Black Existentialism and Decolonizing Knowledge collects key philosophical writings of Lewis R. Gordon, a globally renowned scholar whose writings cover liberation struggles across the globe and make field-defining contributions to the philosophy of existence, philosophy of race, Africana philosophy, philosophy of human sciences, aesthetics, and decolonization.
Gordon’s expansive output ranges across phenomenology, anti-Blackness, activist thinkers, sexuality, Fanon, Jimi Hendrix, Black Jewish struggles, critical pedagogy, psychoanalysis, and Ubuntu philosophy. Edited by Rozena Maart and Sayan Dey, two decolonial thinkers from South Africa and India, this reader shifts attention away from colonial centres of power, encouraging global dialogue across students, scholars, and activists. Featuring a foreword by the celebrated novelist and postcolonial thinker, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, this reader includes a mixture of research articles, short critical essays, reflections, interviews, poems, and photographs in the creative pursuit of liberation.
Author Biography:
Rozena Maart is Professor at the School of Social Sciences in the College of Humanities at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and Mercator Fellow and Research Ambassador at the University of Bremen, Germany.
Sayan Dey is Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and Faculty Fellow at the Harriet Tubman Institute, York University, Canada.
Lewis R. Gordon is Professor and Department Head at the University of Connecticut, USA, Honorary Professor in the Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa
