Ato Sekyi-Otu, Emeritus Professor of Social and Political Thought, York University
"This newest offering of the African Potentials Project explores crucial foundational questions confronting the enterprise of actualizing African potentials in ways which are freed from the continuing grip of Western colonialist prejudices and prescriptions, nourished by the vital resources of endogenous thought and practices, and yet "porous," as the poet wrote, "to all the breathing of world." To that end the contributing essays address relevant debates in contemporary African philosophy, appraisals of the strengths and weaknesses of traditional forms of political legitimation and debate, contestation and conflict resolution, resistance to oppressive and predatory regimes, the resilience of local norms of welcoming strangers in this season of creeping xenophobia. The result is a rich and variegated set of critical examinations and suggestions for discarding imperial and tyrannizing models of human knowledge, existence and association, and reactivating more liberating and enabling precepts and practices in this time of crisis."