African philosophies

African Philosophies is a journey into African thought by the winners of the Jabuti Prize – Book of the Year.

In a broad sense, the term "philosophy" designates the pursuit of knowledge that began when human beings began to attempt to understand the world through reason. The term can also define the set of conceptions, practical or theoretical, about existence, beings, human beings, and each person's role in the Universe. In academic practice, it is used to designate the "set of metaphysical conceptions (general and abstract) about the world."

The major criticism of attempts to characterize traditional African thought as philosophy is that, in Africa, the natives, faced with the great unknown that is the Universe, would be incapable of going beyond the fear and reverence typical of so-called “primitive” minds.

From then on, so-called "scientific racism," one of the pillars of 19th-century colonialism—discrediting the sources of African knowledge known since antiquity—denied the possibility of Africans producing philosophy. Thus, recognition as philosophers, in the strict sense of the term, of thinkers born in Africa and of a philosophical line originating from them only occurred in the 20th century.

African Philosophies: An Introduction addresses both ancestral African knowledge, its essence preserved in proverbs, multicultural diversity, and teachings passed down through generations through oral tradition, and the contribution of contemporary African and Afro-descendant philosophers to updating this knowledge, much of which is based on decolonialism.

Nei Lopes and Luiz Antonio Simas, in a didactic manner, have once again written a work that highlights the complexity, sophistication and depth of African thought and the world perspectives that its philosophy provokes.