African Philosophy as Cultural Inquiry

A conception of philosophy embedded in culture guides this anthology, divided into three categories (personhood, knowledge, and development), exploring issues in postcolonial African cultures. Part 1 has essays on the role secrecy plays in shaping personal identity in Sierra Leone, the function of moral notions of the self in Swahili medical practices in Zanzibar, and the dynamic view of the self exhibited in Chichewa linguistic practice. In part 2, which examines epistemological aspects of discourses in the forms of storytelling and music, and in the representation of arranged marriages, Karp and Masolo point out the deconstructive function of hidden meanings of praise--naming metaphors; Odoch Pido discusses Acoli concepts of the person; and Kratz explains the philosophic significance of gendered representation of shifts in identity and social relations in Okiek arranged marriages. In part 3 (the role of traditional culture in social change and modernization), Wiredu argues for retaining African social ethics to balance technical rationality of industrialization; Eboussi--Boulaga analyzes the term change, using the genetic concept of mutation to establish criteria identifying beneficial and evil mutations; Jewsiewicki reflects on the moral and social commentary in Kinshasa visual artist Cheri Samba; and Atieno--Odhiambo discusses Luo writers Samuel Ayany's and Paul Mbaya's efforts to synthesize Luo and Christian cultures. Recommended for upper--division undergraduate and graduate courses.November 2001

--T. L. Lott "San Jose State University"