Awards

• Winner of Outstanding Academic Title 2023

Overview

Beauty in African Thought: A Critique of the Western Idea of Development investigates how the concept of beauty in African philosophy and related qualitative social sciences may contribute to a richer intercultural exchange on the idea of development. While working within frameworks created in post-colonial and arguably neo-colonial times, African thinkers have reacted against the mainstream view that restricts the meaning and scope of good development to economic growth and western-style education. These thinkers have worked toward a critical self-understanding of the potentials inherent in cultural, spiritual, and political traditions since pre-colonial times. Edited by Bolaji Bateye, Mahmoud Masaeli, Louise Müller, and Angela Roothaan, this collection explores branches of thought from wisdom or oral traditions to political thought and philosophy of culture. This book is urgent reading material for any policy maker, scholar, or student wishing to attend to the voices of African(ist) thinkers who search for alternative approaches to global questions of development in a time of climate change and increasing socio-economic inequality.

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9781793630759

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Reviews

This volume broaches a fresh and critical view of life in an Africa that is aspiring for a dignified and sustainable quality of life. The book redefines the beauty of African life with all its struggles and celebrations and adorns it with a rigorous intellectual mantle. It is an invitation for a deep and sophisticated understanding of life as lived in postcolonial Africa under the pressures of the Western ideology of development--M. John Lamola, University of Johannesburg

Author Information

Bolaji Bateye is associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Obafemi Awolowo University. Mahmoud Masaeli is professor of human rights studies at Iran Academia. Louise F. Müller is senior research fellow at the University of KwaZulu Natal and secretary of the Dutch OZSW research network in African Intercultural Philosophy. Angela Roothaan is assistant professor of philosophy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

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