Sino-African Philosophical Conversations: Confucius and Black Africa

Thanks to the rising of China as a global player, the geography of reason is changing. This meteoric transformation is affecting the great figures of the Chinese science and philosophy. One of these reemerging personalities hitherto neglected is the antic philosopher Confucius (….) The interest in Confucius is justified by the massive mobilization of his philosophical heritage by the Chinese leadership in order to give a solid theoretical base to its acceptance of a new globalization governed by the principles of harmony, mutual understanding, reciprocal interest, friendship, cooperation and peaceful development. In parallel with this evolution, since three or four decades the global scientific consciousness experimented fundamental shifts in favor of the de-centration of the epistemological thought. The criticism of eurocentrism opened the windows to alternative models of truth, mainly the discourses from ex-colonies. So was born the “postmodernist” concept of “Southern epistemologies’’. Meanwhile, the challenge of the liberation of Africa imposed the rediscovering of the ancient African cultural and intellectual tradition. Under the framework of the South-South cooperation, Africa and China engaged a new dialogue. What could be the philosophical foundations of the China-Africa cooperation? How can the two cultural worlds converse peacefully? Concretely, in what terms Confucius can be confronted to the abstractive thought of black Africa whether in philosophy, cosmogony, science, morality, ethics or politics? What theoretical principles can come out from this debate and how can each vision enrich the other? From the analysis of some African texts of Ancient Egypt, medieval and traditional Africa, our aim is to think philosophically the possibility of a Community with Shared Future between China and Africa.