Edwin Etieyibo

The Status of Oral Traditions in the History of Philosophy: Methodological Considerations

7.-9. September 2023, Universität Hildesheim

Edwin Etieyibo

Philosophy in African Dance

African dance in communities across the continent and in the diaspora is contemporaneous and contiguous with such communities and does occupy a central place in African cultures. Besides its aesthetic appeal and feature, it is communicative and has a logic to it. African dance is purposive, functional, and symbolic or a meaning making activity — expressing values, beliefs, norms, and aspects of life that reinforce the significance of the spiritual-physico community and its we-mode of being. In this presentation, I discuss some aspects of African dance, paying particular attention to its contexts, and philosophy. At the end, I demonstrate that for the category of African dance that exhibits certain and defined rhythmic body movement or what may be called African polycentric dance, it not only entertains, but also ultimately expresses a communalistic philosophical worldview or value, which does not pitch the “I” against an “I” or a “We,” but socially and metaphysically embeds the “I” into a “We.”

Edwin Etieyibo is Professor of Philosophy and Head of Department, the University of the Witwatersrand, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta. He is Cofounder and Secretary of the African Philosophy Society and works primarily in ethics, social and political philosophy, epistemology, African philosophy, decolonization, critical thinking, and philosophy for children. He is the author/co-author and editor/co-editor of 12 books and 6 journal special issues, among which are Disabilities in Nigeria: Attitudes, Reactions, and Remediation (2017); Decolonisation, Africanisation and the Philosophy Curriculum (2018); Method, Substance and the Future of African Philosophy (2018); Menkiti on Community and Becoming a Person (with Polycarp Ikuenobe, 2020); Deciding in Unison: Themes in Consensual Democracy in Africa (with Emmanuel Ifeanyi Ani, 2020); Africa’s Radicalisms and Conservatisms I: Politics, Poverty, Marginalisation and Education (with Obvious Katsaura and Mucha Musemwa, 2021); African Philosophy in an Intercultural Perspective (with Anke Graness and Franz Gmainer-Pranzl, 2022); A Case for Environmental Justice (2022); Africa’s Radicalisms and Conservatisms II: Pop Culture, Environment, Colonialism and Migration; Essays on Contemporary Issues in African Philosophy (with Jonathan O. Chimakonam and Ike Odimegwu).