Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Resignifying the Universal: Critical Commentary on the Postcolonial African Identity and Development

Resignifying the Universal: Critical Commentary on the Postcolonial African Identity and Development Resignifying the Universal: Critical Commentary on the Postcolonial African Identity and Development The dimension of the debate on the relation between the universal and the particular in African philosophy has been skewed in favour of the universalists who argued that the condition for the possibility of an African conception of philosophy cannot be achieved outside the "universal' idea of the philosophical enterprise. In this sense, the ethno-philosophical project and its attempt to rescue the idea of an African past necessary for the reconstruction of an African postcolonial identity and development becomes a futile one. A recent commentator even argues that works concerning African identity are now totally irrelevant and misguided. In this essay, I will be arguing, on the contrary, that the universalist's argument, much like its critique of ethno-philosophical reason, mistakes the nature, significance and necessity of such a resistance (rather than original ) identity that the ethno-philosophical project promises. I will also argue that the fabrication of such an identity facilitates the avoidance of an uncritical submersion in the universal as well as a proper conception of an African development. This, furthermore, is the only avenue by which the imperialistic ontological space of universal humanism, in which most universalistic claims are rooted, can be made more polygonal and mutually beneficial for alternative cultural particulars. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Human Affairs de Gruyter

Resignifying the Universal: Critical Commentary on the Postcolonial African Identity and Development

Afolayan, Adeshina
Human Affairs , Volume 19 (4) – Dec 1, 2009
Download PDF
15 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/de-gruyter/resignifying-the-universal-critical-commentary-on-the-postcolonial-wbiSs4CHsX

References (18)

Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by the
ISSN
1210-3055
eISSN
1337-401X
DOI
10.2478/v10023-009-0050-8
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Resignifying the Universal: Critical Commentary on the Postcolonial African Identity and Development The dimension of the debate on the relation between the universal and the particular in African philosophy has been skewed in favour of the universalists who argued that the condition for the possibility of an African conception of philosophy cannot be achieved outside the "universal' idea of the philosophical enterprise. In this sense, the ethno-philosophical project and its attempt to rescue the idea of an African past necessary for the reconstruction of an African postcolonial identity and development becomes a futile one. A recent commentator even argues that works concerning African identity are now totally irrelevant and misguided. In this essay, I will be arguing, on the contrary, that the universalist's argument, much like its critique of ethno-philosophical reason, mistakes the nature, significance and necessity of such a resistance (rather than original ) identity that the ethno-philosophical project promises. I will also argue that the fabrication of such an identity facilitates the avoidance of an uncritical submersion in the universal as well as a proper conception of an African development. This, furthermore, is the only avenue by which the imperialistic ontological space of universal humanism, in which most universalistic claims are rooted, can be made more polygonal and mutually beneficial for alternative cultural particulars.

Journal

Human Affairs – de Gruyter

Published: Dec 1, 2009

There are no references for this article.