The Idea of Africa"A sequel to V. Y. Mudimbe's highly acclaimed The invention of Africa, this book maps the 'idea' of Africa as conceived in various historical and geographical contexts from the Greeks to the present. Mudimbe focuses on two main issues: the Greco-Roman thematization of otherness and its articulation in such concepts as barbarism and savagery and the complex process that has shaped the idea of Africa s understood by Europeans. In the considerable intellectual space covered, Africa is outlined as a paradigm of difference. Mudimbe proceeds from an interrogation of a seventeenth-century French translation of the Greek Philostratus's Icones to considerations of Greek contacts with the African continent, the Greek paradigm and its power, and the politics of memory. Individual chapters critique the present-day reactivation of Greek texts by black scholars and review contemporary activity in African art. Essential reading for anyone interested in the politics and construction of culture"--Back cover. |
Contents
Which Idea of Africa? | 38 |
The Power of the Greek Paradigm | 71 |
Domestication and the Conflict of Memories | 105 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic African art African literature Akan Ancient Model anthropology artistic Belgian Belgian Congo Bernal Blaise de Vigenère Buganda Burton Cailler Catholic century Certeau Christian Church civilization colonial complex concept concrete Congo context continent conversion critical cultural cultural relativism discourse Dogon Egypt Ethiopia Ethiopian ethnic ethnographic European évolués example fact Foucault French Garamantes geographic Glissant Greek hand Herodotus Herodotus's Herskovits human idea of Africa inhabitants intellectual Kimbanguism King knowledge language Léopold Sédar Senghor Libya living Marxist means Mels memory metaphor Miller mission missionaries Mpala Museum mythical narrative Négritude norms objects Oiorpata organization paradigm paradox perspective philosophy Placide Tempels political popular art possible practice primitive principle question refer region relativism religious Roman Scheutists Scythians signifies signs slave social society space story Strabo style symbolic tension terra nullius texts tion tradition transformation truth Victor Roelens Western White Fathers Wiredu's women Zaïre