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This book provides a much-needed philosophical response to the recurrent postcolonial call to uproot the prevalent workings of the colonial regime, with a close focus on the African context.
The work addresses a range of questions concerning the othering of Africans in the postcolonial context, specifically by focusing on the philosophical analysis of problems of justice, the effect of injustice on the formation of the self, and strategies of resistance against the injustice of othering. Questions raised in this collection include: who or what is "the other"? Who is the "African other"? In what ways are Africans othered? What is the effect of unjust conditions on the formation of the self? In what sense is othering an injustice? How can justice concern itself with the problem of othering? What are the strategies to resist the injustice of othering? Can one ever do justice to the experience of the subaltern other in abstract terms of philosophical analysis?
In considering these questions, this book will be of interest to all those studying the intersectional ways in which colonial injustice is manifested in the postcolony, as well as those seeking greater philosophical reflection on postcolonial justice. This book was originally published as a special issue of Angelaki.
List of contents
Foreword Introduction – The African Other: Philosophy, Justice and The Self Part I: Problems of Justice 1. Justice Through Deliberation and The Problem of Otherness 2. Consensual Recognition of Universal Rights in African Custom 3. Implicitly Racist Epistemology: Recent Philosophical Appeals to The Neurophysiology of Tacit Prejudice Part II: Formations of The Self 4. Breaking the Gridlock of The African Postcolonial Self-Imagination: Marx against Mbembe 5. Ressentiment In the Postcolony: A Nietzschean Analysis of Self and Otherness 6. Can I Choose to Be Who I Am Not? On (African) Subjectivity Part III: Strategies Against Othering 7. A Most Dangerous Error: The Boasian Myth of a Knock-Down Argument against Racism 8. Steve Biko: Black Consciousness and The African Other – The Struggle for The Political 9. Rebellion and Revolution 10. The African Animal Other: Decolonizing Nature
About the author
Abraham Olivier is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa. He is Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Centre for Phenomenology in South Africa and former Editor-in-Chief of the South African Journal of Philosophy. He has published extensively on topics relating to phenomenology, philosophy of mind, place and pain, and African philosophy.
Summary
This book provides a much-needed philosophical response to the recurrent postcolonial call to uproot the prevalent workings of the colonial regime, with a close focus on the African context. This book was originally published as a special issue of Angelaki.
