African Political Philosophy Research Articles

On the idea of freedom in modern African political philosophy

AbstractWhen Liberia, at its inception, adopted for her motto, “The Love of Freedom Brought Us Here,” they were registering their embrace of a core tenet of modernity: the idea that freedom was the primary state of humanity and that any form of social living that turned this free being into a bonded phenomenon, forces it to obey dictates and laws not of its own choosing, to bow before rulers it had no hand in electing, and to live at the behest of another must stand condemned. They were merely the latest, back then, instantiation of Africans as singers of freedom's song in the modern age. Unfortunately, neither theirs nor earlier iterations in the Haitian Revolution, much less later contributions by other Africans in the continent, are to be found routinely, if at all, in the annals of modern philosophy. In this essay, I bring to our awareness how African thinkers have domesticated the idea of freedom as a legacy of modernity in their world. This is one of the bodies of work that is obscured by the wall that I argue, in Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously (Hurst Publishers, 2022), decolonizers have erected in their mistaking, wittingly or unwittingly, modernity for colonialism and/or Westernization.

Towards an African Political Philosophy of Needs, edited by Motsamai Molefe and Christopher Allsobrook

Towards and African Political Philosophy of Needs (2021) is an edited collection of ten chapters on the topic of needs in contemporary African political and social philosophy. In the introductory chapter of this collection the editors, Motsamai Molefe and Christopher Allsobrook, align this project with the post-independence thought of Africa in the 1950s and 1960s: ‘We have in mind leaders like Nkrumah, Senghor, Nyerere, Awolowo, Kuanda and Sekou Toure’ (2021, p. 5). These were all leaders in newly independent African nations and serious political thinkers—the ‘philosopher kings’ (Molefe & Allsobrook 2021, p. 5 citing Wiredu). This alignment is salient. The decolonial era of African political and social thought is distinguished by enormous creativity and energy to reimagine society and the state. Thinkers and leaders in this period were witnessing the shift from colonialism to independence. Within that context, the prospect of serious social reimagining seemed very much within grasp. Creative political thinking was also essential, argues Aimé Césaire in his speech at Le Premier Congrès International des Ecrivains et Artistes Noirs (The Congress of Black Writers and Artists) in 1956—a meeting in Paris of the African intellectual diaspora of the time, several of whom would go on to become the leaders of post-colonial Africa, including some listed by Molefe and Allsobrook above. Césaire calls for a reimaging of African cultural life, including political culture. His argument is that culture had been destroyed under colonialism and that there was no prospect of going back to what had come before. Even if it was possible to return, his position is that this would not be desirable, given the stagnating effect of colonialism (Césaire, 1956/2010). Something new was required.

Decolonisation: African Political thought

African political thought is fundamentally rooted in African heritage and culture. It is a frontal assault against the imperial powers of Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and the Union of South Africa, which denied the diverse African peoples of their right to self-government. Thus, the political concepts of African leaders at various times and places were intended to be last attacks against the denial of the basic human rights of the people. At the period, political thinking centred on two major threats to African states and the continent: colonialism and racism. In African Political Thought, the notion of Decolonization is best investigated and analysed in the context of its processes. Any attention that was paid to the African past highlighted the savage character of intergroup interactions. As colonial education was influenced by the need to explain the ills of colonialism, African history was filled with European discoveries of Africa. In order to rectify this anomaly, the concepts of Pan-Africanism and Negritude were developed within an African setting. These concepts aided in reinforcing the significance of African heritage despite the European invasion. This research seeks to investigate the origins of African political philosophy and the decolonization process in certain African locations. The major source of data collecting is secondary sources.

Locating rights in the afro-communitarian scheme: Testing the compatibilist argument

In this paper, I explore the relationship between individual rights and duties within the Afro-communitarian discourse in African political philosophy. The notion of individual rights is prominent in modern African political philosophy, which is usually used to refer to the tension between community and individual in Afro-communitarianism. In this paper, I specifically focus on this question: Can Afro-communitarianism ground a plausible conception of individual rights that will be of benefit to modern African societies? I will discuss two approaches within the Afro-communitarian discourse that have offered a response to this question. On the one hand, are the duty-based incompatibilists who defend the primacy of duties over individual rights and claim that Afro-communitarianism is incompatible with individual rights. On the other hand, are the rights-based compatibilists who claim that Afro-communitarianism is compatible with individual rights by according to rights and duties equal status in African political philosophy. In this paper, I will take issues with the latter. First, I argue that rights-based compatibilists have not been able to locate individual rights in Afro-communitarianism beyond selective rights granted to a few persons by the community. Second, I argue that some rights-based compatibilists ground their theory of rights on an idea of community that is not communitarian. With these arguments, I establish that rights-based compatibilism does not dislodge the claims of duty-based incompatibilism.

Doing African political philosophy from a universalist perspective

AbstractThere has been a strong impetus to set the definitional parameters of study in African political philosophy and theory. Many scholars advance the idea of a discipline intended to provide lessons that stem from “original” African moral, ideological, and political traditions. Often, these traditions and their ideas are presented as holding categorical moral substance in so far as they are seen to be specific to a culturally essentialist understanding of “Africa.” In turn, an influential part of the literature estimates the normative value of the intellectual ideas and arguments afforded by a varied historical, socio‐cultural and economic African geography by the degree to which, in being tethered to a seemingly homogenous, “culturally African” influence, these ideas can be opposed to a “Western” equivalent. In this article, I argue that the effects on the discipline of attending to, and being defined by, this cultural essentialism are at best unclear, at worst detrimental. I aim to contribute to the side of those who advocate a universalist perspective to the study of African political philosophy and thought, and who argue for jettisoning an unhelpful dichotomy between “West” and “African,” in favour of a methodological, conceptual and historical specificity that allows the discipline to be truly useful to itself and to others.

Afropolitanism and the search for identity in Africa

The search for identity is at the core of African political philosophy. This has moved from its essentialist enclave to recent calls for cosmopolitanism or Afropolitanism in the African context. This article takes a critical look at Afropolitanism. While it accepts that Afropolitanism is important because of the nature of modern society, it queries Afropolitanism in the context of the peculiar nature of African nations that are still mere geographical territories in search of national identities. Hence, it argues that Afropolitanism alone will not be enough as a basis to construct African identity, rather it may worsen bourgeoning African identity crises.

Moderate communitarianism and the prospect of an African political philosophy of needs

The social, cultural and economic history of Africa informs the various political narratives on the continent. Among these narratives birthing various intellectual discourses are the questions of personhood and communitarianism, socialism, independence, decolonisation and ubuntu. Implicit in these discourses, yet less theorised, is an African political philosophy of needs. By an African political philosophy of needs, I refer to a political philosophy that theorises about the social, economic and political realities in Africa, especially as they pertain to the needs that these realities engender. This article seeks to formulate a compelling, positive African political philosophy of needs. It does this by engaging Gyekye’s “moderate communitarianism”. It explores the various African political philosophical conceptions, thereby showing the need to theorise an African philosophy of needs adequately. The significance of this article is to address how various conditions, namely weak states (as a result of colonialism and postcolonial corruption), the complex history of leaders and massive underdevelopment of countries’ manufacturing capabilities in Africa are unable to respond to people’s needs, and how African political preoccupations, although important, have had deleterious effects on the political philosophy of needs. I shall argue on the capacity of African states to respond adequately to, and become responsible for, their citizens’ needs.

A critical analysis of political philosophy in African political discourses

To identify political philosophy in African political discourses is the task this paper is trying to unravel. Substantial record is available on African political discourses, but the clear philosophical thinking that lie beneath these discourses and unify them is not clear. Some authors are of the view that African political discourses has little or insufficient philosophical theories that inform them. However, African political discourses are texts and talks about African political ideas, contexts and situations on how to govern African political societies. Some of these discourses are; development, identity and unity, liberation, democracy, nation building, and sovereignty. This paper argues that Africa still need to identify and articulate political philosophy that unify these different political discourses. The hypothesis is that the African political philosophy that unifies these African political discourses, can be derived from African metaphysics, which is characteristically holistic, teleological and transcendent. The paper proposes that for African political philosophy to be based on African metaphysics; the mystical should not be substituted with the rational; the natural with the scientific; the human with the machine; cooperation with competition; and community with individuality, all in the name of liberation, identity, development, and democracy.

Philosophical racism and ubuntu: In dialogue with Mogobe Ramose

This article discusses two complementary themes that play an important role in contemporary South African political philosophy: (1) the racist tradition in Western philosophy; and (2) the role of ubuntu in regaining an authentic African identity, which was systematically suppressed during the colonial past and apartheid. These are also leading themes in Mogobe Ramose’s African Philosophy Through Ubuntu. The first part concentrates on John Locke. It discusses the thesis that the reprehensible racism of many founders of liberal political philosophy has lethally infected liberal theory. This view neglects the distinction between genesis and justification. Political liberalism has since cleansed itself of the prejudices of its spiritual ancestors. Liberal human rights exclude racism as a matter of principle. The second part discusses the claim that the ubuntu philosophy provides a better basis for a constitution in a modern society than political liberalism. A major problem is that ubuntu is an essentially contested concept. Some philosophers consider ubuntu to be a moribund notion (Matolino); others see it as a vital concept par excellence. In the latter case, it is elaborated from sundry incompatible political views, ranging from African nationalism (Ramose) via humanist communitarianism (Metz) to liberalism (Mboti). Conclusion: as an essentially contested ideological concept, ubuntu should not be a decisive constitutional standard for the application of state force. In contrast, the constitutional model of political liberalism provides a reasonable alternative, as it is designed precisely to solve the problem of social plurality and ideological contest.

Philosophy and Restructuring of Nigeria: An Afrocentric Perspective

Nigeria is bedeviled with a political arrangement that is far removed from the cultural experience and inclination of its constituent nationalities. Before independence, there were two imperial ecosystems at play in the country: the external and the internal. While Nigeria’s independence in 1960 politically removed the external chains, internal ethno-political domination continued thereafter to undermine the socio-cultural and political development of the country. This has created a state of anomie, mutual suspicion, cross-country violence, corruption and stasis. The paper paints an analytical picture of “internal disharmony” and “economic subversion”, both of which combine to disorient the citizenry and frustrate the country’s desire to reap durable political and economic capital from its enormous human and material resources. The paper calls for an afrocentric response to Nigeria’s structural anomalies and the adoption of some tenets of traditional African political philosophy, notably its village-square representation and principle of consensual obligation. The paper recommends cultural and economic autonomy for Nigeria’s distinct groups and regions in order to enhance the maximal release of their tethered developmental energies.

Menkiti, Gyekye and beyond: towards a decolonization of African political philosophy

No Abstract

Integrating African Philosophy into the Western Philosophy Curriculum

In the last three years, there has been a worldwide increase in integrating African philosophy into the philosophy curricula. Nevertheless, given that African philosophy has been largely neglected by Western academia, many philosophers in the West who do wish to integrate it are unaware of how to do it. This article aims at addressing this issue by offering some recommendations on how to integrate African philosophy into the curricula. Particularly, it offers recommendations based on how the history of ancient philosophy, metaphilosophy, ethics and political philosophy have become integrated. Additionally, there is a recommendation for how to make an entirely new module based on African political philosophy.

The Subaltern in Africa’s Political Space: African Political Philosophy and the Mirror of Gender

Politics is regarded in many parts of the world, especially in Africa, as a space meant exclusively for men. Therefore, women venturing into politics are made to believe that they are misfits, and the idea is anathematized and strangulated from the outset by those who are supposed to encourage the women. It is popularly believed that it is natural for men to rule over women, while it is considered abnormal and unnatural for women to rule over men. Although different societies have at one time or the other in history been ruled by queens and female warriors, at least, that is not usually seen as bizarre in societies that practice monarchical or imperial rule. In a democracy, however, a lot of people vehemently oppose the idea of a woman vying for a political office. In the case of Africa, two factors are responsible for this: the African people’s colonial experience and the bifurcation of the social sphere into public and private spaces. This has entrenched gender roles into the scheme of social reality held by the people. The people hold that certain roles must be performed by women while certain roles are exclusively for men. This culture has made it increasingly difficult to achieve parity and egalitarianism in gender relations in contemporary Africa and to achieve meaningful development in Africa. This article suggests ideological decolonization as a way out of the current predicament of the African women as the subaltern in the patriarchal and hostile political space of contemporary Africa.

The Interplay of Language, Violence, Revolution and Liberation in Frantz Fanon’s African Political Philosophy

The Interplay of Language, Violence, Revolution and Liberation in Frantz Fanon’s African Political Philosophy

Developing African Political Philosophy

Developing African Political Philosophy

Ancient Africa and the Structure of Revolutions in Ethics: A Prolegomenon for Contemporary African Political Philosophy

Ancient Africa and the Structure of Revolutions in Ethics: A Prolegomenon for Contemporary African Political Philosophy

“The love of freedom brought us here”: An Introduction to Modern African Political Philosophy

The idea of freedom rarely features at the present time in the discourse of African political philosophy. Yet, there was a time when concern with and extended discussions of freedom dominated African political philosophy. This explains, in part, how a country like Liberia, whose recent history makes an unlikely beacon for those interested in the perennial political philosophical problem of freedom, has for its national motto: “The love of freedom brought us here.” In this essay, I propose to reacquaint my readers with what I take to be some key elements of that discourse in what can only be an introduction to a much wider discussion of modern African political philosophy.

Good government, democratisation and traditional African political philosophy: the example of the Kanyok of the Congo

Over the last several decades, officials in both the public and private sectors have applied economic, military, cultural, academic and diplomatic tools to promote the spread of democratic pluralism in African and elsewhere. With the fall of Africa's most resilient tyrant, Mobutu Sese Seko, there is hope that even one of Africa's most troubled systems may be transformed into a state that reflects the will of the people and promotes the common good. Sober observers, however, remain pessimistic. Laurent Kabila's spotted record on human rights, his stubborn intolerance of political opposition, the challenging global economic and political environments, and the long history of bad government in Mobutu's Zaïre are obvious reasons for concern. Furthermore, the example of most other African states is not encouraging. With the exception of countries such as South Africa and Botswana, even the most tenuous democratic progress in Africa is often slowed, blocked or reversed.Generally, blame for this state of affairs has been levelled against the African political elite, the burden of colonialism, or international political and economic pressures. Specifically, for the Congo, Mobutu's kleptocracy, Belgium's paternalism, America's backing of a friendly dictator and the World Bank's support for ill-advised ‘development’ schemes all have been criticised. While such reproaches may be well deserved, this article argues that it is important to ask if the persistent failure of democracy in the Congo as well as in other African states is also related to African political culture.

The Problem With “Problems in African Political Philosophy” - Reply

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

The Problem With “Problems in African Political Philosophy”

The Problem With “Problems in African Political Philosophy”