In Search of Africa(s)

This important book by two leading scholars of Africa examines a series of issues that are central to the question of the postcolonial.  The postcolonial paradigm, and the more recent decolonial paradigm, raise the issue of the universal: is the postcolonial the first phase of a new universalism, one which would be truly universal because it would be fully inclusive, or is it on the contrary the denial of all universalism, the triumph of the particular and of fragmentation?

In addressing this issue Diagne and Amselle also tackle many related themes, such as the concepts of race, culture and identity, the role of languages in philosophy as practised in different cultural areas, the various conceptions of Islam, especially in West Africa, and the outlines of an Africa which can be thought of at the same time as singular and as plural. Each thinker looks back at his writings on these themes, comparing and contrasting them with those of his interlocutor. While Amselle seeks to expose the essentialist and culturalist logics that might underlie postcolonial and decolonial thought, Diagne consistently refuses to adopt the trappings of the Afrocentrist and particularist thinker.  He argues instead for a total decentring of all thought, one that rejects all centrisms and highlights instead branchings and connections, transfers, analogies and reciprocal influences between cultural places and intellectual fields that may be distant but are not distinct in space and time.

This volume is a timely contribution to current debates on the postcolonial question and its new decolonial form.  It will be of great interest to students and scholars in a variety of fields, from African studies and Black studies to philosophy, anthropology, sociology and cultural studies, as well as to anyone interested in the debates around postcolonial studies and decolonial thought

Born in Senegal,Souleymane Bachir Diagne is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and an authority on African and Islamic philosophy.
Jean-Loup Amselle is director of studies at the EHESS in Paris and a leading anthropologist of Africa.

Foreword vii

In focus: a comparative reading of Souleymane Bachir Diagne and Jean-Loup Amselle
Anthony Mangeon

Introduction 1
Souleymane Bachir Diagne and Jean-Loup Amselle

1 Universalism in questions 7
Jean-Loup Amselle

2 On the universal and universalism 19
Souleymane Bachir Diagne

3 Race, culture, identity 30
Jean-Loup Amselle

4 Africanity, Afrocentrism, representation 39
Souleymane Bachir Diagne

5 The racial ban on representation 45
Jean-Loup Amselle

6 On cultural and linguistic specificities 50
Jean-Loup Amselle

7 On African languages and translation 60
Souleymane Bachir Diagne

8 An optimism of translation 67
Jean-Loup Amselle

9 On philosophy in Islam and on the question of a West African Islam 71
Souleymane Bachir Diagne

10 The political instrumentalization of a West African Sufi Islam 87
Jean-Loup Amselle

11 West African Sufism revisited 96
Souleymane Bachir Diagne

12 Thinking/creating Africa 99
Souleymane Bachir Diagne

13 On the non-existence of Africa and of Europe 106
Jean-Loup Amselle

14 On Africa and pan-Africanism 114
Souleymane Bachir Diagne

15 Souleymane Bachir Diagnes desire for Africa 118
Jean-Loup Amselle

16 Were human rights born in Africa? 120
Jean-Loup Amselle

17 On the charters of the Mandé 131
Souleymane Bachir Diagne

18 On various contemporary questions 136
Souleymane Bachir Diagne and Jean-Loup Amselle

Notes 159

Bibliography 182