The African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science 
(ACEPS<https://www.uj.ac.za/aceps>) at the University of Johannesburg invites 
you to:



Philosophy through Indigenous Knowledge Speaker Series: Opening Lecture

 ‘Ethnophilosophy as Decolonization: Revisiting the Question of African 
Philosophy’ by Dr Paul Irikefe<https://www.paul-irikefecardiff.com>



Date:      Friday 20 October 2023

Time:      16:00 (SAST/ Central Africa Time/ Central European Time); 19:30 
(India Standard Time); 8:00 (Central Time)

Venue:    UJ on Empire, Ground Floor

Zoom:     https://zoom.us/j/95988953869



Funding:  National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences

ACEPS: https://www.uj.ac.za/aceps





Ethnophilosophy as Decolonization: Revisiting the Question of African Philosophy



Abstract:

In this paper, I challenge the deeply held view in African philosophy that 
ethnophilosophy is a form of degenerate philosophy. I do so in two steps.  
First, I argue that the ethnophilosophical problems raised by the self-styled 
‘professional philosophers’ in African philosophy  rest on a profound mistake: 
the characterization of ethnophilosophy they attack does not exist in the great 
works of Tempels, Mbiti, Senghor, and Kagame. Second, I argue that 
ethnophilosophy properly understood is a specific instance of epistemological 
decolonization, which among other things,  invites us to question those very 
assumptions about the nature of philosophy and rational belief from which the 
ethnophilosophical problems seem to greatly arise.  I develop this second 
argument by drawing on a framework of decolonization that stems from  the works 
of Anibal  Quijano (2000, 2007), Ramón Grosfoguel (2007, 2013), Walter Mignolo 
(2002, 2007, 2009, 2011), and Veli Mitova (2020, 2023).


Author Bio:

Paul Irikefe is a President and Andrew  W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral 
Fellow at the University of California, Irvine. He is also a Research Associate 
in the Faculty of the Humanities, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.  He 
works mainly in African philosophy, metaphilosophy, and epistemology.

At UC Irvine, he equally works on a campus-wide initiative led by Duncan 
Pritchard to embed intellectual virtues in the university curriculum at UC 
Irvine and beyond. He is presently working on a book manuscript on the 
epistemology of philosophy. Paul Irikefe defended his PhD this year at Cardiff 
University with Avner Baz (Tufts University) as his external examiner and 
Jonathan Webber (Cardiff University) as his internal examiner. He was 
supervised by Alessandra Tanesini (Cardiff University), Liz Irvine (Cardiff 
University) and Mona Simeon (University of Glasgow).


---

Veli Mitova

Professor in Philosophy and Director of ACEPS

University of Johannesburg

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