Q0601

“By decolonization, I mean divesting African philosophical thinking of all undue influences…” — Kwasi Wiredu ("Toward Decolonizing African Philosophy and Religion"…)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: "Toward Decolonizing African Philosophy and Religion" (African Studies Quarterly). Theme: critique.

English

By decolonization, I mean divesting African philosophical thinking of all undue influences emanating from our colonial past. The crucial word in this formulation is "undue".
Thinker Kwasi Wiredu
School Africana Philosophy
Source "Toward Decolonizing African Philosophy and Religion" (African Studies Quarterly)
Theme Critique
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to "Toward Decolonizing African Philosophy and Religion" (African Studies Quarterly) and files it under Africana Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Kwasi Wiredu

Kwasi Wiredu (1931–2022) was a Ghanaian philosopher trained in Accra and at Oxford under P. F.

How to read this passage

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Paulin Hountondji and Aimé Césaire), critique is framed through Africana Philosophy and Critical Rationalism. Some passages define critique; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through critique, method.

Concepts in this quote

Critique
Critique appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat critique as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
Method
Method appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat method as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Kwasi Wiredu. (n.d.). By decolonization, I mean divesting African philosophical thinking of all undue influences emanating from our colonial past. The crucial word in this formulation is "undue". In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0601

MLA: Kwasi Wiredu. “By decolonization, I mean divesting African philosophical thinking….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0601.

Chicago: Kwasi Wiredu. “By decolonization, I mean divesting African philosophical thinking….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0601.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “By decolonization, I mean divesting African philosophical thinking…”?

The passage is attributed to Kwasi Wiredu, "Toward Decolonizing African Philosophy and Religion" (African Studies Quarterly). The archive attributes this English wording to "Toward Decolonizing African Philosophy and Religion" (African Studies Quarterly) and files it under Africana Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Kwasi Wiredu mean by critique?

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Paulin Hountondji and Aimé Césaire), critique is framed through Africana Philosophy and Critical Rationalism. Some passages define critique; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through critique, method.

Same thinker

More from Kwasi Wiredu

  1. A language, most assuredly, is not conceptually neutral; syntax and vocabulary are apt to suggest definite modes of conceptualization.
  2. On the negative side, avoiding or reversing through a critical conceptual self-awareness the unexamined assimilation in our thought of the conceptual frameworks embedded in the foreign philosophical traditions that have had an impact on African life and thought. And, on the positive side, exploiting as much as is judicious the resources of our own indigenous conceptual schemes in our philosophical meditations.
  3. It was a democracy because government was by the consent, and subject to the control, of the people as expressed through their representatives. It was consensual because, at least as a rule, that consent was negotiated on the principle of consensus.
  4. By contrast, the majoritarian system might be said to be, in principle, based on consent without consensus.
  5. A theory of truth is not of any real universal significance unless it offers some account of the notion of being so.

All quotations by Kwasi Wiredu

Same theme

More on critique

  1. We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.
  2. It is easy to obtain confirmations…for nearly every theory—if we look for confirmations.
  3. Seek simplicity and distrust it.
  4. Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.
  5. I am looking for a human being.

Browse the critique theme