Displacement and Solidarity: Reflections on African Phenomenology (Interview with Abraham Olivier) скачать в хорошем качестве

Displacement and Solidarity: Reflections on African Phenomenology (Interview with Abraham Olivier)

Displacement and Solidarity: Reflections on African Phenomenology Interview with Abraham Olivier Language of the Interview: English Conducted by Abbed Kanoor Questions with timestamps: 00:17 What is African Philosophy for you? 01:59 What is your relation to the experience described in African phenomenology? 04:05 How do you thematize the concept of "displacement" in the context of African phenomenology? 08:54 How do you deal with the phenomenological method and Western phenomenological texts in your work? 14:54 Which specific African phenomena and experiences can help us to deterritorialize and reinterpret Western phenomenology? 19:44 Could you tell us more about the Centre of African Phenomenology that you co-founded? In this interview, Prof. Abraham Olivier talks about his understanding of African philosophy through the lens of African phenomenology, with a particular focus on how lived Black experience—shaped by slavery, colonialism, and apartheid—becomes central to philosophical reflection. A recurring theme is the importance of positionality: as a white South African, Olivier stresses that his contribution must remain self-critical and solidaristic, seeking to highlight and amplify the voices of African phenomenologists themselves. One of the key conceptual contributions discussed is the notion of displacement, which captures both the disenabling conditions of oppression (restrictions on life, learning, and belonging) and its enabling dimensions, where new forms of solidarity, creativity, and liberation emerge. This framework reverses the classical phenomenological assumption that the subject is the transcendental ground of experience, showing instead how historical and social contexts fundamentally shape subjectivity. Methodologically, the interview emphasizes an influence model rather than a simple application of European phenomenology: Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and others provide analytic resources, but are always engaged critically and selectively. The outcome is a critical phenomenology attentive to assumptions, situatedness, and the tension between universal and particular perspectives. Questions of community and communality, often linked with Ubuntu, are understood as historically shaped, lived, and personal rather than as abstract generalities. The interview also introduces the recently founded Center for African Phenomenology, which brings together twelve directors across South African universities. With an annual conference each September and a five-year program of events, the center seeks to institutionalize and strengthen African phenomenological research while bridging analytic and phenomenological traditions in the study of lived experience. http://glophi.com