Portraitfoto Lindokuhle Shabane

Lindokuhle Shabane

African Philosophy as a Site of Contradictions

When one approaches the history of African philosophy two trends become apparent: The first is non-Africans claiming, ‘unilaterally the right to speak on behalf of the Africans and to define the meaning of experience and truth for them’. The second is Africans resisting and contesting their self-appointed biographers. It is from these two experiences that modern African philosophy was born ( Masolo, 1994). The conditions around the birth of African philosophy can be studied as a site of contradictions, and the philosophical output of African philosophers may be looked at as attempts to liberate themselves from these contradictions. I seek to look at the forms of knowledges that emerged from this narrowly construed intellectual horizon, and its attendant contradictions that shaped African philosophy.

Research interests
  • African philosophy
  • Intellectual history
  • History of philosophy
  • Social history
  • Epistemology
  • Decolonial thinking
Vita
  • 2020 – 2021
    University of KwaZulu-Natal: MSS (History).
  • 2019
    University of KwaZulu-Natal: B.A Hons (Philosophy).
  • 2016 – 2018
    University of KwaZulu-Natal: BSS(History and Philosophy).
Publications
  • 2021
    Conversational thinking as a method of conceptual decolonization. In: Arumaruka: Journal of conversational thinking. Vol No1. (2021): 79–104.
Talks, Workshops, and Events
  • 2021
    Host and co-organizer Decolonization and curriculum change: which logic should drive the process? Webinar, 22.07.2021, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
earthing

“Geography as a discipline stands for a certain worlding, if not earthing, of contradiction, in both theoretical and pracitcal respect.”

Julia Lossau
coherence in thought

“The imperative of non-contradiction generally produces a coherence in thought that is often at odds with social complexities.”

Yan Suarsana
Afterlife of colonialism

“Contradiction comes in many different forms. None is so debilitating than when the coloniser transitions, textually not politically, to decoloniality without taking the responsibility for the afterlife of colonialism, which they continue to benefit from. Self-examination and self-interrogation of the relations of coloniality, a necessity, seem nearly impossible for the coloniser who continues to act as beneficiary, masked in the new-found language of White fragility, devoid of an ethical responsibility of the very system of White domination they claim to be against.” (Black Consciousness and the Politics of the Flesh)

Rozena Maart
relational

“At first I thought contradiction was always a relational thing; but the more I ponder it, the more I think contradiction creates relation.”

Ingo H. Warnke
diversity and plurality

“Join us to create more diversity and plurality in knowledge production.”

Gisela Febel