Ibuanyidanda Complementary Reflection And Some Basic Philosophical Problems In Africa Today

This book gives an insightful account of how some fundamental phenomena and mechanisms control human consciousness, impacting the way we think, will, and act. The book identifies these phenomena and mechanisms as ihe mkpuchi anya, the super-maxim, and the inherently tension-laden ambivalent character of our experience of reality. It re-examines fundamental problems of philosophy from the perspective of ibuanyidanda (complementary reflection) and how the problems reappear in the way philosophy is conducted in Africa today. (Series: Studies in African Philosophy - Vol. 8)

Questions relating to types of philosophical trends within African philosophy can be very decisive for any idea of African philosophy. In this strikingly novel approach to African Philosophy, the author explores a complementary philosophical trend that goes back to those he calls anonymous traditional African philosophers. Based on their thoughts, he articulates a distinctive variant of the principles, method and imperative of complementarity (Ibu anyi danda) around which he builds his system. He anchors his reflection on such ambient concepts as the joy of being (jide k' iji), fragmentation, wholeness, and future reference.

This collection is about composing thought at the level of modernism and decomposing it at the postmodern level where many cocks might crow with African philosophy as a focal point. It has two parts: part one is titled ‘The Journey of Reason in African Philosophy’, and part two is titled ‘African Philosophy and Postmodern Thinking’. There are seven chapters in both parts. Five of the essays are reprinted here as important selections while nine are completely new essays commissioned for this book. As their titles suggest, in part one, African philosophy is unfolded in the manifestation of reason as embedded in modern thought while in part two, it draws the effect of reason as implicated in the postmodern orientation. While part one strikes at what V. Y. Mudimbe calls the “colonising structure” or the Greco-European logo-phallo-euro-centricism in thought, part two bashes the excesses of modernism and partly valorises postmodernism. In some chapters, modernism is presented as an intellectual version of communalism characterised by the cliché: ‘our people say’. Our thinking is that the voice of reason is not the voice of the people but the voice of an individual. The idea of this book is to open new vistas for the discipline of African philosophy. African philosophy is thus presented as a disagreement discourse. Without rivalry of thoughts, Africa will settle for far less. This gives postmodernism an important place, perhaps deservedly more important than history of philosophy allocates to it. It is that philosophical moment that says ‘philosophers must cease speaking like gods in their hegemonic cultural shrines and begin to converse across borders with one another’. In this conversation, the goal for African philosophers must not be to find final answers but to sustain the conversation which alone can extend human reason to its furthermost reaches.

Journal of Integrative Humanism is a multidisciplinary academic journal that publishes well-researched articles that approach the topical issues bothering humanity from an integrativist perspective, taking cognizance of the spiritual and physical dimensions of reality. This volume of the journal - volume four, number one - contains thirteen articulate essays on topical issues in Africa/African studies written by contemporary African scholars from diverse disciplines - Philosophy, Religion, Linguistics, Theater/Media Studies, Oceanography, Political Science, and Education. Some of the topical issues addressed are: the nature of metaphysics in Integrative Humanism (a contemporary school of African philosophy), development of viable systems of logic in African philosophy, rural education, social change, advertising and media exchange, "Boko Haram"-terrorism in Nigeria, sustainable development and climate change. The essays are informative, engaging and comprehensible.

It is not far-fetched to say that much of what is termed “African metaphysics” remains a traditional affair, without the sort of critical analysis that sheds away the burden of myths and ethnocentric rigidity. African ideas about the nature of being, God, causality, death, etc., have largely remained the same and unchallenged, mainly due to the hesitancy of some African scholars to question these suppositions or build beyond them. In this book, Aribiah David Attoe presents a unified African metaphysics that first interrogates important notions held by many traditional African thinkers, and then builds upon them to propose a largely materialistic account of African metaphysics. The book re-imagines and reconstructs the idea of God, being, causality and death in African metaphysics, tackling some of the problems associated with these concepts in African thought. It also opens up new vistas of thought, while engaging and encouraging African metaphysicians to explore a previously ignored perspective.

This book focuses on African metaphysics and epistemology, and is an exercise in decoloniality. The authors describe their approach to "decoloniality" as an intellectual repudiation of coloniality, using the method of conversational thinking grounded in Ezumezu logic. Focusing specifically on both African metaphysics and African epistemology, the authors put forward theories formulated to stimulate fresh debates and extend the frontiers of learning in the field. They emphasize that this book is not a project in comparative philosophy, nor is it geared towards making Africa/ns the object/subjects of philosophy. Rather, the book highlights and discusses philosophical insights that have been produced from the African perspective, which the authors argue must be further developed in order to achieve decoloniality in the field of philosophy more broadly.