophy for the Twenty-First Century

Acts of Transition

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

In Africa, the twenty-first century began with new challenges surrounding and regarding philosophical
discourses. Questions of economic and political liberation, the displacement of populations and the process
of urbanization present ongoing challenges, linked to problems such as endemic diseases and famine, the
restructure of the traditional family, gender and the position of women, the transmission of culture from
past to future generations. Changes in labor relations resulting from introduction of financial speculation,
cutting edge technologies, and differential access to digital and older cultural forms have placed real
demands on Africans and Africanists working in philosophy.
This volume explores the ways in which African philosophies express “transitional acts,” those acts by which
thought interacts with history as it is being made and by which it assures its own renewal in proposing
provisional solutions to historical problems. A transitional act combines both the audacity of confrontation
and the novelty of creation, prudence in the face of risks and anticipation in the face of the unexpected.
Influential and emerging thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic consider this dual activity in the realm of
criticism and imagination, public spaces in Africa, and the relationship between historical politics and
historical poetics.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International

Pages: 226 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-5381-5416-8 • Hardback • November 2021 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-5381-5418-2 • Paperback • August 2023 • $40.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-5381-5417-5 • eBook • November 2021 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Political, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African Studies, Philosophy / Movements / Humanism

Author

Jean Godefroy Bidima is professor and Yvonne Arnoult Chair in French Studies at Tulane University.
Laura Hengehold is professor of philosophy at Case Western Reserve University.

Table of Contents

Introduction Laura Hengehold
1. What Does Being in the World Mean? Thinking Life and Domestic Bonds in Twenty-first Century Africa, Tanella Boni
2. Probing Gender Injustices in Africa, Delphine Abadie M.
3. Gender Between Kinship and Utopia, Laura Hengehold
4. The University, Cognitive Justice and Human Development, Florence Piron
5. Anthropocenes and New African Discourses: “Dwelling in the World” With Poetry and Criticism, Jean-Godefroy Bidima
6. Spectres of the Infinitesimal: Posthuman Francophone Worlds, Nick Nesbitt
7. Rethinking the Living in Light of African Philosophy: Toward an Animist Humanism,
Séverine Kodjo-Grandvaux
8. From Muntu to Moun: An African Ethicalization of Caribbean Discourse, Hanétha Vété-Congolo
9. Nelson Mandela and the Topology of African Encounter with the World, Chielozona Eze
Conclusion, Jean-Godefroy Bidima
Index

African Philosophy for the Twenty-First Century

Acts of Transition

Edited by Jean Godefroy Bidima and Laura Hengehold

African Philosophy for the Twenty-First Century

Acts of Transition

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