African Cultural Production and the Rhetoric of Humanism

A broad range of cultural works produced in traditional and modern African communities shows a fundamental preoccupation with the concepts of communal solidarity and hospitality in societies driven by humanistic ideals. African Cultural Production and the Rhetoric of Humanism is an inaugural attempt to focus exclusively and extensively on the question of humanism in African art and culture.This collection brings together scholars from different disciplines who deftly examine the deployment of various forms of artistic production such as oral and written literatures, paintings, and cartoons to articulate an Afrocentric humanist discourse. The contributors argue that the artists, in their representation of civil wars, massive corruption, poverty, abuse of human rights, and other dehumanizing features of post-independence Africa, call for a return to the traditional African vision of humanism that is relentlessly being eroded by the realities of postcolonial nationhood.

Despite the existence of entrenched humanistic values throughout African philosophical, moral, and religious beliefs and epistemologies, Humanism is too often conceived of, both historically and contemporarily, as a strictly European movement and cultural product. African Cultural Production and the Rhetoric of Humanism is a much needed counter balance to that persistent inaccuracy, providing convincing examples from across national, disciplinary, and temporal boundaries. This collection of essays reveals that a universal concept of Humanism is not possible without input from Africa’s diverse voices and practices, especially when European Humanism played such an unfortunate, prominent role in the African colonial era., This volume brings together scholars from different fields who incisively investigate the complex topoi of humanism in African cultural productions. Through the exploration of oral and written literatures, war speeches, paintings, and cartoons, contributors identify the ways in which various works engage the (re)emergence of African societies in the context of (neo)colonial, modern nationhood and globalization threats. This book is undoubtedly a major addition to readings in African socio-political history and culture.

Lifongo Vetinde is professor of French and francophone studies at Lawrence University. Jean-Blaise Samou is assistant professor of francophone and intercultural studies at Saint Mary’s University.