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African identity : a question of conceptual and theoretical purchase
Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2016.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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University of Pretoria
2017
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| _version_ | 1867613651787055104 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Hofmeyr, A.B. (Benda) |
| author_browse | Hofmeyr, A.B. (Benda) |
| author_facet | Hofmeyr, A.B. (Benda) |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2017 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2016. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/60425 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:39:32.610Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateRange | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/60425 African identity : a question of conceptual and theoretical purchase Hofmeyr, A.B. (Benda) tembojosias@yahoo.co.uk Tembo, Josias UCTD Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2016. This thesis argues that the notion of African identity, in its essentialist and anti-essentialist conceptions, does not have the conceptual and theoretical purchase to imagine socio-political and cultural spaces of agency in contemporary African situations. By critically discussing literature on the notion of African identity in African philosophy, the study reveals that the notion of African identity has been caught between the polarities of essentialism and anti-essentialism. The thesis critically engages with the historical development of the notion of African identity and situates it within the contemporary works of Archie Mafeje ("Africanity: A Combative Ontology") and Achille Mbembe ("African Modes of Self-Writing"). The thesis utilizes the conceptual framework espoused by David Scott which argues that bodies of knowledge are answers to contingent historical problems articulated from contingent conceptual frameworks. Within this conceptual orientation, the thesis argues that essentialist and anti-essentialist views of African identity are conceptualized from the 19th century Pan-African conceptual and theoretical framework which was a consequence of, and aimed at, a different cognitive-political constellation that is fundamentally different from our own (the present). Consequently, the essentialist view of African identity succeeds only at highlighting contemporary socio-political ills, while the anti-essentialist view only advances the fluid notion of identity. Neither views, therefore, offer accurate readings of the present cognitive-political context nor open possible spaces of socio-political and cultural agency. Philosophy MA Unrestricted 2017-05-12T11:39:00Z 2017-05-12T11:39:00Z 2017-05-09 2016 Dissertation Tembo, J 2016, African identity : a question of conceptual and theoretical purchase, MA Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/60425> A2017 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/60425 en © 2017 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | UCTD African identity : a question of conceptual and theoretical purchase |
| title | African identity : a question of conceptual and theoretical purchase |
| title_full | African identity : a question of conceptual and theoretical purchase |
| title_fullStr | African identity : a question of conceptual and theoretical purchase |
| title_full_unstemmed | African identity : a question of conceptual and theoretical purchase |
| title_short | African identity : a question of conceptual and theoretical purchase |
| title_sort | african identity a question of conceptual and theoretical purchase |
| topic | UCTD |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/60425 |