Kwasi wiredu philosophy and an african culture

He was among a very small number who made a major mark in the field of philosophy — a subject considered too advanced for Africans during the colonial days. He succeeded in lifting African traditional thought to the highest world levels during an outstanding career. Cameron Duodu pays tribute to a great son of Africa. Kwasi Wiredu was one of a duo of brilliant philosophers who impressed President Kwame Nkrumah so much that he sent them to Germany to research the works of William Anton Amo —c.

Although outsiders assumed they were rivals, they remained intimate friends throughout their student days and continued their friendship when they both returned home to lecture in philosophy at the University of Ghana.

Kwasi wiredu on african philosophy pdf

Kwasi Wiredu was born in Kumasi, Ghana, in and taught for 23 years at the University of Ghana — becoming head of its Department of Philosophy — before he took up an appointment as Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Florida. If this man thought that a course of action would be wrong, he would be simply incapable of pursuing it.

If you [had] him for a friend, you [had] a friend for life… I have never heard anyone, or heard of anyone, who had anything ill to say of him. I met Wiredu for the first time in Kumasi in the early s, whilst I was the editor of the Ghana edition of Drum magazine. But more than that, he eloquently used well-known Akan proverbs to make his lyrics memorable.

And he inspired Onyina to compose lyrics that comforted those who needed to shore up their psyches! Two questions that decisively shaped these discussions were: what is the distinguishing feature of an African philosophical work, and who counts as an African philosopher?

Kwasi wiredu conceptual decolonization

He prescribed for African philosophy an orientation that involves constructive self-criticism; i. He argued across millennia, with his contemporaries, and he will continue to argue with future scholars. Hence, he will not be forgotten in the history of philosophy. Africans are a much oppressed and disparaged people; some foreigners have not even conceded that Africans, as a traditional people, were capable of a coherent worldview.