Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze
Encyclopedia
Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze was a Nigerian-born American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 philosopher. Eze was a specialist in postcolonial philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

. He wrote as well as edited influential postcolonial histories of philosophy in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, and the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

. Influences in his own work include Paulin Hountondji, Richard Rorty
Richard Rorty
Richard McKay Rorty was an American philosopher. He had a long and diverse academic career, including positions as Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton, Kenan Professor of Humanities at the University of Virginia, and Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University...

, David Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...

, and Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....

.

Eze was most recently Associate Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...

, where he also edited the journal Philosophia Africana
Philosophia Africana
Philosophia Africana is a peer-reviewed academic journal of Africana philosophy established in 1998. It was published at Depaul University under the editorship of Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze until 2007. The journal is currently edited by K. Kalumba . The journal won the first prize in the 2002 Council of...

 http://condor.depaul.edu/~africana/. He died December 30, 2007 after a short illness.

Background

Eze was born to Nigerian parents, Daniel and Rebecca, who are Igbo
Igbo people
Igbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...

 and devout Catholics. He was born in Agbokete, in what was Northern Region of Nigeria
Northern Region, Nigeria
The Northern Region was one of Nigeria's federal divisions. It was created before independence in 1960, with its capital at Kaduna. In 1962 it acquired the territory of the British Northern Cameroons, who had voted to become part of Nigeria....

. Because of his parents' ethnicity and religion they fled the North during the Nigerian Civil War
Nigerian Civil War
The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War, 6 July 1967–15 January 1970, was a political conflict caused by the attempted secession of the southeastern provinces of Nigeria as the self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra...

 to Nsukka
Nsukka
Nsukka is a town and Local Government Area in South-East Nigeria in Enugu State. Other towns that share common border with Nsukka, such as Enugu Ezike, Orba and Obollo-Afor , Ede-Oballa, Uzo Uwani and Mkpologwu, now also claim the name Nsukka, hence they all collectively fall into the political...

, in the eastern part of the country.

Education and teaching

Eze was educated by Jesuits in colleges in Benin City
Benin City
Benin City, is a city and the capital of Edo State in southern Nigeria. It is a city approximately twenty-five miles north of the Benin River. It is situated 200 miles by road east of Lagos...

, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

 and Kimwenza
Kimwenza
Kimwenza is a community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the Mont Ngafula commune in the south of the capital, Kinshasa.-Location:Kimwenza is on a plateau above the main city of Kinshasa.It is near to the Petites Chutes de la Lukaya....

, Zaire
Zaire
The Republic of Zaire was the name of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo between 27 October 1971 and 17 May 1997. The name of Zaire derives from the , itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers".-Self-proclaimed Father of the Nation:In...

 (now Democratic Republic of Congo). He attended St. Patrick’s Elementary School in Iheakpu-Awka from 1970 to 1976. In 1982 he graduated from Igbo-Eze Secondary School. From September of the same year he worked as Clerk at the Kaduna State
Kaduna State
-History:The state is the successor to the old Northern Region of Nigeria, which had its capital at Kaduna. In 1967 this was split up into six states, one of which was the North-Central State, whose name was changed to Kaduna State in 1976. This was further divided in 1987, losing the area now part...

 Ministry of Agriculture in Funtua
Funtua
Funtua is a Local Government Area in Katsina State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Funtua on the A126 highway.It has an area of 448 km² and a population of 225,571 at the 2006 census.Funtua became a Local Government in 1967.The chairman is the official Head of Local government....

.

In 1983 Eze resigned the job and enrolled at St. Ignatius Jesuit Novitiate in Benin City. From 1985 to 1987 he studied at S. Pierre Canisius College in Kimwenza, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He then taught French language at Bishop Kelly College in Benin City for an academic year before moving to New York. He received his Masters (1989) and Ph.D. (1993) from Fordham University
Fordham University
Fordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...

. His doctoral thesis was on "Rationality and the Debates about African Philosophy."

Eze taught at Bucknell University
Bucknell University
Bucknell University is a private liberal arts university located alongside the West Branch Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the town of Lewisburg, 30 miles southeast of Williamsport and 60 miles north of Harrisburg. The university consists of the College of...

 and at Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts college for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It was the first member of the Seven Sisters colleges, and served as a model for some of the others...

. In addition, he was a post-doctoral visiting scholar at Cambridge University (1996–1997), a visiting professor at the New School for Social Research (1997) and at the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...

 (2003).

Books


Articles

  • "Out of Africa: Communication Theory and Cultural Hegemony". TELOS
    TELOS (journal)
    Telos is an academic journal published in the United States. It was founded in May 1968 to provide the New Left with a coherent theoretical perspective. It sought to expand the Husserlian diagnosis of "the crisis of European sciences" to prefigure a particular program of social reconstruction...

     111 (Spring 1998). New York: Telos Press

See also

  • Africana philosophy
    Africana philosophy
    Africana philosophy is an emerging term in the field of philosophy representing the works of professional philosophers who are of African descent as well as others whose works deal with the subject matter of the African diaspora.-What is Africana philosophy?:...

  • African philosophy
    African philosophy
    African philosophy is used in different ways by different philosophers. Although African philosophers spend their time doing work in many different areas, such as metaphysics, epistemology, moral philosophy, and political philosophy, a great deal of the literature is taken up with a debate...

  • American philosophy
    American philosophy
    American philosophy is the philosophical activity or output of Americans, both within the United States and abroad. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while American philosophy lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and...

  • List of American philosophers

Further reading



On “Achieving our Humanity: The Idea of the Postracial Future”
  • Review by Frank M. Kirkland, in Notre Dame Philosophical Review, 2002.04.05 http://ndpr.nd.edu/archives.cfm?date=4%7C2002
  • Review by Cleavis Headley, “The Ideal of the Postracial Future,” in Philosophia Africana, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2004:109–202.
  • Critique by Charles Mills, "Kant's Untermenschen," in Andrew Valls, Race and Racism in Modern Philosophy, Cornell University Press, 2005, pp. 169-193.


On “Race and the Enlightenment: A Reader”:


On “Postcolonial African Philosophy: A Critical Reader”:


On “African Philosophy: An Anthology”:
  • Review by Barry Hallen, “African Philosophy in a New Key,” in African Studies Review, Vol. 43, No. 3, 2000: 131–134.
  • Review by Stephen Clark
    Stephen Clark
    - Government :* Stephen Clark , NYS Treasurer 1856–1857* Stephen P. Clark , Mayor of Miami* Steve Clark , Canadian politician- Arts and recreation :...

    , “African Philosophy: an anthology,” in Afr Aff (Lond), 1999 98: 128–130.
  • Review by Nigel Gibson
    Nigel Gibson
    Nigel Gibson is an activist, a scholar specializing in philosophy and a noted author. He was born in London and was an active militant in the 1984 -1985 Miners' Strike. While in London he also met South African exiles from the Black Consciousness Movement and, in conversation with the exiles,...

    , in African and Asian Studies, Vol. 36, No. 3, 2001: 253–329.
  • Review by Rodney C. Roberts, in Philosophy East and West, October, 1999 http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb235/is_199910/ai_hibm1G162496720

External links

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