Perspectives on Non-racial Philosophical Anthropology and African Philosophy

Abstract

This article explores the possibility of developing a non-racial philosophical anthropology rooted in African philosophy. In contrast to the critical anti-racial tradition, which holds that race must be confronted directly through exposure, deconstruction, and critique, this study proposes a different approach: dissolving the idea of race by drawing on precolonial African intellectual sources. The article examines the historical and philosophical conditions that produced the racialized humanity of the Euro-modern era, while engaging Egyptian and Ethiopian traditions, especially the figure of Atum-Ra and the thought of Zera Yacob, as alternative foundations for defining a universal, non-racial conception of the human grounded in African traditions of history, community, and thought.