GLOBAL POLITICAL THINKERS Series Editors: Harmut Behr and Felix Rösch African Philosophy as Critical Universalism Franziska Dübgen Stefan Skupien Global Political Thinkers Series Editors Harmut Behr School of Geography Politics and Sociology Newcastle University Newcastle, UK Felix Rösch School of Humanities Coventry University Coventry, UK This Palgrave Pivot series presents ground-breaking, critical perspec- tives on political theory: titles published in this series present influ- ential political thinkers on a global scale from around the world, with interpretations based on their original languages, providing synop- tic views on their works, and written by internationally leading schol- ars. Individual interpretations emphasize the language and cultural context of political thinkers and of political theory as primary media through which political thoughts and concepts originate and gener- ate. The series invites proposals for new Palgrave Pivot projects by and on authors from all traditions, areas, and cultural contexts. Individual books should be between 25,000 and 50,000 words long according to the Palgrave Pivot format. For more details about Palgrave Pivot, an innovative new publishing format from Palgrave Macmillan, please visit www.palgrave.com/pivot. Emphases shall be on political thinkers who are important for our understanding of: – the relation between individual and society and conceptualizations of both; – forms of participation and decision-making; – conceptualizations of political deliberation and discourse; – constructions of identity; – conceptualizations of the ‘human condition’ of politics; – ontologies and epistemologies of the political/of politics; – conceptualizations of social and political change and/or tradition; and – conceptualizations of political order, their rise and fall. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15014 Franziska Dübgen · Stefan Skupien Paulin Hountondji African Philosophy as Critical Universalism Franziska Dübgen Stefan Skupien University of Münster WZB Berlin Social Science Center Münster, Germany Berlin, Germany Global Political Thinkers ISBN 978-3-030-01994-5 ISBN 978-3-030-01995-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01995-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018959879 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019 This work is subject to copyright. 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Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © John Rawsterne/patternhead.com This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland A cknowledgements We would like to first thank the editors Harmut Behr and Felix Roesch for accepting our proposal to their Palgrave Pivot Global Thinkers Series. Two anonymous reviewers have given us insightful comments and suggestions. A special thanks to Oliver Foster, Sneha Sivakumar, and Azarudeen Ahamed Sheriff from Palgrave Press for the good cooperation during the editing process. Without the support of many colleagues in African philosophy, this project would not have been feasible: Genuine opportunities to discuss the first draft of the book arose during work- shops and lectures at the University of Johannesburg, UNISA Pretoria, and Stellenbosch University in March 2018. We would like to thank Thaddeus Metz, Pascah Mungwini, Ndumiso Dladla, and Dirk Loew for hosting us at their institutions and Kevin Behrens for his personal sup- port during our stay in South Africa. A special thanks also to Sanya Osha, Motsamai Molefe, and Simphiwe Sesanti for their generous comments on earlier versions of this book. A related research project, supported by the Volkswagen Foundation, led Stefan Skupien to universities across several African countries, where colleagues at philosophy departments were willing to discuss their current views on the oeuvre of Hountondji. These included Thiémélé L. Ramsès Boa, Wilfried Lajul, Anthony Musonda, Oriare Nyarwath, and Mahamade Savadogo. In addition, Souleyman Bachir Diagne, Dismas Masolo, and Reginald Oduro have granted the authors their valuable time for interviews about the legacy of Hountondji. A warm thanks also to our German colleagues: Iwona Kocjan collected and systematized the large corpus of Hountondji’s v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS writings. Lotte Arndt has pointed us to valuable literature on the black communities in France, Mareike Heller has provided us with insights into the Rhodes Must Fall movement, and Franziska Dittrich has care- fully edited the bibliography. The authors finally extend their sincerest thank to Paulin Hountondji, who has been willing to be interviewed thrice for this book, starting in 2016 in Bayreuth, in 2017 in Cotonou and eventually at the end of our writing process. Moreover, he has been immensely helpful by providing us with a complete bibliography and with texts that were not yet published or out of our reach. The book itself can hence be regarded as an ongoing discussion and dialogue, in which we learned from numerous conversations. Searching for these opportunities has thankfully always been supported by our fam- ilies. We therefore like to include Roman Graf and Marina Pizzo in our acknowledgements, who tolerated our absences during the writing and travelling and provided us with the necessary calmness to finish the book. P P H rAise for aulin ountondji “This is a superb presentation of a philosopher, Paulin Hountondji, and a philosophy that have exercised the greatest influence on African Humanities and Social Sciences. Hountondji’s thought is indeed a trans- cultural philosophy as he insists that philosophy is never the simple ema- nation of a culture or a language but a critical, questioning, pluralistic, way of aiming at the universal. Simply said, Paulin Hountondji’s trans- cultural philosophy is an important answer to the ethno-nationalisms and the tribalisms that are fragmenting today our world and our common humanity that we urgently need to hear.” —Souleyman Bachir Diagne, Professor in the Departments of French and Philosophy, Columbia University, USA “Paulin Hountondji is one of the most important elders in African philosophy, with this book providing a sympathetic overview of all his major works, covering more than 50 years of scholarship. The book is both intellectual history and systematic philosophy, with its authors con- vincingly arguing that Hountondji’s ideas continue to be relevant for contemporary global debates about epistemic injustice, knowledge pro- duction, identity politics and philosophical method.” —Thaddeus Metz, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Johannesburg, South Africa vii viii PRAISE FOR PAULIN HOUNTONDJI “Paulin J. Hountondji is a colossal figure in the field of African philos- ophy and yet there is hardly any definitive study (at least, in English) of his work. This book fills an obvious lacuna and firmly places Hountondji within a universal frame of reference.” —Dr. Sanya Osha, author of Postethnophilosophy “It is a profound introduction into African Philosophy which strengthens transculturally oriented philosophy.” —Lachhab Mohamed, Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Ibn Zohr, Agadir, Morocco c ontents 1 Introduction 1 Part I Critique of Ethnophilosophy, the Debate with Contemporaries and Hountondji’s Turn to Endogenous Knowledges 2 Hountondji’s Critique of Ethnophilosophy and His Notion of African Philosophy 13 3 The Debate on Ethnophilosophy Between Hountondji and His Contemporary Critics 47 4 Path-Clearing: Philosophy and History, Scientific Dependency, and Hountondji’s Turn to Endogenous Knowledge 61 Part II Hountondji’s Political Oeuvre 5 Hountondji as a Public Intellectual and His Political Career 85 ix