Frantz Fanon

The very phrase “African philosophy” is itself a matter of philosophical debate. Before any doctrine, it raises a question about the criteria by which we recognize something as philosophy — criteria largely defined by the Western tradition. This article traces the main currents of African philosophical thought, from ancient Egypt to contemporary debates, without either erasing or essentializing a diversity that spans an entire continent and its diaspora. Three Preliminary Questions Any study of the field runs into three methodological problems: ...

Postcolonial theory is the body of currents that, from the 1970s–80s onward, critically analyzed the cultural, psychic, and epistemic effects of colonialism — not only during colonial rule but in its persistence after formal independence. Its object is not primarily the political economy of empire (studied by other traditions) but discourse: the representations, knowledges, and structures of subjectivity that made colonialism thinkable, sayable, and durable. This article traces its precursors — Du Bois and Fanon — and the trio that consolidated the field: Said, Spivak, and Bhabha. ...