Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge

by V.Y. Mudimbe

Book Overview

" . . . groundbreaking . . . clear, straightforward, and economical. . . . seminal . . . " --American Anthropologist

"This is a challenging book . . . a remarkable contribution to African intellectual history." --International Journal of African Historical Studies

"Mudimbe's description of the struggles over Africa's self-invention are vivid and rewarding. From Blyden to Sartre, Temples to Senghor, Mudimbe provides a bold and versatile...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253204682
• ISBN13: 9780253204684
• Release Date: May 1988
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

political dreams and furiously evolving theology

Mudimbe does philosophy like a talk-show host or a parliamentary speaker. His benches are packed with hundreds of religious leaders, political thinkers, anthropologists and philosophers who have moved African self-understanding. Their discussions are most eloquent, but unfortunately there is scarcely a woman in the auditorium. In these pages Carl Sagan undertakes to test Dogon cosmology. Zulu Chief Buthalezi and F. Eboussi-Boulaga debate the directions of African religion. The "Bantu Philosophy" of Belgian priest Placide Temples is chewed over by ethnophilosopher Alexis Kagame. Mudimbe himself continually pulls the lines of thought together and sets the stage for our next adventure.