ISSN 1011-226

Quest 

An African Journal of Philosophy

Revue Africaine de Philosophie

 

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IMPORTANT NOTICE (Dec. 2008): After some setbacks, by the end of 2008 we have finally been able to bring out as many as three new annual volumes of quest: 2006 (xx), 2007 (xxi) and 2008 (xxii). This brings the journal up to date again. Sanya osha edited a timely and fascinating special issue on african feminisms (xx – 2006) with a team of high-ranking contributors -- including some of the most prominent women intellectuals of Africa, and the prominent Nigerian philosopher Eze (♂). Wim van binsbergen edited a special issue on lines and rhizomes: the transcontinental element in african philosophies (xxi - 2007), as well as as a general volume xxii – 2008 under the title African philosophy and the negotiation of practical dilemmas of individual and collective life. We thank our authors, readers, publishers sending review copies, and subscription agents, for their patience and continued support of quest. As Editor, I also wish to thank my fellow members of the Editorial Team, Sanya Osha and Kirsten Seifikar, for their hard work and perseverance. As a sign of the continued resilience and quality of quest, I am pleased to announce that the prominent African / global philosopher Valentin Mudimbe, a regular contributor in recent years, has agreed to join our Advisory Editorial Board, to fill the place sadly vacated by the demise of the lamented Lolle Nauta; an obituary of the latter will appear in the imminent volume XXIII.

From among our readership, we look forward to submissions of papers for publication, and your subscriptions if you prefer the hard copies of our journal (full web access of all twenty-two annual volumes published continues to be free, world-wide); full sets of back copies are available in limited number. A new volume XXIII – 2009 is already on its way but it can use a few more contributions. Volume XXIII will be the last volume that is to have some institutional support from the African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands. The obvious next step is to find a permanent home for
quest in Africa; the Editor will welcome any viable suggestions on this point.

Please note that
quest  is now best approached by e-mail quest_journal@yahoo.com, or via the Editor’s mail address (click).  
                                                                                                                                                                           The Editor
 
article inidentifié / LOST AND FOUND: L'équipe éditorial QUEST a en main un article intitulé  'L'aménagement de l'espace dans La République [de Platon]' , sans nom d'auteur ni adresse de courriel électronique; nous prions l'auteur de s'identifier par courriel (cliquez sur lien), en presentant des épreuves de son droit d' auteur


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Topicalities: Colloquium 'The transcultural framework for the construction of African knowledges' 23-3-04 / Actualités: Colloque 'Le cadre transculturel pour la construction des connaissances africaines' 23-3-2004

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Volume XVI (2002)

 

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TRUTH IN POLITICS

Rhetorical Approaches to Democratic Deliberation in Africa and beyond

Philippe-Joseph Salazar, Sanya Osha, Wim van Binsbergen  (Eds.)

The purpose of this volume is to try and acclimatize “rhetoric” (“the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion” – Aristotle) to the South African scene and the African scene at large, and to reflect on truth in politics. Why? Because politics in a democracy is a contest of words about competing truths. No government ought ever to believe that they have “the truth”. They are merely the sum total of what Aristotle presents as some sort of “picnic”: at the democratic table we all bring our own food to make the party successful, by the very variety of condiments and diversity of foodstuffs. To be democratic citizens involves the formidable task of learning to accept that each of us, however passionate we are about “what we believe”, and hold to be “true”, may and will be untrue for another citizen. We therefore have to argue, to deliberate, to enter, each of us at our own level, into a contest of words and beliefs. Democracy is about competing “truths”. This is why “rhetoric” – the study of public deliberation and the training in public debate and argumentation – is part of democracy in development.
    
Taking their lead from the work of South Africa’s 1994-1998 Truth and Reconcilia­tion Commission, these contributions by intercontinental scholars in rhetoric, other branches of philosophy, African Studies, theology, inter­cultural communication and law, try to bring home the notion that rhetoric can be a powerful agent for democracy, an effective tool for citizen’s empowerment, a site for liberating thought. They also explore the possibil­ities and limitations of African applications of rhetoric, in a general context of globalized intercultural knowledge production, historic African rhetorical and constitutional practices, and the African experience under colonial and postcolonial conditions.

Special Issue of 

QUEST

An African Journal of Philosophy / 

Revue Africaine de Philosophie

Vol. XVI, No. 1-2, 2002

(actual date of publication: March, 2004)

© 2004 Quest: An African Journal of Philosophy / Revue Africaine de Philosophie

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    5

Foreword and Acknowledgments: Democratic Rhetoric
Philippe-Joseph Salazar
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Introductory Essay: Politics of Memory – How to Treat Hate 
Barbara Cassin
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18

Part One: Around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Rhetoric and Public Good
Chapter 1. Learning to Live Together with Bad Memories
Charles Villa-Vicencio
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Chapter 2. Works of Faith, Faith of the Works: A Reflection on the Truth and Justification of Forgiveness
Erik Doxtader
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Chapter 3. Reconstructing the Past between Trials and History: The TRC Experience as “Remembrance Space”
Andrea Lollini
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Chapter 4. Rhetoric and Truth: The South African Scene
Yehoshua Gitay
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .69

Part Two: Political Power and Rhetorical Democracy
Chapter 5. The Consequences of Saying “No No No”: The Political Demise of Mrs Thatcher
Charles Calder
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Chapter 6. Ethics and Revisionism in Nigerian Governance
Sanya Osha
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Chapter 7. Self-Fashioning in Political Turmoil: Power, Truth and Rhetoric in Cicero
Johnson Segun Ige
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

Chapter 8. Sovereign Bodies, Sovereign States and the Problem of Torture
Lisa Hajjar
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    108

Part Three: In the Sphere of Public Deliberation
Chapter 9. Re-Claiming Identity as Truth: On the Politics of African Renaissance
Reingard Nethersole
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  143

Chapter 10. “Truth and History” in the Post-Apartheid South African Context
Lydia Samarbakhsh-Liberge
  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Chapter 11. May I have your Faith? Truth, Media and Politics 
Johann Rossouw
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

Chapter 12. The Judge and the People: Deliberating on True Land Claims
Philippe-Joseph Salazar
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178

Chapter 13. Truth in Politics, and the Congolese Political Sphere 
Abel Kouvouama
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .186

Chapter 14. Discursive Plurality: Negotiating Cultural Identities in Public Democratic Dialogue
Mary Jane Collier and Darrin Hicks
. . . . . . . . . . 197

Part Four: Conclusion
Conclusion: Truth in Politics – Ethical Argument, Ethical Knowledge, and Ethical Truth
Eugene Garver .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Postscript: Aristotle in Africa – Towards a Comparative Africanist reading of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission 
Wim van Binsbergen
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

About the Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .273

 
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