Abstract

SANDS, Justin. Self-realizing a lived existence in service of emancipation: Tsenay Serequeberhan's activist hermeneutics. Acta acad. (Bloemfontein, Online) [online]. 2023, vol.55, n.2, pp.30-49. ISSN 2415-0479.  http://dx.doi.org/10.38140/aa.v55i2.7732.

Through his own activistic hermeneutics, Sereque-berhan crafts a philosophy which allows African(a) persons pathways to self-realization and self-emancipation from Western cultural imperialism. He does this through a unique reading of Heidegger to arrive at a hermeneutics of existence, and through Gadamer to posit a specific historicity which he calls 'our heritage.' This article first charts how Serequeberhan articulates these concepts, and then explores their prescriptive, activist intent. The upshot of this is a stronger appreciation of Serequeberhan's work and how it provides a fresh approach through which we can better understand existence in a globalized, post-colonial, late capitalist society. For Western readers especially, it offers a framework to better describe the relationship between, the self, others, and the historical interactions between them in a world fraught with enclosure and harmful ideologies.

Keywords : Serequeberhan; hermeneutics; decolonisation; culture; existence; Gadamer.

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