Orality
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The ancient texts known as the Upaniṣads claim to expose the hidden connections between things, including the self and the world.
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An interview with Brian Black about the philosophical and social aspects of the Upaniṣads.
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An introduction to the “ethnophilosophy” approach inaugurated by Placide Tempels, its promises and potential pitfalls.
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A conversation with Sam Imbo on approaching oral traditions as philosophy and the Ugandan thinker and poet Okot p'Bitek.
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John Mbiti’s influential and controversial claim that traditional Africans experience time as having “a long past, a present, and virtually no future.”
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Traditional African ideas about personhood, which challenge assumptions about the relation between mind and body, self and other.
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What archeology, ethnography, and philosophical interpretation tell us about the diverse and often ambiguous roles of men and women in traditional African societies.
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Paulin Hountondji (pictured) and other African philosophers criticize ethnophilosophy and advocate a universalist approach.
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Henry Odera Oruka’s new method for exploring philosophy in Africa, based on interviews with wise individuals.
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An interview with Kai Kresse (pictured here with Ustadh Mahmoud Mau) who discusses his efforts to do "anthropology of philosophy" on the Swahili Coast.
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As the twentieth century draws to a close, the critique of ethnophilosophy gives way to approaches that continue to privilege the study of precolonial traditions, including the approach promoted by Kwasi Wiredu (pictured).
Note: we dedicate this episode to the memory of Kwame Gyekye, who passed away earlier this month.
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Co-host Chike Jeffers and Peter chat about the themes and questions raised by the podcast so far.
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John Jacob Thomas argues for self-government in the English colonies of the Caribbean but his fellow Trinidadian Frederick Alexander Durham recommends repatriation to Africa instead.
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Co-host Chike joins Peter to look back at series two and ahead to series three.
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Zora Neale Hurston’s interest in Africana folklore feeds into her great novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
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The key events and figures in philosophy as an academic discipline, in both Africa and the diaspora, from the 1970s to the 1990s.
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What were ancient Chinese philosophical texts written on? How did writing relate to orally transmitted wisdom? How were texts read and used? And what even counted as a “text” in ancient China?
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Carlo Ginzburg’s innovative historical study The Cheese and the Worms looks at the ideas of an obscure 16th century miller, suggesting how popular culture might be integrated into the history of philosophy.
