Phenomenology in an African Context

Contributions and Challenges

Abraham Olivier, Malesela John Lamola, Justin Sands, Abraham Olivier, M. John Lamola, Justin Sands

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN:
  9781438494883
• Print ISBN:
  9781438494869
  9781438494876

African phenomenology is an emerging subfield within the broader domain of African and Africana philosophy. The phenomenological method, with its various approaches to studying the seminal structures and meaning of human experience, has been a cornerstone in the thought of African philosophers such as Paulin Hountondji, Tsenay Serequeberhan, Achille Mbembe, D. A. Masolo, and Mabogo More, as well as proponents of Africana philosophy such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Lucius Outlaw, and Lewis Gordon. Technically, however, the term "African phenomenology" is not used as widely, or introduced as systematically, as Africana phenomenology. This anthology aims to fill this gap by exploring contributions and challenges to phenomenology in its African context and demonstrating the differences this context makes to the practice of phenomenology. Written by some of the most eminent scholars in the field—including Hountondji, Serequeberhan, Mbembe, More, Gordon, and M. John Lamola—the sixteen original essays here address the relation of African phenomenology to African/Africana philosophy, postcolonial/decolonial discourse, and deliberations within the international phenomenological community.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part 1 Origin, Methodology, and Scope
• Part 2 Consciousness, Identity, Existence, and Embodiment
• Part 3 Art, Culture, Language, Politics, and Liberation
• Contributors
• Index
• Back Cover