Abstract

This chapter establishes the scope and goals of the book. It attempts to provide reasonable grounds and justification for an African philosophy of technology. Until recently, the mainstream philosophy has marginalised African philosophy and the holistic nature of traditional African knowledge systems. In response, African philosophy has been occupied with recapturing past perspectives rather than engaging contemporary problems. Further, African philosophy has emerged in a difficult era for the humanities discipline and hence has lacked institutional support. These factors have contributed to limited research in African philosophy. Despite these, valuable progress has been made in analysing African indigenous knowledge systems. While this is the case, subfields of African philosophy, like the philosophy of the mind and the philosophy of technology, have made slow progress. As such, literature on interrogating technology through an African lens remains highly limited in scale and coherence. The chapter demonstrates the need for an African philosophy of technology to counter biases in mainstream technology discourse, provide vital ethical insights, offer alternative visions grounded in communal values, and resist universalisms insensitive to local contexts. Utilising Afrocentric and decolonised frameworks surfaces marginalised voices and foregrounds concerns dismissed in conventional debates. The chapter also discusses the problem of homogenising diverse African worldviews, advocating instead for plural, contextual philosophising embedded in lived realities across the continent. The chapter emphasises generating public dialogues on shaping just, equitable technical futures tailored to Africa’s needs.

Original language	en
Pages (from-to)	1-16
Publication status	Published - 2024