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A Post-Colonial Reconstruction of Africa

Pieter H. Coetzee

A Post-Colonial Reconstruction of Africa surveys the significant reconstruction work undertaken in the social and political organization of sub-Saharan African society in the decades following the colonial interruption and subjects these efforts to rigorous criticism in order to establish whether they can carry the weight of modernization efforts in Africa. To examine the significant trends, it highlights the work of African intellectuals such as Kwasi Wiredu, Kwame Gyekye, Paulin Hountondji, Kwame Nkrumah, Anthony Appiah, Ato Sekyi-Otu, and Bernard Matolino. Pieter H. Coetzee argues that reconstruction inspired by traditional communitarian systems of social organization, including the modified form presented by Matolino, do not adequately do justice to the liberty aspirations of individuals in an era when the demand for increased democratization has become globally paramount. Reconstruction efforts inspired by appeal to native traditions of liberalism, including native conceptions of individual rights, fare better in this regard. However, current reconstruction efforts have done little to rescue Africans from the negative economic effects of colonialism and neo-colonialism and fail to alleviate self-perception problems created by Western racism. Appiah’s cosmopolitan option and Sekyi-Otu’s left universalism are notable exceptions.

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Lexington Books
Pages: 242 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼
978-1-7936-5569-1 • Hardback • February 2024 • $100.00 • (£77.00)
978-1-7936-5570-7 • eBook • February 2024 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Series: African Philosophy: Critical Perspectives and Global Dialogue
Subjects: Philosophy / African, Social Science / Sociology / General, History / Africa / South / General

Pieter H. Coetzee is an independent scholar and retired lecturer in philosophy at the University of South Africa.

Chapter 1: How Tradition made way for the Modern—The Search for the Native Universal and an Inclusive Notion of the Modern

Chapter 2: Kwasi Wiredu—Traditional Communitarianism

Chapter 3: Kwame Gyekye—Moderate Communitarianism

Chapter 4: The Liberty Limits of Communitarianism—A Critique of Gyekye’s Alternative to Wiredu

Chapter 5: Paulin Hountondji—Marx, Individualism and Pluralism, and the Critical Celebration of Nkrumah’s socialism

Chapter 6: How McClendon’s African American Idea of Race might have primed Hountondji’s attack on Colonial Exploitation—An Appreciation of the limits of Hountondji’s Lament with Special Reference to South Africa

Chapter 7: Kwame Anthony Appiah—Liberal Cosmopolitanism

Chapter 8: Ato Sekyi-Otu’s Left Universalism and Mogobe Ramose: Rethinking the Post-Apartheid state—Outline of an Alternative to Appiah’s Cosmopolitan Solution

Chapter 9: The Return of the Communitarians

In this illuminating scholarly text, Coetzee challenges Western, Eurocentric claims to exclusivity in philosophical discourse by drawing on pioneers of African philosophy such as Kwasi Wiredu, Kwame Gyekye, Paulin Hountondji, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Mogobe Ramose, Ato Sekyi-Otu, and Bernard Matolino. Embedded in their African-centered logical and epistemic frameworks are interpretations of what have been identified as African communitarianism (traditional, moderate, and otherwise) and variations of liberal cosmopolitanism. By exposing readers to these luminaries of African philosophy, the author highlights African philosophical discourse in its complexity and, in the process, discusses the implications of such intellectual engagement for the postcolonial era. Land rights, reparations for past injustices, affirmative action, and the fundamental reconceptualization of civil society are among the complex web of inherited anomalies and prescriptions that the philosophers directly and indirectly contemplate. Granted, the sages, including the author, are caught between the quest for Black communitarian democracy and restitution on the one hand, and the theoretical preoccupation with individual rights and a so-called raceless identity on the other. Recommended. General readers, advanced undergraduates through faculty, and professionals.


— Choice Reviews


A Post-Colonial Reconstruction of Africa

Cover Image
Hardback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • A Post-Colonial Reconstruction of Africa surveys the significant reconstruction work undertaken in the social and political organization of sub-Saharan African society in the decades following the colonial interruption and subjects these efforts to rigorous criticism in order to establish whether they can carry the weight of modernization efforts in Africa. To examine the significant trends, it highlights the work of African intellectuals such as Kwasi Wiredu, Kwame Gyekye, Paulin Hountondji, Kwame Nkrumah, Anthony Appiah, Ato Sekyi-Otu, and Bernard Matolino. Pieter H. Coetzee argues that reconstruction inspired by traditional communitarian systems of social organization, including the modified form presented by Matolino, do not adequately do justice to the liberty aspirations of individuals in an era when the demand for increased democratization has become globally paramount. Reconstruction efforts inspired by appeal to native traditions of liberalism, including native conceptions of individual rights, fare better in this regard. However, current reconstruction efforts have done little to rescue Africans from the negative economic effects of colonialism and neo-colonialism and fail to alleviate self-perception problems created by Western racism. Appiah’s cosmopolitan option and Sekyi-Otu’s left universalism are notable exceptions.

Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 242 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼
    978-1-7936-5569-1 • Hardback • February 2024 • $100.00 • (£77.00)
    978-1-7936-5570-7 • eBook • February 2024 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
    Series: African Philosophy: Critical Perspectives and Global Dialogue
    Subjects: Philosophy / African, Social Science / Sociology / General, History / Africa / South / General
Author
Author
  • Pieter H. Coetzee is an independent scholar and retired lecturer in philosophy at the University of South Africa.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Chapter 1: How Tradition made way for the Modern—The Search for the Native Universal and an Inclusive Notion of the Modern

    Chapter 2: Kwasi Wiredu—Traditional Communitarianism

    Chapter 3: Kwame Gyekye—Moderate Communitarianism

    Chapter 4: The Liberty Limits of Communitarianism—A Critique of Gyekye’s Alternative to Wiredu

    Chapter 5: Paulin Hountondji—Marx, Individualism and Pluralism, and the Critical Celebration of Nkrumah’s socialism

    Chapter 6: How McClendon’s African American Idea of Race might have primed Hountondji’s attack on Colonial Exploitation—An Appreciation of the limits of Hountondji’s Lament with Special Reference to South Africa

    Chapter 7: Kwame Anthony Appiah—Liberal Cosmopolitanism

    Chapter 8: Ato Sekyi-Otu’s Left Universalism and Mogobe Ramose: Rethinking the Post-Apartheid state—Outline of an Alternative to Appiah’s Cosmopolitan Solution

    Chapter 9: The Return of the Communitarians

Reviews
Reviews
  • In this illuminating scholarly text, Coetzee challenges Western, Eurocentric claims to exclusivity in philosophical discourse by drawing on pioneers of African philosophy such as Kwasi Wiredu, Kwame Gyekye, Paulin Hountondji, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Mogobe Ramose, Ato Sekyi-Otu, and Bernard Matolino. Embedded in their African-centered logical and epistemic frameworks are interpretations of what have been identified as African communitarianism (traditional, moderate, and otherwise) and variations of liberal cosmopolitanism. By exposing readers to these luminaries of African philosophy, the author highlights African philosophical discourse in its complexity and, in the process, discusses the implications of such intellectual engagement for the postcolonial era. Land rights, reparations for past injustices, affirmative action, and the fundamental reconceptualization of civil society are among the complex web of inherited anomalies and prescriptions that the philosophers directly and indirectly contemplate. Granted, the sages, including the author, are caught between the quest for Black communitarian democracy and restitution on the one hand, and the theoretical preoccupation with individual rights and a so-called raceless identity on the other. Recommended. General readers, advanced undergraduates through faculty, and professionals.


    — Choice Reviews


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