African Philosophy As Cultural Inquiry

Ivan Karp is National Endowment for the Humanities Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of Public Scholarship at Emory University. He is author of Fields of Change among the Iteso of Kenya.D. A. Masolo is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Louisville. He is author of African Philosophy in Search of Identity (published by Indiana University Press).

• Preliminary Table of Contents: AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: African Philosophy as Cultural Inquiry Ivan Karp and D. A. MasoloPart 1: Power, Personhood, and AgencyIntroduction to Part 1 Ivan Karp and D. A. Masolo1. "Tok Af, Lef Af": A Political Economy of Temne Techniques of Secrecy and Self Rosalind Shaw2. Islam Among the Humours: Destiny and Agency Among the Swahili David Parkin3. Some African Conceptions of Person: A Critique Didier N. KaphagawaniPart 2: Knowledge and DiscourseIntroduction to Part 2 Ivan Karp and D. A. Masolo4. The Play of Deconstruction in the Speech of Africa: The Role of "Pakruok" and "Ngero" in Telling Culture in Dholuo Peter S. O. Amuka5. Personhood and Art: Social Change and Commentary Among the Acoli J. P. Odoch Pido6. Forging Unions and Negotiating Ambivalence: Personhood and Complex Agency in Okiek Marriage Arrangement Corinne A. Kratz7. Chéri Samba's Postcolonial Reinvention of Modernity Bogumil JewsiewickiPart 3: African Discourses on DevelopmentIntroduction to Part 3 Ivan Karp and D. A. Masolo8. Our Problem of Knowledge: Brief Reflections on Knowledge and Development in Africa Kwasi Wiredu9. The Topic of Change F. Eboussi-Boulaga10. Luo Perspectives on Knowledge and Development: Samuel G. Ayany and Paul MbuyaE. S. Atieno-OdhiamboContributorsIndex

"A conception of philosophy embedded in culture guides this anthology, divided into three categories (personhood, knowledge, and development), exploring issues in postcolonial African cultures. Part 1 has essays on the role secrecy plays in shaping personal identity in Sierra Leone, the function of moral notions of the self in Swahili medical practices in Zanzibar, and the dynamic view of the self exhibited in Chichewa linguistic practice. In part 2, which examines epistemological aspects of discourses in the forms of storytelling and music, and in the representation of arranged marriages, Karp and Masolo point out the deconstructive function of hidden meanings of praise—naming metaphors; Odoch Pido discusses Acoli concepts of the person; and Kratz explains the philosophic significance of gendered representation of shifts in identity and social relations in Okiek arranged marriages. In part 3 (the role of traditional culture in social change and modernization), Wiredu argues for retaining African social ethics to balance technical rationality of industrialization; Eboussi—Boulaga analyzes the term change, using the genetic concept of mutation to establish criteria identifying beneficial and evil mutations; Jewsiewicki reflects on the moral and social commentary in Kinshasa visual artist Cheri Samba; and Atieno—Odhiambo discusses Luo writers Samuel Ayany's and Paul Mbaya's efforts to synthesize Luo and Christian cultures. Recommended for upper—division undergraduate and graduate courses.November 2001"—T. L. Lott, San Jose State University