Fermented Ph.D. Dump: Introducing Serequeberhan and African Hermeneutic Philosophy
A Tactical Recap to the Fermented Ph.D. Dump
Introducing Serequeberhan's The Hermeneutics of African Philosophy
In the previous three Ph.D. dumps (see above), I introduced Jonathan Chimakonam's method of conversationalism. Before continuing this line of thought, I think it will be more important to first introduce the work of African hermeneutic philosopher Tsenay Serequeberhan. According to my own readings of his work (in relation to Chimakonam's), Serequeberhan lays important groundwork for us to begin to philosophize from what I have referred to in previous dumps as a philosophical place. In future posts, I will explore this way of philosophizing, viz., philosophizing from this place, in more detail. The important groundwork that Serequeberhan lays down will become apparent.
In this post, however, I want to briefly set out the course for the next few dumps which will be on the work of Serequeberhan. The reason for this is three or fourfold: I need to write a chapter on his work for my dissertation, I want to write an article based on this chapter (with minor differences), and I need to present some of his work in early July at a seminar. I thus really need to get started writing, and I thought this would be a great series of posts for this Ph.D. dump. I have also not found any resources in which a systematic unpacking of his work is readily available. Most of it is scattered throughout publications of his own and secondary sources. So I really hope that these posts might make some contribution to education as such but also to philosophy in general for any layperson who might want to learn more about Serequeberhan's African philosophy! Without further ado, herewith is what I am planning on writing in a series of Ph.D. dumps.
A Suggested Plan Forward
Horizon and Discourse
Serequeberhan begins by laying the foundation of his work by turning to Heidegger and Gadamer. From these figures, he gains the theoretical points of departure which are needed to "ground" philosophy in place. More specifically, he gains the terms "horizon/background" and "discourse/foreground". From here he can thus launch his now somewhat famous critique against other schools of philosophies (such as ethno- and professional philosophy) and other philosophers, most notably Paulin J. Hountondji, Kwame Nkrumah, and Léopold S. Senghor. But before he can do this, he first needs to establish what he calls the contemporary African situation.
The Contemporary Neo-colonial Situation
The horizon from which one philosophizes is obviously related to the place from which you philosophize. I use these two terms relatively synonymous. The philosophical horizon/place thus influences the discourse or the questions that stem from that place. For Serequeberhan, the contemporary African situation is marked by what he refers to the neo-colonial situation. In other words, the post-colonial present is marked by colonialism merely under different code words. As stated in the terminology of decolonial scholars, modernity (contemporary) is marked by coloniality or colonial logic.
Solution: The Double Task of Contemporary African Philosophy
Because the contemporary African situation is still marked by the neo-colonial situation or coloniality, the contemporary African (hermeneutic) philosopher has a double task that lay ahead of her. Firstly, she needs to de-struct texts. That is, she needs to critically look at a text by taking it apart and not wholly/outright destroying it. Serequeberhan refers to this as the critical negative aspect of African hermeneutics. In one of his articles, he critically looks at the "pre-text" or assumptions with which philosopher Kant worked. He thus showcases the necessity of some of the more controversial and racist undertones in Kant's work. But more importantly, he showcases how Kant's pre-text or prejudices or assumptions are per definition colonial logic. He thus showcases how this mindset still marks our contemporary situation in which the West is seen as superior.
The second task, the constructive element, is based on Serequeberhan's readings of Amílcar Cabral and Frantz Fanon. He takes, for example, from Fanon that we need to "turn a new leaf" and "create new concepts" through which to understand the contemporary situation with a focus on overcoming the aforementioned problems. In other words, and more in the words of Serequeberhan, we need to rewrite Africa back into history due to it being excluded from having a history based on the false idea of the superiority of the West. (This idea is partially based on the problematic writings of the likes of Hegel who effectively wrote Africa out of history.)
Postscriptum
This is thus the plan forward. I do not know how many posts it will take. An article's word count is normally 4000-5000 words. My chapter lengths are around 8000-12000 words. The seminar is only 25 minutes long. Understanding in my own "understanding" comes from rephrasing and reiterations. I might spend way too much time on this topic, but I think it is very important and I have not seen much debate outside of academia on this topic. If I inspire merely a handful of people to read more about this topic, I would be very happy.
I also hope to get my thoughts out in a very chaotic manner here so that I might begin to home (and hone) in on some key thoughts.
In any case, I hope to inspire you to read more even if only the posts I make on this very interesting topic!
For now, happy reading/learning, and stay safe.
The writings in this post are my own reading of the work of Serequeberhan. In future posts or dumps, I will give more sources for specific ideas. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.