A Philosophical Re-reading of Fanon, Nkrumah, and Cabral in the Age of Globalization and Postmodernity

Abstract

Philosophy, until very recently, has been defined as strictly textual. Recent philosophical thinking has however challenged this view. African philosophers and non-African philosophers have originated a new narrative which argues that philosophy is not exclusively textual, but also significantly and creatively oral, that the content of philosophy can be transmitted both in written and oral forms, and that the two forms are not mutually exclusive. Classical Ethiopian philosophy satisfies the condition of an original philosophical endeavor that is both textual and oral. In this chapter, Kiros presents an outline of oral and written African philosophical activities in Ethiopia. Kiros deploys two analytical methods, vast interpretation (loosely philosophical) and strict interpretation (analytic) to situate the nature and place of African philosophy in Ethiopia through an interpretive reading of the following oral Ethiopian texts: The Fisalgos, The Book of Philosophers and The Life and Maxims of Skendes, the Treatise of Zara Yacob, and the Treatise of Walda Heywot.