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School of Pan African Studies

Lecture Series

Foundations of Afrikan Thought

Date:17/08/2022

Date

17/08/2022

Time

7pm - 8:30pm GMT

Location

Online

Overview

In this exciting lecture series, multi award winning scholar Professor Ọbádélé Kambon will guide attendees through the core principles, modes, patterns, and history of thought and knowledge production in Africa. We will closely examine a variety of fundamentally African concepts and ideas and be given the tools to apply this ancient knowledge to not only our own ways of organising knowledge but our everyday lived experience also. At the end of the course, attendees will have acquired an understanding of the cosmology underpinning African Thought and Philosophy, the concept of the person as multiple selves and how divinity and nature come together as one of the key tenets of African epistemology.

Programme Schedule

Three online lectures covering the following:

1. Concepts of The Person: The Person as a Multiple Selves

• The Multiple Selves of African Thought
• The Destiny or Spiritual Double
• The Soul or Breath
• The Heart
• The Ancestral Guardian
• The Shadow

2.Divinity & Nature: Ancient & Traditional Accounts of the Beginning

• Ancient Kemet
• Bambara of Mali
• Yoruba of Nigeria
• Kuba of Zaire (Congo DRC)
• Dogon of Mali
• Fon of Benin
• Igbo of Nigeria
• Songye of Zaire (Congo DRC)

3. Common Elements in African Cosmology

• The Primeval Water, the Life-Force, the Void and Continuum Transmission of the Life-Force
• The Four Primordial Elements/Ancestors
• Chaos and Order
• Concert of Opposites
• Divine Intelligence/Logos/Word

Overview

In this exciting lecture series, multi award winning scholar Professor Ọbádélé Kambon will guide attendees through the core principles, modes, patterns, and history of thought and knowledge production in Africa. We will closely examine a variety of fundamentally African concepts and ideas and be given the tools to apply this ancient knowledge to not only our own ways of organising knowledge but our everyday lived experience also. At the end of the course, attendees will have acquired an understanding of the cosmology underpinning African Thought and Philosophy, the concept of the person as multiple selves and how divinity and nature come together as one of the key tenets of African epistemology.

Programme Schedule

Three online lectures covering the following:

1. Concepts of The Person: The Person as a Multiple Selves

• The Multiple Selves of African Thought
• The Destiny or Spiritual Double
• The Soul or Breath
• The Heart
• The Ancestral Guardian
• The Shadow

2.Divinity & Nature: Ancient & Traditional Accounts of the Beginning

• Ancient Kemet
• Bambara of Mali
• Yoruba of Nigeria
• Kuba of Zaire (Congo DRC)
• Dogon of Mali
• Fon of Benin
• Igbo of Nigeria
• Songye of Zaire (Congo DRC)

3. Common Elements in African Cosmology

• The Primeval Water, the Life-Force, the Void and Continuum Transmission of the Life-Force
• The Four Primordial Elements/Ancestors
• Chaos and Order
• Concert of Opposites
• Divine Intelligence/Logos/Word

Event Speakers

Professor Ọbádélé Kambon

Master linguist and scholar

Anthony Browder

Historian, author, lecturer and education consultant

Dr Toni Haastrup

Guest Lecturer

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