‘African philosophy’ The History of an Expression

Souleymane Bachir Diagne’s text is on the history of what has been called ‘African philosophy,’ a phrase with origins in the early post-World War II period. Diagne begins by tracing the complex history and legacy of the book Bantu Philosophy (1949), which was written by the philosopher and theologian Placide Tempels, a Franciscan missionary and Belgian citizen. Diagne argues that that text represented an important break with the way in which Africa had been ignored and set aside in philosophical circles (a practice that Diagne traces to Hegel). From there, he outlines how currents in African philosophy first imitated, and then later broke with, Tempels’s model. He concludes with observations on current trends in African philosophy, which above all focus on democratic transitions, human rights, the future of the arts, citizenship, and languages in use on the continent today.