Thinking African Philosophy

The relationship between Africa and Western philosophy has long been marked by tensions and controversies. Western philosophers’ discourses on Africa have historically reflected deep colonial biases—think of Hegel, who notoriously placed Africa outside of World History. In his 1945 book Bantu Philosophy, Belgian missionary Placide Tempels famously made a case for African philosophy—albeit from a Eurocentric and paternalistic perspective. 

In contrast, contemporary African philosophers—such as Fabien Eboussi Boulaga, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze, Paulin Hountondji, Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, Ato Sekyi-Otu, and Kwasi Wiredu, among others—have critically revisited Western philosophical discourses about Africa while interrogating the very notion of African philosophy: how it has been defined, represented, and often misrepresented within global philosophical traditions. 

Is there such a thing as African philosophy? If so, what are its defining features as a situated, context-specific mode of thinking? Should one speak instead of African philosophies? What is the relationship between African philosophies and African languages? How do African philosophies position themselves vis-à-vis the colonial legacy of modernity and the imperial structures of Western knowledge production? These and other questions will be taken up by Bado Ndoye and Jamila Mascat.  

About the speakers 

Bado Ndoye is a Professor of Philosophy at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. He is the President of the Senegalese Philosophical Society and the editor-in-chief of the Senegalese Journal of Philosophy. His research covers a wide range of topics including phenomenology, epistemology, and the history of science, as well as African philosophy, postcolonial and decolonial theories, and the societal impact of digital technologies. His last book is Paulin Hountondji: Leçons de philosophie africaine (Riveneuve, 2023). 

Jamila Mascat (moderator) is an Assistant Professor of Gender and Postcolonial Studies. Her research spans the fields of Political Philosophy, Postcolonial Studies, Feminist Theories, and Critical Philosophies of Race. She has published on Hegel, Marx, postcolonial critique and Italian feminism.