Beyond Decolonial African Philosophy: Africanity, Afrotopia, and Transcolonial Perspectives

Beyond Decolonial African Philosophy dives into decoloniality discourse, challenging some of its shortcomings and offering alternative perspectives on the nature of Africanity and Afrotopia (Africa’s better future) from leading African philosophers.

Beginning with an overview of philosophy in contemporary Africa, the first half of the book goes on to critically interrogate and rethink decoloniality’s deconstructivist approach. The second half of the book considers a range of alternative new conceptualizations of Afrotopia and Africanity that transcend decolonial theory, drawing on constructivist and creative approaches. The book considers key questions such as:

- Is Africanity immutable (essentialism) or mutable (nominalism)?

- Should we emphasize idealist, identitarian concerns or pragmatic, developmentarian concerns?

- Should we prioritise African agency or structures and circumstances?

- Should Africa embrace hybrid interculturality and creative self-manifestive identity or essentialist purity?

Drawing on rich insights from African philosophers across the continent, this book challenges students and researchers to think beyond the concept of decolonization to alternative forms of African identities and African futures.

Joseph C. A. Agbakoba is a professor of philosophy at the University of Nigeria. He is a 2022 recipient of the prestigious Georg Forster Research Award. He has been a Volkswagen Foundation grantee, an Alexander von Humboldt fellow, an alumnus of Budapest’s Central European University, SUN program, a visiting scholar at Cape Coast and Frankfurt. He was Head of Department of Philosophy at the University of Nigeria from 2007-2010 and Dean, School of General Studies, 2012-2013; from 2013 to 2017, he was Deputy Vice Chancellor (Vice President) at Madonna University Nigeria. He is a former president of the Nigerian Philosophical Association. Agbakoba is also the Regional Coordinator for Africa for the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (CRVP), Washington DC; the Vice President for Africa for COMIUCAP (Conférence Mondiale des Institutions Universitaires Catholiques de Philosophie) and a member of the Steering Committee of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP), 2008 to 2024. His current research interest is in the field of development philosophy and ethics in relation to Africa and intercultural philosophy. He has published widely locally and internationally.

Marita Rainsborough teaches as an associate professor (PD) at the Institute for Philosophy and Art History at Leuphana University Lüneburg and at the Institute for Romance Studies at Kiel University, Germany. She is an associate member of the Centre of Philosophy University of Lisbon (CFUL) and co-editor of the journal ’Estudos Kantianos’. She was visiting professor at several universities in Brazil, for example at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and the University of Campinas (UNICAMP). Her recent publication is Intercultural thinking in African Philosophy: A critical dialogue with Kant and Foucault. London, New York: Routledge, 2024.