RAP brings together scholars interested in the development of African philosophy, thought, and culture. While the discipline of African philosophy is often perceived as a marginal academic pursuit on student syllabi in both African as well as European and North American universities, this network perceives it, on the contrary, as a central component of the continent’s culture as a whole. The network seeks to re-centralise the importance of philosophy not only in African cultural and literary studies, but also much more widely, beyond these academic confines. Ultimately, this configuration of experts allows us to ask new questions about African philosophy, with a view to exploring the impact of African thought on a broad range of contexts and disciplines.
About
The network Research in African Philosophy (RAP) includes:
John Drabinski (Amherst College)
Grant Farred (Cornell University)
Pierre-Philippe Fraiture (Warwick University)
Axelle Karera (Wesleyan University)
Kasereka Kavwahirehi (Université d’Ottawa)
Mpay Kemboly (Faculté de Philosophie Saint Pierre Canisius, Kimwenza, DRC)
Jean-Paul Martinon (Goldsmiths)
Isaïe Nzeyimana (University Source du Nil, Butare, Rwanda)
Daniel Orrells (King’s College London)
Its membership is open.
RAP was founded in 2015 at the Africana Research Centre at Cornell University, USA, during the first colloquium, African Thinking And/At its Limits. The colloquium explored the edges of what is currently understood by “African thought”: its historical, anthropological, geographical, political, and linguistic limits.
The group met again in 2016 at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Warwick, UK, for our second colloquium, Translating African Thought and Literature. This one-day event focused on the way in which African and European languages have contributed to the development of African thought and literature until today.
The group organised a third colloquium in 2017 at The Centre for Humanistic Inquiry, Amherst College, on the theme of Africa / Philosophy / Violence. The colloquium explored African philosophical responses to violence on the continent.
The group met again after COVID, in 2020, for a new colloquium addressing the question of how have postcolonial African philosophies and theologies informed the visual arts and literary production on the rest of the continent and beyond?
Future Events
The network is currently fundraising in order to organise a new colloquium exploring how philosophy, theology, and culture contributed, since decolonization, to the emergence and development of African thought and what lessons can be learned from them? The hope is for this colloquium to take place in Kinshasa at the Faculté de Philosophie Saint Pierre Canisius, DRC. More on this, hopefully, soon.