The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought

Two impressive reference works on Africa have recently appeared from Oxford University Press. The work under review is one of them. The other is the Encyclopedia of Africa (Appiah and Gates, 2010) (RR 2011/49). Reference works on Africa and African thought, within Africa itself and beyond in the diaspora (and, for example, in the many African studies courses around the world, as well as in African‐American cultural scholarship) remind us, with increasing clarity and authority, how many and complex are the political and intellectual, philosophical and moral factors at work here. A quick look, for instance, at...