Philosophizing in Portuguese:
African Perspectives

While philosophy in Africa is increasingly recognized today as a part of the world philosophical discourse, the discourse on and in African philosophy mainly focuses on the Anglophone and Francophone parts of Africa south of the Sahara.

The philosophy of the Portuguese-speaking part of Africa, that is, countries like Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe, is still largely excluded from philosophical discourse inside as well as outside of Africa. This workshop brings together scholars from Mozambique, Angola, and Cape Verde. They will present selected regional philosophical discourses, discuss examples of sources of philosophizing in Portuguese from the African continent, and address methodological questions, especially regarding oral philosophies.

This half-day workshop is part of the focus Philosophizing in Portuguese of the Africa research focus in which the GloPhi Center aims at illuminating the rich history of philosophizing in Portuguese in Africa and the African diaspora.

Please write an email to glophi@uni-hildesheim.de by Wednesday, 24 June, expressing your interest in participating in the Philosophizing in Portuguese event. Kindly use the  subject line Registration: Philosophizing in Portuguese. On-site participation is possible in the GloPhi room on the main campus of Hildesheim University.  

Video Conference

Program

Organizers

Anke Graness is professor of philosophy at the University of Hildesheim and one of the directors of the DFG-funded Center for Advanced Studies “Philosophizing in a Globalized World – Historical and Systematic Perspectives” (GloPhi). She studied philosophy in Leipzig and Vienna. Anke Graness is a member of the steering committee of the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie (FISP), of the Curatorial Board of the “Outline of the History of Philosophy” (Ueberweg: Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie), and of the editorial board of the journal polylog. Zeitschrift für interkulturelles Philosophieren. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Lucerne (2025) and is currently Professor Extraordinarius in the Department of Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology in the College of Human Sciences of the University of South Africa (UNISA).

Monika Christine Rohmer is a postdoctoral researcher. Within the project, she puts her focus on philosophizing in African languages, namely Hausa, Pulaar, and Wolof. Further, she is interested in ecosophies on and beyond the African continent. Monika is a transdisciplinary scholar combining intercultural philosophy, applied linguistics, the study of verbal arts, and postcolonial theories. Monika pursued her PhD in the framework of the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS). In her PhD, she compared conceptualisations and metaphors of water at the Senegalese Coast with a focus on French and Wolof. At the University of Bayreuth, she was the assistant of Prof. Dr. Alena Rettová, chair of African and Afrophone Philosophies, and Prof. Dr. em. Dymitr Ibriszimow, chair Afrikanistik II. Before obtaining her MA in African Verbal and Visual Arts at the University of Bayreuth, she majored in Political Science in her undergraduate at Leipzig University, during which she did a semester abroad UATM Gasa Formation Cotonou, Bénin.