Philosophy and the Postcolonial Condition in Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9250027 |
|---|---|
| Authors | F Abiola Irele (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 160-170 |
| Publication date | 2004-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Research in African Literatures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-5210 • E-ISSN: 1527-2044 |
| Publisher | Indiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2979/ral.2004.35.4.160 |
| OpenAlex | W2094798397 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
Paulin Hountondji is acknowledged as the most prominent figure in the debate on African philosophy, which has been, without question, the central theme of African intellectual expression in the postindependence era. He came to attention with the publication in 1976 of Sur la philosophie africaine, a collection of essays spanning some ten years which had appeared in various journals and in which he developed a systematic critique of ethnophilosophy, a term that he employed to designate the efforts by several scholars, beginning with Placide Tempels's Bantu Philosophy (1949), to derive philosophical content and meaning from the belief systems of various Af? rican peoples. The English translation of Hountondji's collection, published in 1983 under the title African Philosophy: Myth or Reality, was widely acclaimed and won the Herskovits award ofthe African Studies Association the following year. It was reissued in 1996 in a second edition, with a new preface by the author. The present book, which represents a sequel and a complement to the 1976 collection, needs to be placed in its institutional context in order to understand its structure and to appreciate its significance. It belongs to a category of Erench academic texts without a parallel in the English-speaking world: a book-long essay written to supplement previously published works, with a view to the award of the higher State doctorate degree (Doctorat d'Etat). This category of works emerged in the early seventies as a result of reforms to the French educational system introduced after the events of May 1968. Previously, the State doctorate degree was awarded on the basis of a massive thesis that took years?indeed the best part of the candidate's professional life?to prepare. This degree was the sole determinant for entry into the upper levels of the French academic establishment and for advancement within it; in fact, French academics could not take credit for work they published before they had obtained the state doctorate degree with a standard thesis. With the post-1968
Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · African history and culture analysis · Anthropology · History
| Highly cited | No |
|---|