Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Doing African Philosophy: Beyond Textuality and Individual Authorship

Doing African Philosophy: Beyond Textuality and Individual Authorship

Imafidon, Elvis
Kirloskar-Steinbach, Monika
Kalmanson, Leah

Hardcover

Series: Bloomsbury Introductions to World Philosophies

Philosophy

ISBN10: 1350464279
ISBN13: 9781350464278
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: Feb 19 2026
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.94
Height: 0.56 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English

What defines a philosophical tradition? The primacy of the written text and individual authorship are two major defining and interwoven credentials that have been used to deny African philosophical thought prior to the postcolonial phase. In this significant contribution to the search for identity and authenticity of African philosophy, Elvis Imafidon questions the relevance of authorship and textuality in the production, storage and transmission of knowledge. Drawing from the rich and robust philosophical heritages of sub-Saharan African traditions, he showcases the many non-textual and textual ways philosophy is collaboratively and intersubjectively done and critiqued.

His focus is on two major repositories of philosophical knowledges: orality and symbolism. Storytelling, adages, names and naming, folklores, proverbs and forms of symbolically encoded knowledges found in artefacts, symbols, textile patterns, motifs and corporeal and performative arts contest dominant narratives. They ask us to rethink the logic of binaries between literacy and illiteracy, text and non-text, and speech and writing.

Paying close attention to the Binis and Esans in Southern Nigeria, the Akans and Gas in Ghana, the Shonas in Zimbabwe, and the Zulu people in South Africa, Imafidon affirms the place of orality, symbolic art and different indigenous methods for philosophising. Exploring the concept of street philosophy in Nigeria, we see how oral and symbolic forms of philosophizing persist in modern African societies.

This much-needed book reclaims the voices, agency and narratives of African thought across history revealing the deeply embedded intersubjective and ecocentric Intellegence, and enigmatics of African philosophy. It challenges our understanding of the discipline of Philosophy and argues for an inclusive definition of philosophy in our trans-human, trans-textual age.

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