Consciousness, Citizenship, and Epistemology in Africa
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
University Center : Ballroom
41st Annual W.E.B. Du Bois Lecture
Nimi Wariboko, Water G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics in the School of Theology and Chair of the Philosophy, Theology, and Ethics Department, Boston University; and the Katherine B. Stuart Professor of Christian Ethics, Andover Newton Seminary, Yale Divinity School.
This lecture aims to bring Du Bois’s rich and complex concept of consciousness to the study of citizenship and epistemology in Africa. Dr. Wariboko examines Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness, relates it to contemporary citizenship in Africa, and uncovers the logic of triple consciousness that now defines political identity on the continent. The lecture will also demonstrate how these logics of consciousness generate, undergird, or interact with emerging epistemologies in the African public square. If the past of Du Boisian thought is double consciousness, and its present is triple consciousness, then the future is triple epistemology, focusing on the role forms of consciousness play in matters of citizenship, political deliberation, inquiry, and understanding in Africa.
A book signing will follow the program.