Dennis Masaka
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 653133 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Dennis Masaka |
| PRENOMES | Dennis |
| SOBRENOME | Masaka |
| ASSINATURA | MASAKA D |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Great Zimbabwe University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6775-6046 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 15 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 7 |
| OBRAS COMO AUTOR | 15 |
| OBRAS COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2012 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 2 |
A philosophical critique of Menkiti’s human memory-dependent ancestral persistence thesis
Overcoming epistemic injustice in Africa
How could epistemic injustice in Africa be overcome effectively? To answer this question, it will be shown how changing the epistemic system that informs knowledge projects in Africa can help to overcome epistemic injustice and, ultimately, attain genuine epistemic justice. The article shows that it is necessary to carry out a critical appraisal of barriers that could potentially derail the epistemic system change thesis. That is, the thesis that…
Ubuntu as Belonging to Community and the Challenge of Afrophobia in Sub-Saharan Africa
I approach Afrophobia differently from its predominant representation in extant literature, where it is taken as a problem of migrant-receiving countries. Instead, I defend an underemphasized dimension, where it is a problem of colonial origin, implicating migrant-receiving and migrant-sending countries in sub-Saharan Africa-which has endured colonialism and its successor version, neocolonialism or coloniality, and its associated problems. I take…
A Critique of Oyowe’s Mind-Dependent Ancestral Persistence Thesis
This article reacts to Oyowe’s understanding of the personal existence of ancestral persons as real mind-dependent entities. The article’s author’s contention is that Oyowe has not managed to rule out the alternative that the author is sympathetic to, namely, that ancestral persons are real mind-independent entities that continue to exist even when, through forgetfulness, they cease to exist in the memory of humans. This article calls Oyowe’s min…
Political violence in Africa and the search for an ideal democracy model
What could be a more compelling model of democracy for countries in Africa if they are to work towards avoiding the vice of political violence, which has been blamed on the operations of majoritarian democracy? After showing that majoritarian democracy that has been touted as an ideal model for countries in Africa and other geopolitical centres has been associated with elections-related political violence in the conduct of political parties, Kwas…
Book Roundtable
Oritsegbubemi Anthony Oyowe. 2022. Menkiti's Moral Man. London: Lexington Books
Knowledge, Power, and the Search for Epistemic Liberation in Africa
In this paper, I show that the strong relations of knowledge, power and liberation are worth reassessing and clarifying in light of the indigenous people of Africa’s quest for epistemic liberation. I argue that knowledge confers power to its producers that might be inappropriately deployed to impose an inferior status to those contentiously considered incapable of producing it. This has often been the character of relations of cultures where thos…
Towards a more inclusive idea of world government
In this paper, I consider how a world government constructed from the perspectives of both the global North and the global South could be a more promising one as it seeks to challenge the idea of world government constructed principally from the perspective of one geopolitical centre. I will call this position the ‘inclusive world government paradigm’. Specifically, after giving a brief presentation of some reasons behind the construction of a wo…
Kwasi Wiredu’s consensual democracy and one-party polities in Africa
How justified are those who think that the clamour for one-party politics in Africa was inspired by the character of African consensual democracy such as the one defended by Kwasi Wiredu? I show that though Wiredu’s consensual democracy may share some similarities with a one-party polity, it does not necessarily follow that it has inspired the emergence of one-party polities in Africa. Similarly, the absence of any discernible similarities betwee…
Attaining epistemic justice through transformation and decolonisation of education curriculum in Africa
In this paper, I explore the position that the transformation and decolonisation of the education curriculum in Africa constitute a way of attaining epistemic justice. I present the argument that epistemic justice ought to surpass this parameter and lead to the awakening of the agency of learners, such that they contribute meaningfully to the determination of their own destiny in life. This dimension has been largely neglected, as defenders of de…
The Prospects of Ending Epistemicide in Africa
In this article, I seek to explore the prospects of ending epistemicide in Africa. The literature that challenges epistemicide in Africa largely addresses epistemicide’s impact on the indigenous people of Africa’s knowledge paradigm and call for its reversal. I argue that not much has been written in regard to the prospects of ending epistemicide in Africa. I regard this task as necessary given that the dominance of one epistemological paradigm i…
Person, Personhood and Individual Rights in Menkiti’s African Communitarian Thinking
In this article, I argue that individuals could be entitled to rights, outside those that are communally conferred, as part of the primary requirement of being ‘persons’ in the African communitarian set-up if the terms ‘person’ and ‘personhood’ are understood differently from the way they are currently deployed in the communitarian discourse. The distinction between these two terms is the basis of my thesis where clarity on their meanings could b…
Challenging epistemicide through transformation and Africanisation of the philosophy curriculum in Africa
The position that I defend in this article is that the transformation and Africanisation of the philosophy curriculum in universities in Africa is necessary in order to reverse epistemicide. It is necessary because the present philosophy curriculum in universities in Africa is predominantly Eurocentric in its content. As a result, it curiously excludes the philosophy of the indigenous people of Africa. This status quo calls for a fundamental chan…
Pitting Market Economy Against Planned Economy
Since independence in 1980, Zimbabwe has swung between state-dominated and free-market development strategies. Both have proved problematic, because policy is influenced by regional and global factors and cannot be implemented in isolation. The external impacts of, first, apartheid destabilization, then World Bank neoliberalism, and now sanctions have combined with counterproductive political and economic decisions taken by government to create s…
Nicknaming as a Mode of Black Resistance
This article focuses on the nicknaming of White farmers by indigenous Black people of Zimbabwe as one way through which they expressed their utter discontentment about the way White settlers treated indigenous Black farmworkers and surrounding Black communities during and after the colonial era. It notes that such nicknames played a vital communicative role that reflected the nature of the existing relations between White farmers and Black indige…
Attaining epistemic justice through transformation and decolonisation of education curriculum in Africa
In this paper, I explore the position that the transformation and decolonisation of the education curriculum in Africa constitute a way of attaining epistemic justice. I present the argument that epistemic justice ought to surpass this parameter and lead to the awakening of the agency of learners, such that they contribute meaningfully to the determination of their own destiny in life. This dimension has been largely neglected, as defenders of de…
Person, Personhood and Individual Rights in Menkiti’s African Communitarian Thinking
In this article, I argue that individuals could be entitled to rights, outside those that are communally conferred, as part of the primary requirement of being ‘persons’ in the African communitarian set-up if the terms ‘person’ and ‘personhood’ are understood differently from the way they are currently deployed in the communitarian discourse. The distinction between these two terms is the basis of my thesis where clarity on their meanings could b…
Challenging epistemicide through transformation and Africanisation of the philosophy curriculum in Africa
The position that I defend in this article is that the transformation and Africanisation of the philosophy curriculum in universities in Africa is necessary in order to reverse epistemicide. It is necessary because the present philosophy curriculum in universities in Africa is predominantly Eurocentric in its content. As a result, it curiously excludes the philosophy of the indigenous people of Africa. This status quo calls for a fundamental chan…
Nicknaming as a Mode of Black Resistance
This article focuses on the nicknaming of White farmers by indigenous Black people of Zimbabwe as one way through which they expressed their utter discontentment about the way White settlers treated indigenous Black farmworkers and surrounding Black communities during and after the colonial era. It notes that such nicknames played a vital communicative role that reflected the nature of the existing relations between White farmers and Black indige…
Pitting Market Economy Against Planned Economy
Since independence in 1980, Zimbabwe has swung between state-dominated and free-market development strategies. Both have proved problematic, because policy is influenced by regional and global factors and cannot be implemented in isolation. The external impacts of, first, apartheid destabilization, then World Bank neoliberalism, and now sanctions have combined with counterproductive political and economic decisions taken by government to create s…
Challenging epistemicide through transformation and Africanisation of the philosophy curriculum in Africa
The position that I defend in this article is that the transformation and Africanisation of the philosophy curriculum in universities in Africa is necessary in order to reverse epistemicide. It is necessary because the present philosophy curriculum in universities in Africa is predominantly Eurocentric in its content. As a result, it curiously excludes the philosophy of the indigenous people of Africa. This status quo calls for a fundamental chan…
The Prospects of Ending Epistemicide in Africa
In this article, I seek to explore the prospects of ending epistemicide in Africa. The literature that challenges epistemicide in Africa largely addresses epistemicide’s impact on the indigenous people of Africa’s knowledge paradigm and call for its reversal. I argue that not much has been written in regard to the prospects of ending epistemicide in Africa. I regard this task as necessary given that the dominance of one epistemological paradigm i…
Person, Personhood and Individual Rights in Menkiti’s African Communitarian Thinking
In this article, I argue that individuals could be entitled to rights, outside those that are communally conferred, as part of the primary requirement of being ‘persons’ in the African communitarian set-up if the terms ‘person’ and ‘personhood’ are understood differently from the way they are currently deployed in the communitarian discourse. The distinction between these two terms is the basis of my thesis where clarity on their meanings could b…
Kwasi Wiredu’s consensual democracy and one-party polities in Africa
How justified are those who think that the clamour for one-party politics in Africa was inspired by the character of African consensual democracy such as the one defended by Kwasi Wiredu? I show that though Wiredu’s consensual democracy may share some similarities with a one-party polity, it does not necessarily follow that it has inspired the emergence of one-party polities in Africa. Similarly, the absence of any discernible similarities betwee…
Attaining epistemic justice through transformation and decolonisation of education curriculum in Africa
In this paper, I explore the position that the transformation and decolonisation of the education curriculum in Africa constitute a way of attaining epistemic justice. I present the argument that epistemic justice ought to surpass this parameter and lead to the awakening of the agency of learners, such that they contribute meaningfully to the determination of their own destiny in life. This dimension has been largely neglected, as defenders of de…
Knowledge, Power, and the Search for Epistemic Liberation in Africa
In this paper, I show that the strong relations of knowledge, power and liberation are worth reassessing and clarifying in light of the indigenous people of Africa’s quest for epistemic liberation. I argue that knowledge confers power to its producers that might be inappropriately deployed to impose an inferior status to those contentiously considered incapable of producing it. This has often been the character of relations of cultures where thos…
Towards a more inclusive idea of world government
In this paper, I consider how a world government constructed from the perspectives of both the global North and the global South could be a more promising one as it seeks to challenge the idea of world government constructed principally from the perspective of one geopolitical centre. I will call this position the ‘inclusive world government paradigm’. Specifically, after giving a brief presentation of some reasons behind the construction of a wo…
Book Roundtable
Oritsegbubemi Anthony Oyowe. 2022. Menkiti's Moral Man. London: Lexington Books
A Critique of Oyowe’s Mind-Dependent Ancestral Persistence Thesis
This article reacts to Oyowe’s understanding of the personal existence of ancestral persons as real mind-dependent entities. The article’s author’s contention is that Oyowe has not managed to rule out the alternative that the author is sympathetic to, namely, that ancestral persons are real mind-independent entities that continue to exist even when, through forgetfulness, they cease to exist in the memory of humans. This article calls Oyowe’s min…
Political violence in Africa and the search for an ideal democracy model
What could be a more compelling model of democracy for countries in Africa if they are to work towards avoiding the vice of political violence, which has been blamed on the operations of majoritarian democracy? After showing that majoritarian democracy that has been touted as an ideal model for countries in Africa and other geopolitical centres has been associated with elections-related political violence in the conduct of political parties, Kwas…
Overcoming epistemic injustice in Africa
How could epistemic injustice in Africa be overcome effectively? To answer this question, it will be shown how changing the epistemic system that informs knowledge projects in Africa can help to overcome epistemic injustice and, ultimately, attain genuine epistemic justice. The article shows that it is necessary to carry out a critical appraisal of barriers that could potentially derail the epistemic system change thesis. That is, the thesis that…
Ubuntu as Belonging to Community and the Challenge of Afrophobia in Sub-Saharan Africa
I approach Afrophobia differently from its predominant representation in extant literature, where it is taken as a problem of migrant-receiving countries. Instead, I defend an underemphasized dimension, where it is a problem of colonial origin, implicating migrant-receiving and migrant-sending countries in sub-Saharan Africa-which has endured colonialism and its successor version, neocolonialism or coloniality, and its associated problems. I take…
A philosophical critique of Menkiti’s human memory-dependent ancestral persistence thesis
Sociology (11 obras) · African cultural and philosophical studies (10 obras) · Philosophy (9 obras) · Political science (9 obras) · Epistemology (7 obras) · Law (7 obras) · Indigenous (5 obras) · Politics (5 obras) · Environmental ethics (4 obras) · Political economy (4 obras)