Since its original publication in 2003, Beauty and Culture has remained the only full-length major book contribution to the area of philosophy of art and aesthetics by an African philosopher. This is an area which has had very little or no critical systematic philosophical discussion from an African and African Diaspora perspective to date, either by African or African Diaspora thinkers or, for that matter, by non-African philosophers and intellectuals, leaving the assessment and discussion of African and Diaspora art and artistic experience to Euro-American intellectuals with scant or warped understanding of the sensitivities and sensibilities that under-gird the art they are commenting on. This book which harks back to the ideas of values relating to the concept of beauty in Africana art and aesthetics globally—starting from ancient Africa, the Americas to Europe and to Asia—is predicated on the fact that there is a need for Africana peoples to begin to take a closer look at aesthetics from the Africana perspective or whatever is left of it; especially, the relationship this has to notions of morality, politics, religion, and culture generally.

Over the last decade there has grown recognition of the importance of taking African aesthetics into consideration on its own terms, but the nature of the issues discussed in this book has made it necessary to provide non-philosophers a background introduction to the challenge of African philosophy of art. This accounts for the careful effort made in the first three chapters (Introduction, Biographical Details, and The Nature of the Philosophic Enterprise: Initial Issues) to introduce the readers interested in Africana aesthetics, to the rudiments of debates in African philosophy and the nature of scholarship in the discipline, using the experience of the author as illustration. The fourth chapter (Contemporary Scholarship on (Africana) Arts) reviews the discussion of African art in extant literature, while in chapter five (Artistic Expression in Africa) the author explores the nature of art and artistic expression in Africana societies; and chapter six (Philosophy and Artistic Expression in Africa) deals with the problematic of philosophizing the arts and values relating to artistic expression in Africana societies, with chapter seven (Arts, Memory and Identity) considering the critical issues involved in the relationship between art, memory, culture and identity structuring and development in all human societies, but especially in Africana societies. The last chapter (Conclusion) harnesses the inferences of this book, indicating further the challenges which Africana philosophers face in the proper appreciation of Africa and Diaspora art.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JOHN AYOTUNDE ISOLA BEWAJI, is the Jay Newman Visiting Professor of Philosophy of Culture, Brooklyn College and Professor of Philosophy, University of the West Indies; founding President of the International Society for African Philosophy and Studies and John Simon Guggenheim Research Fellow (2010-2011). His earlier books are An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge (2007), and Narratives of Struggle (2012).  He obtained his BA, MA in Philosophy from University of Ife (Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife, PhD in Philosophy, University of Ibadan, PGDE and MA Distance Education, COL/IGNOU India and has lectured at University of Ife, Ogun State University, Ago-Iwoye (Nigeria), University of the West Indies, Mona (Jamaica), University of Botswana, Gaborone (Botswana) and Brooklyn College – CUNY, USA.  He is the founding editor of Caribbean Journal of Philosophy.

CATEGORY

Cultural Studies, Philosophy, History/AFRICA