The Familiar Witches’ BREW’
Towards an African Philosophy of Religion
Keywords:
African Philosophy, Conceptual Decolonization, Curriculum, God, Religion, WhitenessmAbstract
This essay indicates how the idea of African philosophy – specifically, African philosophy of religion – can both expose the ‘whiteness’ of the curriculum in undergraduate philosophy programmes and offer an expanded vision of philosophy. It first highlights the Eurocentric character of the curriculum in academic degree programmes such as philosophy in the UK and beyond. Thereafter, it considers the notion of African philosophy, particularly as this has been viewed by key western philosophers to be an impossibility. The essay then outlines how postcolonial, African scholars have sought to envisage African philosophy. It is argued that the attempt to seek a pure, authentically African philosophy (pace the proponents of the negritude movement and early ethnophilosophers) is misguided. It deals with ways in which an African philosophy of religion might be configured before ending with some brief comments on certain problems raised in the attempt to deliver an intercultural curriculum.
References
UCLTV, “Why Is My Curriculum White?” Youtube, (10 December 2014).
Levinas cited by Robert Bernasconi, “African Philosophy v. Continental Philosophy” in Postcolonial African Philosophy: A Critical Reader, Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze, ed., Cambridge MA and Oxford: Blackwell, 1997, 185.
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Kant cited in Emmanuel C. Eze, “The Colour of Reason: The Idea of ‘Race’ in Kant’s Anthropology” in The African Philosophy Reader, P. H. Coetzee and A. P. J Roux, eds., London and New York: Routledge, 2003, 2nd ed., 447. When I use the term “Africans” in this essay, it is to be understood as shorthand for ‘black Africans’, i.e., peoples of subSaharan Africa.
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Jacqueline Trimier, “African Philosophy” in From Africa to Zen, 184.
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Emmanuel Y. Lartey, Postcolonializing God: An African Practical Theology, London: SCM Press, 2013, 106. Of course, it should be noted that western theology and philosophy have also challenged quantitative measurement. An example of this is Trinitarian theology.
Okot P’Bitek, Decolonizing African Religions: A Short History of African Religions in Western Scholarship, New York: Diasporic Africa Press, 2011, 30.
