An ongoing series profiling phenomenology organisations from across the world, and showcasing the wealth of activities in the field today.

Centre for African Phenomenology | CAP

The aim of the CAP is to promote the project of African phenomenology by engaging its contributors and exploring its problems, themes and challenges. The use of the concept “African phenomenology” is relatively new and has seen its first systematic book introduction only recently in the form of the anthology Phenomenology in an African context (2023). Contributors to this project include names such as Paulin Hountondji, Dismas Masolo, Tsenay Serequeberhan, Mabogo More, and Achille Mbembe, who show in various ways how the African context challenges phenomenology to self-reflect critically upon the methodological assumptions its proponents make. Such self-reflection brings to the fore a different, critical African phenomenology of its own, one with its focus on the analysis of the lived experience of those who were and are subjected to the formative workings of slavery, colonialism, racism, exploitation, sexism and other forms of oppression within the African context as related to other contexts globally.

The activities of the CAP have historical roots in what first started as the annual Wild Coast Symposium in 2011, followed up by the launch of the Centre for Phenomenology in South Africa (CPSA) in 2013. Due to its shift of focus from phenomenology in South Africa to the project of African phenomenology, the CAP is launched as a Centre of its own in 2024. CAP activities include mainly thematic annual conferences and publications focused on the project of African phenomenology. The CAP is not confined to the South African or African context but engages an international array of voices and approaches linked to its project that will contribute to the discipline of phenomenology

Website: https://saphenomenology.wordpress.com/
Contact: [email protected] or [email protected]. Alternatively, contact any of the Directors on the CAP website.