There exists in the modern worlda form of non-Christianised religious thought which develops the basic ideas of indigenous African religion beyond their beginnings, and is represented in authorssuch as Kamalu, Osabutey-Aguedze, etc. The spheres of interest in such authors fiJay be analysed in terms of the following areas: Intervening ideological conditions bearing on African life (particularr; theological and cosmological ideas): The historical background of African life; The roots of African life, as manifested in its traditions, and tts ethical and cultural heritage; Means for the innovative development of African life, found in African concepts of knowledge, mysticism and magic; The perceived destiny of African life. The thesis concludes with an indication of areas of agreement and debate in post-traditional African thought, of problems faced by such thought; and of other possible priorities for future study. / Religious Studies & Arabic / D.Th. (Religious Studies)

Submitted by Maria Aparecida (cidazen@gmail.com) on 2017-04-12T14:44:26Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Claudia Silva Lima.pdf: 1094697 bytes, checksum: 8cdbc715d95de154fe687c5a9baae048 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-12T14:44:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Claudia Silva Lima.pdf: 1094697 bytes, checksum: 8cdbc715d95de154fe687c5a9baae048 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-30 / FAPEMA / The so-called African philosophy constitutes a privileged analysis to be access to significant aspects of the history and of the African societies. The Studies International African are related directly to historical and production philosophical production. In Brazil, however, only in a historiography interest most prominent on Africa; just booked and tentatively begins to think about Africa from a philosophical perspective. In this research, we intend to connect to African Studies both the Philosophy as the story. It is considered that African thought is born in permanent confrontation and dialogue with the so-called Western thought. Thus, in the present work, which consists of a research exploratory, especially of bibliographic and documentary character, first of all, is a reflection on how the West has set the time and history, in your connection with the construction of another, especially from the other African and other Negro; showing the temporal and spatial character, racialist and racist philosophy and of Western thought, discusses the possibility of epistemologies and gnosiologias other; analyze works of some of the main exponents of philosophy West, like Hegel and Kant, that feature descriptive formulations and Black Africa explanatory and African; the suspicion of that race and the racism are constituent elements of the history and the status of gnosiológico Western philosophy. Secondly, the Constitution is described and some reverberations from the field of philosophy. Finally, it discusses about the central concepts that guide the discussion of African philosophy in the present day, such as a race, the idea of Africa, reason, capitalism, humanity, in the works of three of more relevant and influential thinkers and contemporary African philosophers, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Achille Mbembe and Nkolo Foé. / La llamada filosofía africana constituye un análisis privilegiado para ser el acceso a aspectos significativos de la historia y de las sociedades africanas. Los estudios de Internacional africana están relacionados directamente al histórico y producción producción filosófica. En Brasil, sin embargo, sólo en un interés de la historiografía más prominentes de África; solo reservados y tentativamente comienza a pensar en África desde una perspectiva filosófica. En esta investigación, pretendemos conectar a estudios africanos tanto la filosofía como la historia. Se considera Pensado africano nace en diálogo y confrontación permanente con el supuesto Pensamiento occidental. Así, en el presente trabajo, que consiste en una investigación exploratoria, especialmente de carácter bibliográfico y documental, en primer lugar, es una reflexión sobre cómo Occidente ha establecido el tiempo y la historia, en su conexión con la construcción de otro, especialmente de los otros africanos y otros Negro; mostrando el carácter temporal y espacial, racista y racialist filosofía y de pensamiento occidental, se discute la posibilidad de epistemologías y gnosiologias otros; analizar obras de algunos de los principales exponentes de la filosofía Oeste, como Hegel y Kant, que cuentan con formulaciones descriptivas y Explicativo de la África negra y África; la sospecha de que la raza y la racismo son elementos constitutivos de la historia y el estado de gnosiológico Filosofía occidental. En segundo lugar, se describe la Constitución y algunas ecos del campo de la filosofía. Finalmente, discute sobre la conceptos centrales que guiarán la discusión de la filosofía africana en el día de hoy, tales como una carrera, la idea de razón, capitalismo, África, la humanidad, en las obras de tres de más relevantes e influyentes pensadores y filósofos contemporáneos africanos, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Achille Mbembe y Nkolo Foé. / A chamada filosofia africana constitui um campo de análise privilegiado para se ter acesso a aspectos significativos da história e das sociedades africanas. Aos Estudos Africanos internacionais estão relacionados diretamente a produção histórica e a produção filosófica. No Brasil, entretanto, apenas na historiografia se vê um interesse mais destacado sobre África; apenas recente e muito timidamente se começa a pensar sobre África desde uma perspectiva filosófica. Nesta pesquisa, pretende-se conectar aos Estudos Africanos tanto a Filosofia quanto a História. Considera-se que o pensamento africano nasce em permanente confronto e diálogo com o chamado pensamento ocidental. Assim, no presente trabalho, que consiste numa pesquisa exploratória, sobretudo de caráter bibliográfico e documental, em primeiro lugar, fazse uma reflexão sobre como no Ocidente tem-se definido o tempo e a história, em sua conexão com a construção do outro, especialmente, do outro africano e do outro negro; evidenciando-se o caráter temporal e espacial, racialista e racista da filosofia e do pensamento ocidental, discute-se sobre a possibilidade de epistemologias e gnosiologias outras; analisam-se obras de alguns dos principais expoentes da filosofia ocidental, a exemplo de Hegel e Kant, que apresentam formulações descritivas e explicativas sobre África, negro e africano; levanta-se a suspeição de que a raça e o racismo são elementos constituintes da própria história e do estatuto gnosiológico da filosofia ocidental. Em segundo lugar, descreve-se a constituição e algumas reverberações do campo da filosofia africana. Finalmente, discute-se acerca das concepções centrais que norteiam o debate da filosofia africana nos dias atuais, tais como raça, a ideia de África, razão, capitalismo, humanidade, nas obras de três dos mais relevantes e influentes pensadores e filósofos africanos contemporâneos, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Achille Mbembe e Nkolo Foé.

Ubuntu is a worldview and a way of life shared by most Africans south of Sahara. Basically Ubuntu underlines the often unrecognized role of relatedness and dependence of human individuality to other humans and the cosmos. The importance of relatedness to humanity is summarized by the two maxims of Ubuntu. The first is: a human being is human because of other human beings. The second maxim is an elaboration of the first. It goes; a human being is human because of the otherness of other human beings. John Mbiti combines those two maxims into, "I am because we are, and we are because I am." Ubuntu worldview can provide insights about relationships with communities and the world that contribute to the meaning of Global Bioethics. <br>Ubuntu can be described as involving several distinct yet related components that can be explored in relation to major strands of discourse in contemporary Bioethics. The first component of Ubuntu deals with the tension between individual and universal rights. The second component of Ubuntu deals with concerns about the cosmic and global context of life. The third component of Ubuntu deals with the role of solidarity that unites individuals and communities. Ubuntu has a lot in common with current discourse in bioethics. It can facilitate global bioethics. It can inspire the on-going dialogue about human dignity, human rights and the ethics that surround it. It can inspire and be inspired by global environmental concerns that threaten the biosphere and human life. Ubuntu can critique the formal bioethical principles of autonomy, justice, beneficence and non-maleficence. Above all, Ubuntu can create a basis for dialogue and mutually enlightening discourse between global bioethics and indigenous cultures. Such a dialogue helps make advancements in bioethics relevant to local indigenous cultures, thereby facilitating the acceptability and praxis of global bioethical principles. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Philosophy / PhD / Dissertation;

There exists in the modern worlda form of non-Christianised religious thought which develops the basic ideas of indigenous African religion beyond their beginnings, and is represented in authorssuch as Kamalu, Osabutey-Aguedze, etc. The spheres of interest in such authors fiJay be analysed in terms of the following areas: Intervening ideological conditions bearing on African life (particularr; theological and cosmological ideas): The historical background of African life; The roots of African life, as manifested in its traditions, and tts ethical and cultural heritage; Means for the innovative development of African life, found in African concepts of knowledge, mysticism and magic; The perceived destiny of African life. The thesis concludes with an indication of areas of agreement and debate in post-traditional African thought, of problems faced by such thought; and of other possible priorities for future study. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D.Th. (Religious Studies)

This study provides a critical interrogation of the perceptions held by the undergraduate Philosophy of Education students at an open and distance learning institution, towards African philosophy. The study is premised on famed Kenyan philosopher, Odera Henry Oruka‟s classification of African philosophy into four trends: ethno-philosophy, philosophic sagacity, nationalist-ideological philosophy and professional philosophy. These trends confirm that African philosophy is more than traditions, culture or ubuntu, and more complex than the students make it to be. The study makes a link between the students‟ flawed perceptions of African philosophy with their lack of critical thinking skills. The study has attempted to answer questions such as why students have flawed perceptions of African philosophy; how critical thinking assists in changing their perceptions of African philosophy, and what role can the education system play in equipping students with critical thinking skills. The study‟s findings show that undergraduate Philosophy of Education students conflate African philosophy with African people‟s traditions and cultures, and with ubuntu. Students perceive that African philosophy lacks reason and rationality - key elements of critical thinking. The study‟s findings show that students lack critical thinking skills. The study notes that the way students are taught makes a large contribution to their perceptions and lack of critical thinking skills. The study makes the following recommendations. Firstly, to deal with the problem of students‟ conflations, the study recommends the introduction of the principles of African philosophy, namely, ubuntu, communalism and indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) in the school curriculum, and to emphasise these principles in the curricula of higher education institutions. Secondly, the study recommends the introduction of philosophy for children (P4C) in schools. It is envisaged that P4C will assist learners to acquire critical thinking skills at an early stage of learning. Thirdly, the study recommends the teaching of critical thinking skills at universities. Finally, the study recommends that in- service training be made an integral part of teachers‟ and lecturers‟ professional training, to bring them up-to-date with new ideas and methods of teaching. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

Nagona na Mzingile, riwaya za mwandishi wa Kiswahili Euphrase Kezilahabi, zinasemekana kuwa na mtindo wa kipekee wa usimuliaji, na simulizi changamano ambalo si rahisi kueleweka. Makala haya yamezichukulia riwaya hizo mbili kama hadithi moja, na kuchunguza muundo wa fumbo unaosababisha upekee wa riwaya hizo. Muundo huo utafunuliwa kuwa ni duara inayorudia uhai na ufu. Nitajaribu kuelewa muundo huo wa duara kutumia fikra ya mwanafalsafa wa dini, Mircea Eliade, na dini ya Ubudha. / Nagona and Mzingile, written by a Swahili author Euphrase Kezilahabi, have been considered to have the unique narrative style and complex storyline, which make the novels difficult to understand. This article regards these two novels as a single inner-connected story to reveal a hidden structure, which makes the novels unique. This structure turns out to be a cycle which regularly repeats birth and death. I will try to analyse this circular structure by using thoughts of a theologian Mircea Eliade and Buddhism.

In post-colonial Africa, conceptions of the nature and purposes of development as well as the theories and strategies for achieving them have remained a territory traversed predominantly by non-African social scientists. In this context, social scientists studying Africa's development proclaimed, at the dawn of the 1990s, a "paradigmatic crisis" and embarked on a quest for new paradigms . In advancing this quest, a number of "homegrown" development strategies have emerged. This work argues that these are mere adaptations and reconstructions of dominant Eurocentic paradigms that exaggerate the value of economic goods and wealth creation founded on a competitive marketplace by making them immutable features of development. Yet the ethic of competition theoretically condones a trajectory of killing in the quest for wealth accumulation. In this way, internalist epistemologies perpetuate epistemicide and valuecide in Africa's strides towards development. The stranglehold of internalist epistemologies has resulted in the impasse of rationality. By this we mean that Reason, apotheosized since the Enlightenment, has advanced humanity out of barbarism to "civilization" but has now placed humanity on the brink of unredeemable barbarism. Reason, through its manifestations in the philosophy of Mutual Assured Destruction and global warming, has condemned humanity to willful but avoidable suicide. Since the subjects and objects of development must be one and the same, development is necessarily culture-derived and culture-driven, with the preservation and improvement of human dignity and welfare as its ultimate aims. Accordingly, we defend the thesis that it is necessary for a framework meant for Africa's development to be founded on indigenous knowledge and values, if it is to succeed. And at this moment of impasse reached by Reason, an African ethics-based development paradigm, predicated on humaneness and "life is mutual aid", can restore Reason to sober rationality and liberate Africa's development efforts from the intoxicating prison of profit making. Hence the institutions and frameworks devoted to Africa's development, such as the Constitution and Strategic Plan of the African Union as well as NEPAD, must incorporate salient features of the philosophic ethic emanating from the knowledge and ontological systems of indigenous Africa into visions of the African future. / Philosophy / D. Phil. (Philosophy)

To date, the vast literature on theories of psychology, and psychology as a practice, still remains a reflection of Western experiences and conceptions of reality. This is so despite "psychology" and "psychotherapy" being studied and implemented by Africans, dealing with Africa's existential issues, in Africa. In this context, a distorted impression that positions psychology and psychotherapy as irreplaceable and irrefutable Western discoveries is created. This perception creates a tendency in which psychotherapists adopt and use universalised, foreign and imposed theories to explain and deal with African cultural experiences. In recent years, African scholars' quest to advance "African-brewed" conceptions, definitions and practices of "psychology" and "psychotherapy" is gaining momentum. Psychologists dealing with African clients are increasingly confronted with the difficulty, and in some instances the impossibility, of communicating with, and treating local clients using Western conceptions and theories. Adopting the dominant Western epistemological and scientific paradigms constitutes epistemological oppression and alienation. Instead, African conceptions, definitions and practices of "psychology" and "psychotherapy" based on African cultural experiences, epistemology and ontology are argued for. The thesis defended in this study is that the dominant Western paradigm of scientific knowledge in general and, psychology in particular, is anchored in a defective claim to neutrality, objectivity and universality. To demonstrate this, indigenous ways of knowing and doing in the African experience are counterpoised against the Western understanding and construction of scientific knowledge in the fields of psychology and psychotherapy. The conclusion arising from our demonstration is the imperative to rethink psychology and psychotherapy in order to (i) affirm the validity of indigenous African ways of knowing and doing; (ii) show that the exclusion of the indigenous African ways of knowing and doing from the Western paradigm illustrates the tenuous and questionable character of its epistemological and methodological claims to neutrality, objectivity and universality. Indeed the Western claim to scientific knowledge, as described, speaks to its universality at the expense of the ineradicable as well as irreducible v ontological pluriversality of the human experience. This study's aim is to advance the argument for the sensitivity to pluriversality of be-ing and the imperative for wholistic thinking. / Psychology / D. Phil. (Psychology)

This dissertation is a philosophical examination of the concept of reincarnation from an African point of view. It does so, largely, from the cultural perspective of the Akan people of Ghana. In this work, reincarnation is distinguished from such related concepts as metempsychosis and transmigration with which it is conflated by many authors on the subject. In terms of definition, therefore, the belief that a deceased person can be reborn is advanced in this dissertation as referring to only reincarnation, but not to either metempsychosis or transmigration. Many scholars would agree that reincarnation is a pristine concept, yet it is so present in the beliefs and worldviews of several cultures today (including those of Africa). A good appreciation of the concept, it can be seen, will not be possible without some reference to the past. That is why some attempt is first made at the early stages of the dissertation to show how reincarnation was understood in the religious philosophies of ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, Chinese and the Incas. Secondly, some link is then established between the past and present, especially between ancient Egyptian philosophy and those of contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. In modern African thought, the doctrine of reincarnation has not been thoroughly researched into. Even so, some of the few who have written on the subject have denied its existence in African thought. The dissertation rejects this denial, and seeks to show nonetheless that reincarnation is generally an irrational concept. In spite of its irrationality, it is acknowledged that the concept, as especially presented in African thought, raises our understanding of the constitution of a person as understood in the African culture. It is also observed that the philosophical problem of personal identity is central to the discussion of reincarnation because that which constitutes a person is presumed to be known whenever a claim of return of a survived person is made. For this reason, the dissertation also pays significant attention to the concept of personal identity in connection, especially, with the African philosophical belief in the return of persons. / Philosophy & Systematic Theology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Philosophy)

In post-colonial Africa, conceptions of the nature and purposes of development as well as the theories and strategies for achieving them have remained a territory traversed predominantly by non-African social scientists. In this context, social scientists studying Africa's development proclaimed, at the dawn of the 1990s, a "paradigmatic crisis" and embarked on a quest for new paradigms . In advancing this quest, a number of "homegrown" development strategies have emerged. This work argues that these are mere adaptations and reconstructions of dominant Eurocentic paradigms that exaggerate the value of economic goods and wealth creation founded on a competitive marketplace by making them immutable features of development. Yet the ethic of competition theoretically condones a trajectory of killing in the quest for wealth accumulation. In this way, internalist epistemologies perpetuate epistemicide and valuecide in Africa's strides towards development. The stranglehold of internalist epistemologies has resulted in the impasse of rationality. By this we mean that Reason, apotheosized since the Enlightenment, has advanced humanity out of barbarism to "civilization" but has now placed humanity on the brink of unredeemable barbarism. Reason, through its manifestations in the philosophy of Mutual Assured Destruction and global warming, has condemned humanity to willful but avoidable suicide. Since the subjects and objects of development must be one and the same, development is necessarily culture-derived and culture-driven, with the preservation and improvement of human dignity and welfare as its ultimate aims. Accordingly, we defend the thesis that it is necessary for a framework meant for Africa's development to be founded on indigenous knowledge and values, if it is to succeed. And at this moment of impasse reached by Reason, an African ethics-based development paradigm, predicated on humaneness and "life is mutual aid", can restore Reason to sober rationality and liberate Africa's development efforts from the intoxicating prison of profit making. Hence the institutions and frameworks devoted to Africa's development, such as the Constitution and Strategic Plan of the African Union as well as NEPAD, must incorporate salient features of the philosophic ethic emanating from the knowledge and ontological systems of indigenous Africa into visions of the African future. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Phil. (Philosophy)