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Development as an Alternative to DemocracyIn Uchenna B. Okeja (ed.), Routledge Handbook of African Political Philosophy, Routledge. 2023.
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7What Ubuntu Cannot Do for South Africa and ZimbabweArụmarụka 3 (2): 80-103. 2023.Academic discourse on ubuntu, both in South Africa and Zimbabwe, coincided with the arrival of freedom in these countries. Ubuntu’s revival sought to show that there was an African alternative to the oppressive regimes that had cruelly governed both countries. This alternative was pronounced as offering a grounded beginning of the postcolonial society that would be able to humanize the African through resuscitating traditional values. These values would speak to how the African was supposed to b…Read more
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12Why Race Still MattersCritical Philosophy of Race 11 (2): 293-308. 2023.ABSTRACT While there is no proof that there are distinct races among humans, racial divisions remain alive and relevant. Discrimination feeds into racism and sponsors beliefs in differences among races. Race as a social issue and a topic of analysis is generally treated as if it were a concept that could be understood on its own terms and independently of some other issues. One of the most promising attempts at understanding race is its relation to perceptible differences between and among races…Read more
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10An Outline of the Basis of a New Afro-Communitarian Political Theory of DemocracyArụmarụka 2 (2): 86-103. 2022.My aim in this paper is to offer an explanation of the orientation I have adopted in my work on African political theory. This explanation is necessitated by some puzzlement that has arisen as a result of the commitment I have sought to pursue. The most prominent complaint has been that I must own up and claim my liberal colours (OYOWE 2015, 514). I have been asked to refrain from making communitarian thought the basis of my political thinking as my commitment to communitarianism is not as thoro…Read more
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6A Strange ConversationArụmarụka 1 (2): 132-136. 2021.Jonathan Chimakonam’s advocacy of conversational thinking has taken African philosophy by storm. It is not an exaggeration to say that no one working in African philosophy, today, can say they are unaware of the so-called Conversational Society of Philosophy. Equally, I doubt if anyone working in the field could ever say they are not aware of the name Johnathan Chimakonam. His courageous effort to advance a particular form of thinking in the African philosophical tradition is a welcome innovatio…Read more
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3Prioritization of Clashing Needsneeds in African PoliticsIn Motsamai Molefe & Christopher Allsobrook (eds.), Towards an African Political Philosophy of Needs, Springer Verlag. pp. 151-167. 2021.If we separate needs into basic and non-basic with the former characterized by the sort that relates to the security of people’s physical needs and the latter characterized by demands such as freedoms and self-determination, we could ask which of these two forms deserves more attention than the other. This question is especially pertinent on the African continent, where there seems to be a resurgence of the belief that it takes strongman tactics to fulfil the basic needs of the people. Such an a…Read more
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Values and Technological Development in an African ContextIn Beatrice Dedaa Okyere-Manu (ed.), African Values, Ethics, and Technology: Questions, Issues, and Approaches, Palgrave-macmillan. pp. 73-87. 2021.Technological development as a human episode and achievement is reflective of either an underlying spirit or orientation toward the world. That spirit also communicates the values that people, making strides in technological development, uphold either as central to their identity or as the direction they wish to see life take. In this sense, technological development is not just an aid to life but a reflection of life, its valuing, and commitments to how it is best lived. In some instances, tech…Read more
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3Exorcising the Communitarian Ghost: D.A. Masolo’s ContributionQuest - and African Journal of Philosophy 25 (1-2): 163-186. 2011.
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7Thesis -University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.
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12The Politics of Limited CommunitarianismFilosofia Theoretica 7 (2): 101-121. 2018.The debate on the communitarian notion of personhood as initiated by Gyekye, in response to Menkiti, is both exhaustive and exhausted. Its exhaustiveness and exhaustion lies in the fact that, in all probability whatever can be said around it has been said, with truly nothing new likely ever being added. What is possibly left, is the potential for further additions to be more strident in their picking of sides or repeating that Gyekye and Menkiti are not sufficiently different or insisting on the…Read more
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42Whither Epistemic DecolonizationPhilosophical Papers 49 (2): 213-231. 2020.Epistemic decolonization, in its various conceptual formulations and presentations, could be taken to hold promise for either the completion of the anti-colonial struggle or the self-re-discovery of the formerly colonized and oppressed. In Africa this project has had a long history as both a counter to hegemonic histories of claimed Western epistemological superiority as well as theories of racism and racist practices against black people of African descent. What is not entirely clear are the pr…Read more
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10Betwixt and Between: Kwasi Wiredu’s Legacy in Postcolonial African PhilosophyJournal of World Philosophies 4 (2): 61-69. 2019.While Kwasi Wiredu’s name is associated with the genesis of modern African philosophy, there are some aspects of his work that are in tension. Although Wiredu is an advocate of a modernized and science-based philosophical orientation, on the African continent, he is also equally committed to a possibility of the existence of philosophy in traditional African society. In the development of his philosophical theses, it appears that he relies on both sources for his method and argument. It is this …Read more
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36Revisiting Eze on Ubuntu: Interrogating the Priority of the Political Over the PhilosophicalPhilosophical Papers 48 (3): 471-488. 2019.Volume 48, Issue 3, November 2019, Page 471-488.
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6Afro-Communitarian DemocracyLexington Books. 2019.The book describes a new form of communitarian politics on the African continent, that is able to take seriously both individual entitlements and communitarian obligations. This is achieved by proposing a thin version of communitarianism that realizes the organic relationship between individuals and the community.
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44Revisiting Eze on Ubuntu: Interrogating the Priority of the Political Over the PhilosophicalPhilosophical Papers 48 (3): 471-488. 2019.Volume 48, Issue 3, November 2019, Page 471-488.
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11The politics of limited communitarianismFilosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions 7 (2): 101-122. 2018.The debate on the communitarian notion of personhood as initiated by Gyekye, in response to Menkiti, is both exhaustive and exhausted. Its exhaustiveness and exhaustion lies in the fact that, in all probability whatever can be said around it has been said, with truly nothing new likely ever being added. What is possibly left, is the potential for further additions to be more strident in their picking of sides or repeating that Gyekye and Menkiti are not sufficiently different or insisting on the…Read more
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8Rationality and Consensus in Kwasi Wiredu’s Traditional African PolitiesTheoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 63 (146): 36-55. 2016.The disagreement over what was responsible for arriving at consensual positions, in traditional African polities, is best captured in the classic debate between Kwasi Wiredu and Emmanuel Eze. The former holds that rational persuasion was the sole informant of decision-making while the latter argues that non-rational factors played a crucial role in securing a consensual decision. If Wiredu is correct then consensus could work in modern society as it can be argued that it does not rely on traditi…Read more
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21Quandaries of LegitimacyTheoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 57 (123): 52-76. 2010.Kwame Gyekye seeks to address the complex question of political legitimacy particularly on the African continent. He argues that the justification for political legitimacy need not necessarily depend on the economic performance of any given regime. For him, justification for legitimacy merely lies in whether all correct processes and procedures were properly followed in the assumption of power. He is of the view that military coups should not be tolerated as they lack legitimacy although they mi…Read more
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88The end of ubuntuSouth African Journal of Philosophy 32 (2): 197-205. 2013.Since the advent of democracy in South Africa, there has been a concerted effort at reviving the notion of ubuntu. Variously conceived, it is seen as the authentic African ethical concept, a way of life, an authentic mode of being African, an individual ideal, the appropriate public spirit, a definition of life itself and the preferred manner of conducting public and private business. Thus, among other public displays of the spirit of ubuntu, the government of the day has deliberately chosen its…Read more
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39A Response to Eze's critique of Wiredu's consensual democracySouth African Journal of Philosophy 28 (1): 34-42. 2009.The question of what political system best suites post colonial/independent African states remain alive and ever more pertinent particularly in the face of failed attempts at democratisation. Kwasi Wiredu notes that the adversarial nature of Western democratic practices along party political lines may not be well suited for African politics. Instead he suggests that the practice of consensual democracy as practised in the traditional Ashanti society may be more appropriate. Emmanuel Eze raises t…Read more
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6Quandaries of LegitimacyTheoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 57 (125): 52-76. 2010.Kwame Gyekye seeks to address the complex question of political legitimacy particularly on the African continent. He argues that the justification for political legitimacy need not necessarily depend on the economic performance of any given regime. For him, justification for legitimacy merely lies in whether all correct processes and procedures were properly followed in the assumption of power. He is of the view that military coups should not be tolerated as they lack legitimacy although they mi…Read more
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28Tempels' Philosophical RacialismSouth African Journal of Philosophy 30 (3): 330-342. 2011.Placide Tempels’ Bantu Philosophy has largely been met with hostility from African philosophers. Whilst Tempels intended to show that the Bantu were not only capable of thinking, but also that they had a distinct and coherent philosophy of their own, his project seems to have achieved exactly the opposite. Temples’ project sought to expose the racism of thinkers such as Lucien Levy-Bruhl, thereby raising the African to the same status as the Westerner. However, his efforts have been rejected for…Read more
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42A response to Metz's reply on the end of ubuntuSouth African Journal of Philosophy 34 (2): 214-225. 2015.
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70Radicals versus Moderates: A Critique of Gyekye's Moderate CommunitarianismSouth African Journal of Philosophy 28 (2): 160-170. 2009.The communitarian conception of person is a widely accepted view in African thought. Kwame Gyekye thinks there is a distinction between what he calls radical communitarianism and his own version of moderate communitarianism. He is of the view that radical communitarianism is faced with insurmountable problems and ought to be jettisoned in favour of his moderate communitarianism. Gyekye’s strategy is twofold; he firstly seeks to show the shortcomings of radical communitarianism – particularly by …Read more
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33The communitarian conception of person is the dominant view of personhood in African philosophy. This view centrally holds that personhood is something that is attained in direct proportion to one's moral worth and one's relations with her surrounding community. This view understands personhood as something that is acquired as one's moral responsibility grows. Essentially personhood is constituted by the community and expressed in relations that one has with her community. Thus the individual an…Read more
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16Abantu and their ethic in the face of aidsIn Gerard Walmsley (ed.), African Philosophy and the Future of Africa, Council For Research in Values and Philosophy. pp. 71. 2011.
Areas of Interest
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
African/Africana Philosophy |