The History of Philosophy in Sub-Saharan Africa

The proposed research project undertakes the attempt to write a "History of Philosophy in Sub-Saharan Africa", i.e. to describe the development of philosophical thought and schools in Africa South of the Sahara from its various origins until today based on firm reflections on the theoretical foundation, function and perspectives of the discipline history of philosophy in general and in Africa in particular. Writing a history of philosophy in Africa faces three fundamental challenges: 1. It is a peculiarity of Sub-Saharan Africa that in large parts of the region writing was not the media of preserving and transmitting history, thoughts or concepts. Cultural and historical traditions were passed down from one generation to another in an oral tradition. For this reason, there is a lack of written text in some areas. Thus, history of philosophy, which is in the European tradition largely based on texts, has to go new ways and critically reflect the relationship between written and oral tradition. 2. Colonization as a fundamental break in the intellectual history of Africa: colonization is always accompanied by the destruction of indigenous cultures, traditions and institutions (political, religious, ethical, intellectual etc.). The impact of slavery, colonization and racism cannot be ignored in writing a history of philosophy. It has to be included as a specific historical experience and an integral part of the history of ideas in Africa. 3. The description and reconstruction of pre-colonial systems of thought and philosophical concepts as well as the description of contemporary realities and concepts in Africa is based on categories and concepts derived from Western épistémè. These multiple fractures have to be considered while writing a history of philosophy in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the discipline of history of philosophy faces very specific circumstances and cannot be separated from a project of "conceptual decolonization". The project has the following targets: Reconstruction of a comprehensive history of philosophy in Sub-Saharan Africa from Ancient Egypt until the beginning of the 21st century, with a special focus on the following fields, which are widely neglected until now: - The Islamic-Arabian tradition in philosophy in Sub-Saharan Africa. - Philosophy in Portuguese speaking Africa - Theories and debates in African feminism. The deduction of consequences for intercultural or cross-cultural philosophy in a globalised world and for the curricular of philosophy institutes will round up the project. The result of the research project will culminate in a habilitation at the Faculty of Philosophy and Education of the University of Vienna and will be published as a monograph, which can serve as foundation for further debates as well as teaching African philosophy in institutes of philosophy.

The aim of the research project was to write a history of philosophy in sub-Saharan Africa from ancient Egypt to the 20th century. Due to the abundance of material, a comprehensive presentation of the history of philosophy in Africa up to the 19th century has now been completed. It describes the philosophical traditions in ancient Egypt and Ethiopia, the development of Arab-Islamic philosophy in sub-Saharan Africa, the significance of oral traditions for philosophy, and the critical examination of the experience of colonialism and racism from the 18th century onwards. In the reconstruction of the philosophical traditions of Africa, a special focus was placed on the examination of methodological problems of a historiography of philosophy for Africa. Writing a history of philosophy in Africa faces various challenges, for example, the issue of the position of the oral heritage within the framework of a history of philosophy, which in the European understanding is largely understood as a text-based science. Moreover, it includes a critical examination of colonialism and racism, which have caused a disruption of traditions in the history of ideas and the suppression of indigenous languages. However, the historiography of philosophy faces such challenges not only in Africa, but in various formerly colonized regions of the world, including Latin America. Therefore the now elaborated methodological part can serve as a propaedeutic for a global historiography of philosophy. In addition, it was a major concern to search for traces of women in the history of philosophy in Africa, such as the scholar Nana Asma'u (18th century), and to make the contribution of women visible. In the course of the project, various articles and book chapters have been produced that address both the mechanisms of exclusion in the historiography of philosophy that have led to the marginalization of Africa and other regions of the world in philosophy, as well as articles devoted to certain epochs, such as philosophy in ancient Egypt or the investigation of the indigenous concept of 'ubuntu'. The publication of a monograph describing the history of philosophy in Africa up to the 19th century is in preparation.