Engaging Emmanuel Ofuasia’s An Exploration of the Parallels between African and Process Metaphysics: Introducing the Metaphysics of Force and Becoming

Abstract

In this paper, I engage Emmanuel Ofuasia’s An Exploration of the Parallels between African and Process Metaphysics: Introducing the Metaphysics of Force and Becoming, a twelve-chapter comparative study arguing that African metaphysics of force and Whiteheadian process metaphysics of becoming are structurally equivalent, and that classical bivalent logic distorted both traditions. The paper credits Ofuasia with a historically rich account spanning Danquah, Tempels, and Attoe to Whitehead and Bergson, and with foregrounding logic as a neglected variable in comparative African-Western philosophy. I commend his critique of Tempels’s onto-theological conflation and his productive reading of Berkeley and Whitehead. However, I raise substantive objections against some of his metaphysical and logical claims, and I argue that this approach is conceptually flawed, resting on an equivocation between dialectical and chemical synthesis.
Further, I contend that his strong convergence thesis risks flattening genuine differences between the African and Process traditions. Also, I show that the treatment of relativistic time and applied ethics remains underdeveloped. Despite these weaknesses, the book is an audacious and original contribution and recommend it for scholars of African philosophy, process thought, and philosophical logic.