On 6 January, Africa lost another of its great thinkers when Ghana’s Professor Kwasi Wiredu died at the age of 90. He was among a very small number who made a major mark in the field of philosophy – a subject considered too advanced for Africans during the colonial days. He succeeded in lifting African traditional thought to the highest world levels during an outstanding career. Cameron Duodu pays tribute to a great son of Africa.
Kwasi Wiredu was one of a duo of brilliant philosophers who impressed President Kwame Nkrumah so much that he sent them to Germany to research the works of William Anton Amo (1703–c. 1759), a Ghanaian who became a well-known philosopher in Germany in the 18 century. The other half of the duo was William Abraham, the first African to be elected a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford University, where he studied for a B.Phil.
Abraham and Wiredu were classmates at Adisadel College, Cape Coast, and went to Oxford together after graduating from the University of Ghana, Legon.
Although outsiders assumed they were rivals, they remained intimate friends throughout their student days and continued their friendship when they both returned home to lecture in philosophy at the University of Ghana.
Eventually, they both ended up based in the US, where they became the touchstone of Africa’s philosophical prowess and became Visiting Professors at some of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world.
Kwasi Wiredu was born in Kumasi, Ghana, in 1931 and taught for 23 years at the University of Ghana – becoming head of its Department of Philosophy – before he took up an appointment as Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Florida.
His publications include Philosophy and an African Culture (1980) and Cultural Universals and Particulars: An African Perspective (1996). No one appreciated his brilliance more than his friend, William Abraham, who said of him: “I do not know anyone, in person or by repute,
Kwasi wiredu on african philosophy pdf
Renowned Ghanaian Philosopher Kwasi Wiredu Passes on at 90
Professor Kwasi Wiredu, the renowned African philosopher and academic from Ghana, has passed on, aged 90.
Hailed as one of Africa’s greatest philosophers, Professor Wiredu’s work explored ideas on “logic, language, truth, personhood, ethics, and the nature of philosophy.” His writings argued for “conceptual decolonization” in African philosophy, while calling for the the inclusion of “folk knowledge from African culture” into philosophy.
Born in Kumasi in 1931, Wiredu attended the Anglican-run Adisadel College, where he first discovered philosophy through the works of Plato. Upon graduation in 1952, he enrolled in the University of Ghana, and later the University College, Oxford, earning a bachelors degree in Philosophy in 1960. After a brief position at the University College North Staffordshire, he returned to Ghana and took a position at his alma mater, where he would spend the next two decades lecturing in the department of Philosophy.
During this time, Wiredu authored several books and articles. One of his most famous essays is titled “How Not to Compare African Traditional Thought with Western Thought,” in which he emphasizes the need for a distinctive approach in dealing with African philosophy as opposed to the west. He is regarded as a pioneering figure in the area of African philosophical thought.
From 1987 until he retired, he was an Emeritus Professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Follow this link to learn more about his books.
May his soul Rest In Peace.
Kwasi Wiredu
Ghanaian philosopher, writer and author (1931–2022)
Kwasi Wiredu (3 October 1931 – 6 January 2022) was a Ghanaian philosopher. Often called the greatest African philosopher of his generation, his work contributed to the conceptual decolonisation of African thought.
Life and career
Wiredu was born in Kumasi, Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), in 1931, and attended Adisadel College from 1948 to 1952. It was during this period that he discovered philosophy, through Plato (which weaned him from his interest in Practical Psychology) and Bertrand Russell. He gained a place at the University of Ghana, Legon. After graduating in 1958, he went to University College, Oxford to read for the B.Phil.
At Oxford University, Wiredu was taught by Gilbert Ryle (his thesis supervisor), Peter Strawson (his College tutor), and Stuart Hampshire (his special tutor), and wrote a thesis on "Knowledge, Truth, and Reason". Upon graduating in 1960 he was appointed to a teaching post at the University College of North Staffordshire (now the University of Keele), where he stayed for a year. He returned to Ghana, where he accepted a post teaching philosophy for his old university. He remained at the University of Ghana for twenty-three years, during which time he became first Head of Department and then Professor. From 1987 until he retired, he was an Emeritus Professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Wiredu held a number of visiting professorships:
He was a member of the Committee of Directors of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies from 1983 to 1998. He was also a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (1985) and the National Humanities Center, North Carolina (1986). He was Vice-President of the Inter-African Council for Philosophy.
Wiredu died on 6 January 2022 in the United States, at the age of 90.
Paulin Hountondji is Professor Emeritus at the National University of Benin in Cotonou and is a Research Associate in Political Theory at the School of Social Science at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He has published a number of influential texts on the history of African Philosophy, and is considered one of the most important figures in this field.
Kwasi Wiredu remains the greatest African philosopher. Until his recent death, he was the oldest and greatest, despite his almost shocking modesty. Although many – both before and after him – have published original works of great depth, his precision, nuance, rigor of analysis and, moreover, sense of humour, was incomparable.
A Ghanaian philosopher, Wiredu bowed out on January 6, 2022 in Tampa, Florida, USA, at the age of 90. He leaves behind a wife, the elegant and dynamic Adwoa[i] Gifty, 5 children, 11 grandchildren, 2 great-granddaughters aged 6 and 4 and a swarm of readers and disciples who will continue, from generation to generation, to feed on his penetrating views and his immense contribution.
Born on October 3, 1931 in Kumasi, Wiredu studied philosophy first at the University of Ghana in Legon, a suburb of Accra, then at the University of Oxford in Great Britain. He exerted considerable influence through numerous articles grouped in two collections:
Philosophy and an African Culture, a collection of articles from 1966 to 1976[ii]
Cultural Universals and Particulars Wiredu also edited:
A Companion to African Philosophy, with the collaboration of William Abraham, Abiola Irele, Ifeanyi Menkiti. And along with his compatriot Kwame Gyeke, he co-edited the book Person and Community.
It is a pity that he remains largely unknown in French-speaking Africa![iii] I heard about him as early as 1967, during a symposium organised by the African Cultural Society (alias Présence Africaine) and the Association of Scandinavian Friends of “Présence
