Jacob Mabe

Jacob Emmanuel Mabe (born May 26, 1959 in Mandoumba, Center Region , Cameroon ) is a political scientist and philosopher . He published the first Africa lexicon in German. Mabe is President of the Anton Wilhelm Amo Society and was also President of the German Society for French-Speaking Philosophy (DGFP) until 2011 .

Life

Mabe went to school in Bitoutouk, Mom, Makak and Nkong-Mondo (Douala). He learned German and one day received the state award for best student in German.

“Then I was invited to Germany to get to know the country whose language I already knew. This was my first contact with Germany and then I decided to study in Germany. "

Before studying in Germany, he taught German, French and history in Douala from 1981 to 1983 . He then studied philosophy and political science in Munich from 1983 to 1986. 1989–1991 Mabe was a research assistant at the Department of Philosophy and Political Theory at the University of Munich, the Institute for Political Science. In 1989 he received his diploma sc.pol.univ. At the University of Munich. From 1990 to 1992 Mabe received a doctoral scholarship from the Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz Foundation. In 1992 Mabe received his doctorate in political science from the University of Augsburg . 1992–1994 Mabe received a research grant from Siemens AG in the Kraftwerk-Union (KWU) division. From 1994 to 1995 he worked as a security employee at Raab Karcher-Sicherheit GmbH and was also a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Frankfurt am Main. In 1996 he received his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Munich . In 1996 Mabe became a lecturer in general philosophy at RWTH Aachen University. From 2000 he taught at the Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin. 1996–2001 Mabe also worked as a freelance expert and scientist and also worked on the Afrika-Lexikon as an editor for the JB Metzler publishing house in Stuttgart. Since 2001 he has been a jury member of the Russell Tribunal on the question of human rights in Berlin. From 2002 onwards, Mabe worked on his habilitation thesis, Written and Oral Forms of Philosophical Thought in Africa . In 2004 he completed his habilitation and received the license to teach intercultural philosophy as a whole at the TU Berlin .

Mabe also participated in projects such as The Representation of Africa in German School Books on behalf of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation . From 2005 to 2007 Mabe was presidential councilor of the Gesellschaft für Transfer Immaterialielle Vermögens e. V. and member of the scientific advisory board of KADMOS Mittelstands-Förderungsgesellschaft mbH. In November 2007 he was a lecturer for the international diplomatic course of the Federal Foreign Office and since 2007 freelance worker at Tagesspiegel Berlin GmbH.

In May 2008 Mabe became President of the German Society for French-speaking Philosophy, which was co-founded in 1998 . V. based in Berlin and in May 2008 President of the Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Gesellschaft e. V. based in Berlin. Mabe has been a member of the African Network for Information Ethics (ANIE) based at the University of Pretoria (South Africa) since 2007.

Mabe is married and has one child.

Philosophize

With his writing Thinking with the Body, Mabe would like to encourage the reader to break down prejudices about Africa and to question familiar views. Despite all the differences in their views, Africans agree that they have to change if they want to "survive in global competition". Values tied to unquestioned authorities and sacred traditions are inappropriate for this. But there are universal values that have their roots in Africa. These are culturally demonstrable - Mabe characterizes them as probative and apodictic - and they can apply to all people. He refers, among other things, to the African- Egyptian culture, to Carthaginians and Numidians , to whom European philosophy , science and ethics owe universality. Conversely, Africans owe their cultural diversity to meeting other peoples. The Senegalese Cheikh Anta Diop and Amadou Hampâté Bâ from Mali were modern representatives of African universalism of values .

Unity of body and mind

The Cartesian separation of body and mind did not exist for Africans. In the past, the basis of their philosophizing was the interaction of natural rhythm , reflection and action . The oral traditions tell of a man who is a thoroughly biologically rhythmisiertes beings is.

“The African thinks and acts with his body. ... The rhythm ... merges the reflections of the intellect and the actions of the body into a symbiosis . ... Those who think with their bodies develop a zest for life out of themselves and cultivate an instinct for wellbeing, peace and harmonious relationships with their peers and with nature. "

That is what the African offer to other peoples. The effect of this approach is only accessible through experience. The written sources for this are based on the oral ones and add their author's own views .

Time and thinking

The time combines a traditional African with the enjoyment of the natural rhythm feeling , its biological "elemental force". Time is a gift from heaven or nature, depending on the situation. Events become times and markers for time calculations. The own shadow, the foot measurement, natural cycles (menstruation, rainy season, harvest time, sowing time) serve as measures for different lengths of time. The physical feeling for the biological rhythm determines the length of time for mourning, celebrations, ceremonies and the musical rhythm. Africans have the time, others the clock. Thinking arises from the perceived (life) rhythm. In this way, the time to think about one's own way of life remains the flexible property of every person, who in turn creates a desire for a continuation of the biological rhythm, improved by this reflection, for continued life. The distance to the time of day is a problem when dealing with other peoples, which cannot always be solved.

Consequences of colonialism for African philosophizing

The penetration of the Europeans fundamentally changed the philosophical and cultural development of Africa. The elites of Africa have been adapted to European thinking so much that they see the salvation of Africa in European education systems and values. In the eyes of these elites, African culture does not provide anything that could serve the further development of Africa. In addition to these friends of the West, there are enemies of the West . They are Americans, Asians, and Europeans of African descent who fight Eurocentrism to keep their own ties to Africa alive. There are also proto-Africans who live in Africa. They like to present themselves as authentically thinking Africans. They have little in common to offer one another. Finally, there are the philanthropic universalists , including Mabe. You are working on the ideal of a universalistic image of man . But they also want to promote mutual loyalty among peoples that is transcendent between peoples and cultures . That is why they jointly develop concepts of respect and acceptance .

Intercultural philosophizing

see: Intercultural Philosophy

The source of thinking and shaping life is the natural-biological rhythm . It follows from this that man cannot do otherwise, he "is condemned" to find independent and self-responsible forms of life. Thinking can thus produce culturally neutral values for everyone in the present . The merging of oral and written forms of one's own culture - called convergence - is the way to general values ​​within one's own culture. The intercultural philosophy is based on finding or inventing completely different, alternative values ​​and unknown ways of life in addition to the use of existing cultural values. Mabe's basic research in African culture, in European colonial and development policy serves u. a. the exploration of values ​​that can make common action of all peoples possible.

Publications

• Think with the body. A little intellectual history of Africa . Nordhausen 2010.
• On the theory and practice of intercultural philosophy. Reprint from Hamid Reza Yousefi and Klaus Fischer (eds.): Interkulturalität. Discussion fields of a comprehensive term. Nordhausen 2010.
• Anton Wilhelm Amo read interculturally . Nordhausen 2007.
• What do Europeans know about Africa culturally? Munich 2006.
• Security thinking in African philosophy and intellectual history. Munich 2006.
• Development policy as a catalyst for European-African relations. Munich 2006.
• From collective memory to the history of convergence - African and European memories of colonialism philosophically questioned. Munich 2005.
• The Africa Lexicon. A continent in 1000 keywords. Stuttgart and Wuppertal 2001 (reprint 2004).
• The Little Africa Lexicon: Politics, Society, Economy. Federal Agency for Civic Education. 2002 and 2004.
• Cultural development according to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In relation to the social developments in Africa Stuttgart 1996.
• Population growth, technological development and energy demand in Africa. Case study using the example of the Republic of Cameroon. Frankfurt am Main 1993.
• German development policy in Cameroon. Theory and practice. Frankfurt am Main 1993.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.antonamogesellschaft.de/
2. ↑ http://www.dgfp-splfa.de/
3. ↑ From an interview with Franz Stark from Bayrischer Rundfunk alpha ( PDF )
4. ↑ Biography of Jacob Mabe
5. ↑ Thinking with the body. A little intellectual history of Africa. Nordhausen 2010, pp. 17-21.
6. ↑ Ibid. Pp. 9-15.
7. ↑ Ibid. Pp. 95-97, 100-104.
8. ↑ See What do Europeans know culturally about Africa? Munich 2006, 6. The Afrocentric Discourse.
9. ↑ See ibid. 2. Culture as a way of life.
10. ↑ See ibid. Introduction.

Web links

• Website by Jacob Mabe
• Vita and publications. France Center of the FU Berlin ( Memento from the Internet Archive of December 30, 2016)
• German Society for French-Speaking Philosophy (DGFP)