Contested Memory: The Icons of the Occidental Tradition

by Tsenay Serequeberhan

W.E.B. Du Bois anticipated Serequeberhan in the Souls of Black Folk because Serequeberhan is arguably a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight. With philosophically astute arguments, Serequeberhan removes the veil. He steps beyond Kant s Idea for a Universal History, Hegel s Philosophy of Right and Marx s Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy. He does this by first exposing the limitations of Kant s Idee [normative bias], Hegel s Geist [absolute spirit], and Marx s assimilado/évolués [disappearance of important difference]. He then offers a new possibility one that makes humanity inclusive rather than an enlarged picture of an idealized particular racial/cultural type. It is on the shoulders of Aime Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Paulin Hountondji, Edward Said, Alioune Diop, Albert Memmi, Martin Heidegger, Marcien Towa, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Mahmood Mamdani that Serequeberhan extends the centuries old intellectual heritage and tradition of East African scholarship and language mastery far beyond its shores. In Serequeberhan s often poetic language, particulars masquerading as universals not only the use of particular cultural types, but culturally specific definitions of what it means to be rational or what cultural groups will shape civilization are exposed for the way they help sustain metaphysically sanctioned despotic violence. Contested Memory gives the world a new way to remember and a new way to make future memories. --Leonard Harris, Purdue University An informative, enjoyable, and original text that succeeds in impugning Western philosophy for its culturally biased and imperialist tendencies. Tsenay Serequeberhan challenges us to accompany him as he incisively dissects the thought of such philosophical icons as Kant, Hegel, and Karl Marx. He then carefully outlines and promotes a revisionist approach to philosophy that will be of universal benefit to mankind. --Barry Hallen, Morehouse College

183 pages, Hardcover

First published January 23, 2007

About the author

Tsenay Serequeberhan is Professor of Philosophy at Morgan State University and the author of several books, including Contested Memory: The Icons of the Occidental Tradition and The Hermeneutics of African Philosophy: Horizon and Discourse.