African Philosophy and Philosophical Counselling

Bringing together philosophical counselling and the decolonial discourse within African philosophy, this book demonstrates how African thought can deepen and reshape practice. Jaco Louw introduces two approaches to African philosophy and their application to philosophical counselling: the African hermeneutics of Tsenay Serequeberhan and the African conversational philosophy of Jonathan Chimakonam.Drawing on Serequeberhan's work, Jaco Louw explores concepts such as horizon, discourse, and historicity to examine the influence of philosophical inheritance on the counselling encounter. This approach highlights the contextual conditions that shape understanding and supports a practice attentive to diverse lived experiences.The book also examines Chimakonam's conversational philosophy, which emphasises the constitutive role of the other in philosophical inquiry. Through concepts including creative struggle and arumaristics (conversational dialectic), Louw shows how conversational thinking enriches the philosophical counselling relationship and expands understandings of dialogue and partnership.Although philosophical counselling is grounded in the idea that clients can benefit from philosophy's resources, African perspectives remain underrepresented in the field. Positioning African philosophy within philosophical counselling, the book demonstrates how sustained engagement with African thought offers situated, contextual responses to contemporary practice while providing a model of philosophising that remains accountable to different lifeworlds.