Paper short abstract:

The paper ‘Aesthetics of the Other’ gives an insight in transatlantic entanglements of scholarly careers and theoretical thought on ‘African identity’ by focusing on treaties on ‘Black’ and ‘African Aesthetics’.

Paper long abstract:

As an ideological basis common to colonialist, imperialist and racist discourse, the Eurocentric worldview permeates and structures contemporary practices and representations even after the formal end of colonialism. Critical theory and radical approaches in the social sciences still underestimate the power of Eurocentric myths, although they are today often recognized as progressivist and racist narratives. The same limitations can be found in current philosophical discourse. Academics from the Global North as well as the Global South have until now been using categories and conceptual systems which depend on a Western epistemological order. In the 20th century forms of ethnic cultural nationalism, such as "Afrocentrism", and ideas of "Africanity" have been promoted to challenge the strong Western tradition. Starting from the assumption that academic disciplines like philosophy can never be observed detached from their social and political background and that aesthetics are part of a process driven by power and interests, the proposed paper looks on the motivations that lead to the engagement in this academic realm and that influence the formulation of theoretical concepts on 'aesthetics', and more specifically of definitions of 'Black' and 'African Aesthetics'. It gives an insight in transatlantic entanglements of scholarly careers and theoretical thought on 'African identity' by looking at the treaties on ‚African Aesthetics' by the two scholars Godfrey Ozumba, University of Calabar, Nigeria, and John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaika, and their academic backgrounds.