Paper short abstract:

What are the limitations and prospects of indigenous languages in African ethics scholarship? This paper addresses this question by arguing the imperativeness of a pluriverse conception of African ethics.

Paper long abstract:

What are the limitations and prospects of indigenous languages in African ethics scholarship? This paper addresses this question by arguing the imperativeness of a reflexive interrogation of the use of indigenous languages in the construction and re-interpretation of moral values in ethics scholarship in African Studies. This paper provides some theoretical reflections on the weaknesses and strengths of a reconfigured linguistic nuances in the articulation of the overlapping dominant moral ideals embedded in traditional and changing moralities in African culture. This paper defends a pluriverse conception of African ethics studies reconfiguration that marks a considerable shift from both the 'exterior orientation' that prizes exogenous knowledge production on moralities in Africa with international dissemination and preservation mechanisms, as well as the 'interior orientation' in African Studies that is driven by the postcolonial quest of defending African identity in African ethics scholarship by largely writing back to the audience and moral agents outside of Africa. In reconfiguring ethics scholarship in the new African Studies, this paper exposes some fundamental limitations of the new emphasis on African languages in ethics scholarship while concluding with some prospects for future African Studies.

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