Celebrating 9 of Africa’s legendary philosophers of all time

Kwasi Wiredu

The most prominent discussion of this Ghanaian philosopher who has been the Vice-President of the Inter-African Council for Philosophy revolves around the Akan concept of personhood.  His other concern when defining African Philosophy is keeping colonialised African philosophy in a separate category from pre-colonised Africa. Arguing that African philosophy must not be compared to Western philosophy, his study of the still influential colonial accounts of African thought has led him to raise some critical questions about philosophy and culture and, specifically, about the philosophical conditions of inter-cultural dialogue. The 87-year-old has been a University Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy at the University of South Florida, Tampa. Some of his main works include Philosophy and an African Culture (1980 – this won him the 1982 Ghana National Book Award), Cultural Universals and Particulars: An African Perspective (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996) and Person and Community: Ghanaian Philosophical Studies [edd] Wiredu & Kwame Gyekye (1992).