Background
As the 2nd African Philosophy World Conference on ‘The State of African Philosophy in
Africa Today’ (a follow up to the ‘African Philosophy: Past, Present and Future Conference’
at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg) winds to a close, the conveners (Dr J
Chimakonam, Dr E. Etieyibo and Prof I. Odimegwu) highlighted the challenges bedevilling
the reinvigoration of African philosophy on the continent and beyond. Particularly, four
central issues requiring immediate actions were listed: the need for an association to push
through the invigoration project, resources in African philosophy, collaborations and
curricular development. Dr Chimakonam emphasized the importance of data gathering and
hinted at an extensive research on universities and countries that offer African Philosophy,
published in Philosophic Africana
What follows hereafter is a record of the decisions and action plans arrived at subsequent to
the aforementioned issues. The order roughly reflects the chronology of discussion rather
than an indication of importance.
Steering Committee to Form the Association
- Members extolled the idea of establishing an association to push through the invigoration of
African Philosophy on the continent and agreed to the setting up of a steering committee (the
committee, hereafter) tasked with creating the association.
*Prof Helen Lauer suggested that, when created, the association can link up or collaborate
with other associations in Europe as well as create and ICT list serve where publications,
conferences and other up-coming events can be hosted for members to login and utilise.
*Nominations: Prof Uduma suggested a 7 man committee in place of Prof Odimegwu’s
initial proposal of a 5 man committee. He also recommended, in line with the principle of not
changing a winning team, that Drs Chimakonam, Etieyibo and Prof Odimegwu be part of the
committee, which was accepted by all.
*Prof Jim Unah, President of the Philosophers Association of Nigeria (PAN), was nominated
as member of the committee.
*Other members of the committee include Dr Frederick Juma, Prof Helen Lauer, and Prof
Edward Alarm; nominated by Profs Ojong, Oguejiofor and Charles Nweke respectively.
*Sequel to the unanimity of nominations by members and acquiescence of responsibilities by
the nominees, the committee was mandated to:
- Come up with a name for the association and determine where it will be registered
- Draw up modalities for forming the association, and
- Highlight the cost implications
*In response to the request for timeline by the committee, Prof Oguejiofor suggested that the
association be registered before the next conference in 2019; while urging the committee to
create a WhatsApp group (from the conference pool of contacts) to aid some of the decision
making processes
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Online Bookstore
*Prof Odimegwu stressed the importance of an online bookstore to the invigoration project
and notes that many texts on African philosophy are not online. Hence the need to nominate
three (3) General Collectors to be responsible for gathering and collecting books on African
philosophy from members across the globe into a central hub to be decided.
*Once collected, these books will be digitized and hosted online with its usage free to
registered members of the association
*The following were nominated as General Collectors:- Prof Obi Oguejiofor (Nigeria, nominated by Prof Uduma)
- Dr Dirk Louw (South Africa, nominated by David James)
- Britta Saal (Germany, nominated by Prof Odimegwu)
*Members were urged to be active in the gathering process and forward relevant books on
African Philosophy to these major Collectors for the actualisation of the bookstore project.
*On how to go about the collection, Prof Ojong suggested that HODs/Secretaries of
Philosophy Departments gather books from scholars in their departments and courier same to
the Collectors; while Prof Odimegwu said members will be contacted from the email list of
the Calabar Conference on how to channel book collections.
Collaborations and Curricular
*A recurrent theme was that the Calabar Conference was a result of collaboration between
three universities, hence the need for further collaborations can be achieved by harnessing all
the curricular on African Philosophy on the continent.
*Ensure to look into the work of Prof Oguejiofor on (insert title: work on preliminary studies
of African universities offering philosophy or students graduating from philosophy programs)
and the B.A Philosophy program, which according to Dr Chimakonam, has been developed
in the University of Calabar.
*Once the curricular are in sync, universities can leverage on, modify and adapt them. Also,
students on the continent will now be able to go for exchange programs.
*Collaborations will be at the levels of curricular, universities, lecturers, and students.
*Nominations: Prof Oguejiofor suggested (and was accepted) that the book collectors double
as collectors of syllabuses from universities that offer African philosophy.
*Participants at the conference were also urged to forward curricular to the book collectors.
Next Conference
*Participants with funding ideas on further research on the state of African philosophy were
admonished to contact Dr Etieyibo.
*Prof Helen Lauer suggested that the University of Dar es Salaam may be interested in
hosting the next conference in 2019, while hinting that she will meet with her Head and
Principal of the College of Humanities in a couple of days on this and other allied matters.
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She however proposed that a backup host be nominated in case of any disappointment from
her parent University.
*Dr Etieyibo stressed the need for collaborations among universities given the huge financial
implication which may be too much for a single university.
*Prof Helen hinted that Prof Alam could assist with some funding linkages, while, on her
part, she would seek partnership and support from OSSREA (Organization for Social
Scientific Research in Eastern and Southern Africa).
*Prof Alam added that he will ask the University of Addis Ababa if they will be interested in
co-hosting the 2019 conference.
*Dr Frederick Juma promised to persuade his Vice Chancellor (University of Egerton) to
support or co-host the conference as well.
*On a lighter note, Prof Odimegwu held that Prof Charles Nweke’s bid that the 2019
conference be taken to the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka would be considered as a bid
for the 2021 conference.
Other Matters
*Prof Oguejiofor notes that Africa is not simply about Nigeria and South Africa; hence he
admonished that frantic efforts be geared towards linking up with philosophers in other
African countries as Algeria, Egypt, Angola, Ethiopia, Sierra Leon, D. R. Congo, etc. This
theme was recurrent in the 2015 Conference at Wits (see Record, 2015, 2:4).
Adjournment
The meeting/APWC came to an end at 6:15 pm
