Asixoxe – Let’s Talk! SOAS Conference on African Philosophy

The Department of African Languages and Cultures, SOAS, University of London, is hosting, for the second time, the SOAS Conference on African Philosophy, Asixoxe – Let’s Talk! Asixoxe is an expression in the southern African languages Ndebele and Zulu. It means “let’s talk!” Bearing this expression in the title, the conference places emphasis on the spoken word, togetherness, and friendship, as the social basis of our scholarly engagement with African Philosophy. At the same time, through the succession of two click sounds, the word asixoxe iconically represents the way human speech adds a specific rhythm to time and to thought.

The conference is, primarily, a student conference, open to undergraduate, postgraduate, and research students. However, we invite any researchers in the domain of African Studies to present papers on their research – a format we have adopted for this conference in order to foster the synergy of ripe expertise and fresh scholarly minds. The goal of the conference is, then, to bring together all those who are passionate about philosophy and about Africa, to create a platform for their exchanges, and to nurture the growth of the discipline of African Philosophy. 

We invite papers on any topic related to philosophy in Africa. Possible subthemes include, but are not limited to, the role of philosophical thought in African politics, the interface between literature and philosophy, and the philosophical dimensions of history, anthropology, and art.  

The conference will take place in the SOAS Russell Square campus on the 1st-2nd May 2015, opening at 9:00 on 1st May and closing at 18:00 on 2nd May. Each speaker will be given 20 minutes for the presentation, with subsequent 10 minutes for questions and discussion. We cordially invite you to participate in the event. Please confirm your participation and submit the titles of your papers by 20th March 2015 to [email protected]. SOAS students do not have to submit abstracts of their papers, but participants who are not current students of SOAS are asked to send abstracts of 100-200 words. We envisage the publication of the papers as a volume published by Mimesis Africa.