African philosophical hermeneutics has emerged in response to the predicaments of post-colonial African societies. Its central premise is that practical responses have a lot to gain from interpreting people’s experience of meaning and the disruption of it. But where does understanding originate from? And what are the possibilities and limitations of interpretation as support for practice?

Suspended in the tension between Africa’s traumatic past and people’s continuing quest for autonomy, African hermeneutics draws on old traditions, adopted ideas and creative reflection. This results in intense intellectual engagement with history and conflict, translation and human nature, epistemic domination and liberation.

This book explores the role of hermeneutics in African philosophy. By examining its leading thinkers, it offers stimulating perspectives for any reader grappling with interpretation, critique, pluralism, decolonization and politics – in Africa and elsewhere.

African philosophical hermeneutics has emerged in response to the predicaments of post-colonial African societies. Its central premise is that practical responses have a lot to gain from interpreting people’s experience of meaning and the disruption of it. But where does understanding originate from? And what are the possibilities and limitations of interpretation as support for practice? Suspended in the tension between Africa’s traumatic past and people’s continuing quest for autonomy, African hermeneutics draws on old traditions, adopted ideas and creative reflection. This results in intense intellectual engagement with history and conflict, translation and human nature, epistemic domination and liberation. This book explores the role of hermeneutics in African philosophy. By examining its leading thinkers, it offers stimulating perspectives for any reader grappling with interpretation, critique, pluralism, decolonization and politics in Africa and elsewhere.

Ernst Wolff is professor at the Institute of Philosophy of the KU Leuven

Ernst Wolff shows how interpretation engages with the repercussions of socio-historical crises […] from which nevertheless emerges an irrepressible desire for emancipation and self-affirmation. - Charles Mbele, Université de Yaoundé 1

Wolff has written a book that vastly expands the boundaries of African Philosophy by […] taking seriously the ideas and discourses of individual African thinkers and engaging them at the most granular level. - Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Cornell University

Combining rigorous argumentation with a rare clarity of expression, this well-researched and brilliantly written book will be of enormous value and significance to students and scholars of philosophy and the social sciences. - Kasereka Kavwahirehi, University of Ottawa

Introductory and critical overview of African philosophical hermeneutics

African philosophical hermeneutics has emerged in response to the predicaments of post-colonial African societies. Its central premise is that practical responses have a lot to gain from interpreting people’s experience of meaning and the disruption of it. But where does understanding originate from? And what are the possibilities and limitations of interpretation as support for practice? Suspended in the tension between Africa’s traumatic past and people’s continuing quest for autonomy, African hermeneutics draws on old traditions, adopted ideas and creative reflection. This results in intense intellectual engagement with history and conflict, translation and human nature, epistemic domination and liberation. This book explores the role of hermeneutics in African philosophy. By examining its leading thinkers, it offers stimulating perspectives for any reader grappling with interpretation, critique, pluralism, decolonization and politics in Africa and elsewhere.

Ernst Wolff is professor at the Institute of Philosophy of the KU Leuven

Ernst Wolff shows how interpretation engages with the repercussions of socio-historical crises […] from which nevertheless emerges an irrepressible desire for emancipation and self-affirmation. - Charles Mbele, Université de Yaoundé 1

Wolff has written a book that vastly expands the boundaries of African Philosophy by […] taking seriously the ideas and discourses of individual African thinkers and engaging them at the most granular level. - Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Cornell University

Combining rigorous argumentation with a rare clarity of expression, this well-researched and brilliantly written book will be of enormous value and significance to students and scholars of philosophy and the social sciences. - Kasereka Kavwahirehi, University of Ottawa