History, historical consciousness and the future of Africa: revisiting Cheikh Anta Diop’s historiography

Working paper d'Anatole Fogou

This paper intends to revisit Cheikh Anta Diop's historiography which fits into the debate on a speculative philosophy of history namely; world history and history of reason, such as it was propounded by Hegel and as it still continues nowadays. Our objective is to discuss Diop's statements on the functions of history and the historic consciousness. Precisely, Our aim is to interrogate their capacities to serve as ethical base for the African development.

The author

The author is lecturer in the Department of Philosophy of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de l'Univerité de Maroua (Cameroon). There he teaches the history of modern philosophy, moral and political philosophy, and legal philosophy. He is interested in governance issues in Africa, in with the legacies of colonization and decolonization, global justice and ethnocultural justice, identities, ethics and bioethics, while being attentive to the evolution of philosophical debates on these different issues and how they serve (or could serve) to question situations, in Africa and elsewhere.