Konstanz/Germany
Global intellectual history is an emerging subfield within Global History, distinguished by its focus on intellectual developments beyond traditional Western narratives. Historically, intellectual history has primarily centred on canonical European thinkers, leaving a significant gap in the inclusion of non-Western perspectives, particularly from Africa. The workshop seeks to fill this gap by compiling a reader of original documents by African intellectuals and personalities from the 18th to the 20th centuries, to be selected and commented by a team of historians from Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
African Voices in Global Intellectual History
Global intellectual history is an emerging subfield within Global History, distinguished by its focus on intellectual developments beyond traditional Western narratives. Historically, intellectual history has primarily centred on canonical European thinkers, leaving a significant gap in the inclusion of non-Western perspectives, particularly from Africa. Recent scholarship has begun to address this by examining intellectual traditions across diverse global contexts. However, African voices, especially those beyond typical themes like nationalism and anti-colonialism, remain underrepresented.
The workshop seeks to address this gap by compiling a reader of original documents from African intellectuals and personalities from the 18th to the 20th centuries, to be selected and commented by historians from Europe, Africa, and the United States. The anthology will include a wide range of African perspectives, including voices from Sub-Saharan Africa and the African diaspora, to broaden the dialogue within global intellectual history. The selection will focus on expanding the traditional intellectual canon to include less commonly recognized figures, reinterpreting well-known African intellectuals through the lens of classical intellectual history themes, and increasing the representation of female voices. Additionally, the reader will also feature documents in African languages, ensuring a linguistically diverse representation.
Thematically, the anthology will address four key aspects: dealing with Europe, development, difference, and (un)freedom. These themes will explore African intellectuals’ engagement with imaginations of Europe as well as European experiences, concepts of development and civilization, and various forms of social and cultural differences, while also reflecting on discourses of freedom and the lack of it in Africa. By focusing on these themes, the project aims to challenge dated dichotomies in African history and contribute to the ongoing effort to integrate African perspectives into global intellectual history. Through this work, the anthology seeks to offer a richer, more nuanced understanding of Africa’s intellectual contributions and to encourage further research in this underexplored area.
Programm
Monday, 23 June
2 pm Welcome and Introduction
Mary Owusu and Martin Rempe
2.30 pm (Un)Freedom, Community, and Civilization
José Ligna Nafafé, Black Atlantic Abolitionist Movement in the Seventeenth Century
Paola Vargas Arana, Africa is the Guts of my Body: Maroon Epistemologies in African Intellectual History
Martin Rempe, On Civilization: Edward W. Blyden’s African Life and Customs
Coffee break
04.30 pm Feminism
Joana Serrado, Ain’t I a Woman/Philosopher Too? The Transatlantic Enlightenment of Rosa Maria “Egipciaca” (c. 1719–1771)
Mary Afolabi, Buchi Emecheta, A Nigerian Feminist Voice in Global Intellectual History
Zinhle Ka’Nobuhlaluse, Mamphela Ramphele’s Transgressive Thought: Challenging Power, Reimagining Futures
Dinner
Tuesday, 24 June
9.30 am Discussion of the Book Proposal
Daniel Speich, Introductory Comment
10.30 am African-European Encounters
Stephen Volz, Diagnosing an Unpredictable World: Tswana-British Dialogue on God and Nature During the Nineteenth Century
Arno Sonderegger: “Race”, “African Nationality” and “Self-Government” according to Africanus Horton
Ibrahima Sene, De-Centering Moscow: Black Intellectual Agency and Afro-Diasporic Political Thought in the Interwar Era
Marcia Schenck, Resonating Memories: The Life Writing of Regina Vera Cruz and the Legacy of African Labor Migration
Lunch
2.30 pm Rethinking African Revolutionary Thought
Lili Pontinta, Amilcar Cabral’s ‘Speech on March 8th’: A Gender Perspective
Trishula Patel, Suman Mehta, Afro-Asian Solidarity and the Struggle for Independence in Southern Rhodesia
Paulina Aroch-Fugellie, Rethinking Julius Nyerere
Coffee break
4.30 pm Construction and Development
Łukasz Stanek, Developmental Research in Post-Independence Ghana: The Housing Question
Mary Owusu, “Should Dams be Built?” Letitia Obeng and the Evolution of Sustainable Development Thought
Gerardo Serra, Kwame Nkrumah’s Architectural Temporalities
Dinner
Wednesday, 25 June
9.30 am Culture and History in the Age of Decolonization
Christoph Kalter, Joseph Ki-Zerbo’s Thoughts on Language, Education, Economic Development, and Cultural Decolonization
Christina Brauner, The "Middle Ages" in Africa: Concepts and Comparison in African Historiography, 1950ff
Fiachna McCarren, Rajat Neogy: A Life in Transition
11.15 am Concluding Discussion