Routledge Studies in African Philosophy
About the Book Series
The Routledge Studies in African Philosophy book series reflects the many exciting and diverse contributions to philosophy which are being made by Africans and the African diaspora. Historically dominated by the voices of Western thinkers, the field of philosophy is rapidly diversifying and there is a pressing need to reflect on the rich epistemic traditions and history to be found within Africa. Covering all aspects of philosophy, including but not limited to metaphysics, epistemology, moral philosophy, ethnophilosophy, ethics, and political philosophy, this series aims to reflect all regions across the continent and the diaspora. This series invites contributions from both established scholars and early-career researchers, and will consider full-length single-authored monographs, multi-authored books, edited collections and high-quality thesis conversions based on cutting-edge innovative and original research on Africa.
To submit a proposal for Routledge Studies in African Philosophy please contact Routledge African Studies editor Helena Hurd, [email protected]
Cheikh Anta Diop’s Transdisciplinary Legacy: Impacts on Contemporary Africology
1st Edition
Edited
By Victor Oguejiofor Okafor
December 16, 2025
This book highlights the transdisciplinary legacy of Cheikh Anta Diop’s epistemology, demonstrating its continuing impact on contemporary Africology, which is also known as Black Studies. Diop’s works in the second half of the twentieth century were foundational to the discipline of Africology. ...
Endangered African Knowledges and the Challenge of Modernity: An Igbo Response
1st Edition
By Donald Mark C. Ude
August 29, 2025
This book presents an innovative African philosophical response to coloniality and the attendant epistemicide of Africa’s knowledge systems, drawing on Igbo thinking. This book argues that theorizing modernity requires a critical conversation between African and Western scholarship, in order to ...
Intercultural Thinking in African Philosophy: A Critical Dialogue with Kant and Foucault
1st Edition
By Marita Rainsborough
July 31, 2025
This book sets up a rich intercultural dialogue between the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and Michel Foucault, and that of key African thinkers such as Kwame Anthony Appiah, Achille Mbembe, Kwasi Wiredu, Kwame Gyekye, Tsenay Serequeberhahn, and Henry Odera Oruka. The book challenges western-centric...
African Philosophy and Deep Ecology
1st Edition
Edited
By Kenneth Uyi Abudu, Kevin Gary Behrens, Elvis Imafidon
July 11, 2025
This book investigates African philosophical contributions to the concept of deep ecology, which advocates for rethinking human and non-human relationships within our ecosystems, by promoting the inherent and earned worth of all beings. With ecological crises impacting lives around the world, this ...
African Ethics and Death: Moral Status and Human Dignity in Ubuntu Thinking
1st Edition
By Motsamai Molefe, Elphus Muade
May 06, 2025
This book analyzes the concepts of moral status and human dignity in African philosophy and applies them to the moral problems associated with death. The book first challenges the criticism and rejection of moral status in African philosophy and then continues to consider how moral personhood is ...
Africa and the Metaphysical Empire
1st Edition
By Frank Aragbonfoh Abumere
February 03, 2025
This book investigates whether African cultures can appropriate some useful aspects of Western cultures, or whether doing so risks falling into the metaphysical empire and diluting African identity. Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Ndlovu-Gatsheni characterise the metaphysical empire as an intangible ...
Beyond Decolonial African Philosophy: Africanity, Afrotopia, and Transcolonial Perspectives
1st Edition
Edited
By Joseph C. A. Agbakoba, Marita Rainsborough
December 30, 2024
Beyond Decolonial African Philosophy dives into decoloniality discourse, challenging some of its shortcomings and offering alternative perspectives on the nature of Africanity and Afrotopia (Africa’s better future) from leading African philosophers. Beginning with an overview of philosophy in ...
Ubuntu Ethics: Human Dignity, Moral Perfectionism, and Needs
1st Edition
By Motsamai Molefe
September 30, 2024
This book provides a philosophical exposition of Ubuntu ethics, which it does by explaining the saying ‘a person is a person through other persons’. Written by one of the world’s leading scholars of African philosophy, the book first argues that the focus on umuntu (or, a person) in Ubuntu ethics ...
Environmental Justice in African Philosophy
1st Edition
By Munamato Chemhuru
May 27, 2024
This book focuses on environmental justice in African philosophy, highlighting important new perspectives which will be of significance to researchers with an interest in environmental ethics both within Africa and beyond. Drawing on African social and ethical conceptions of existence, the book ...
Feminist African Philosophy: Women and the Politics of Difference
1st Edition
By Abosede Priscilla Ipadeola
May 27, 2024
The book argues that women's perspectives and gender issues must be mainstreamed across African philosophy in order for the discipline to truly represent the thoughts of Africans across the continent. African philosophy as an academic discipline emerged as a direct challenge to Western and ...
Kimmerle’s Intercultural Philosophy and Beyond: The Ongoing Quest for Epistemic Justice
1st Edition
By Renate Schepen
May 27, 2024
This book offers a concise overview of the development of intercultural philosophy since the early 1990s, focusing on one of its key pioneers Heinz Kimmerle (1930– 2016).Building on influences from Gadamer, Heidegger, Derrida and Ramose, Kimmerle’s approach to intercultural philosophy is radical ...
Futurism and the African Imagination: Literature and Other Arts
1st Edition
Edited
By Dike Okoro
September 25, 2023
This book investigates how African authors and artists have explored themes of the future and technology within their works. Afrofuturism was coined in the 1990s as a means of exploring the intersection of African diaspora culture with technology, science and science fiction. However, this book ...