Humanism, embodied knowledge, and postcolonial theory

Abstract

Césaire, Sobukwe, and Biko developed a sophisticated humanist vision of a liberated Africa. This vision was based on the idea that a society of universal human rights had to be founded on an understanding of common humanity. At the same time, there was widespread and justified suspicion of a concept that had been inherited from European ideologies of domination. The contradiction between visions of humanism and the experience of oppression remains an unresolved problem in postcolonial understandings of subjectivity and power. This chapter examines the legacy of African humanism and its lessons for postcolonial theory and theories of decolonization.