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Book Reviews
Mabogo Percy More, Biko: Philosophy, Identity and Liberation.
HSRC Press, 2017, 320 pp.

Mabogo Percy More’s book Biko: Philosophy, Identity and Libera-

tion (2017) situates Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) leader,
Steve Biko’s intellectual foundation, orientation and contribution
in the Africana philosophy tradition. More claims specifically that
Biko was inspired by and contributed to the field of Africana exis-
tential philosophy or Black existentialism. This field is concerned
with the existential phenomenology or lived experience of Black
people in an anti-Black society (114–158). More’s project illumi-
nates and demonstrates the catalytic synergy between Biko the indi-
vidual and the BCM as a collective, which confronted apartheid
through philosophical reflection (theory) that was directed towards
political and social action (praxis). In my view, the book is consti-
tuted of two themes or threads: Biko’s role and contribution to the
anti-apartheid and anti-racist struggles; and the constitution and
influence of the BCM as a liberation organisation. As such, More
situates Biko the philosopher, and BCM the philosophy, within the
South African liberation struggle.
Pertaining to the first theme about Biko the individual, in the first
chapter More makes uncontroversial and established claims about
who and what Biko was: a rebel, perhaps a hero and maybe even
a villain, among many other attributes (7–13). Then More deploys
his arguably bold and controversial thesis that Biko was ‘the rebel
as philosopher’ (15). He asserts that Biko’s philosophical orienta-
tion was influenced mainly by Jean-Paul Sartre, G. W. F. Hegel and
Frantz Fanon (85). Significantly, one will notice that these names
are featured on the cover design of the book.
Both scholars and laypeople, particularly in South Africa, might
accuse More of attempting to rewrite Biko’s history, because there
is almost unanimous consensus that Biko was a freedom fighter

Theoria, Issue 173, Vol. 69, No. 4 (December 2022): 122-130 © Author(s)
doi:10.3167/th.2022.6917306 • ISSN 0040-5817 (Print) • ISSN 1558-5816 (Online)

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 Book Reviews 123

and an activist. Conversely, More could be lauded for systemati-

cally retrieving Biko the thinker, and surmounting the law of the
excluded middle by demonstrating that Biko could be considered
both a revolutionary activist and a philosophical thinker. The lat-
ter argument has been made before; thus, More’s account finds
company among philosophers such as Lewis Gordon, Nigel Gib-
son, Mogobe Ramose, Richard Pithouse and Tendayi Sithole, who
‘have, amid intense resistance, given recognition to Biko’s philo-
sophical voice’ (xi).
Another concern comes to mind. Given that Biko’s writings were
communique-style pieces on platforms such as the South African
Student Organisation (SASO) newsletter and the Frank Talk col-
umn, and that his solitary book, I Write What I Like (1978), was
a collection of selected pieces, speeches and interviews, a sceptic
might wonder if his writings are sufficient to constitute a body of
philosophical works. Undoubtedly, Biko advanced profound phi-
losophies and perhaps one of his most enduring is from the evidence
he gave at the SASO/BPC Trial (May 1976), where he declared,
echoing the SASO manifesto, that the ‘SASO is a Black Student
Organization working for the liberation of the Black man first from
psychological oppression by themselves through inferiority com-
plex and secondly from physical oppression accruing out of living
in a White racist society’ (SASO 1969: 1). Even though he made
this declaration as a spokesperson of the SASO, his ability to articu-
late various philosophies eloquently in the moment, produced what
would be termed quotable ‘sound bites’ in contemporary commu-
nications theory. However, in contrast to how a trained philosopher
earns their credentials, could it be that More and those who share
his view are actually conferring on Biko ‘honorary philosopher’
status, much like some are awarded honorary doctorate degrees?
More pre-empts such an objection and admits that who and
what a philosopher is, is a controversial issue that continues to be a
problem for philosophy itself (83). He acknowledges the common
consensus that a philosopher holds a doctorate in philosophy and
is formally trained in the discipline. In applying these criteria, he
maintains that few recognised philosophers would meet them. Biko
does not meet these criteria given that he was a medical student
until his untimely death. To address this impasse, More argues:
‘A philosopher is an individual who has the capacity to make an

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 124 Book Reviews

original contribution to the development of philosophical thought

and to the world of ideas irrespective of his training in the disci-
pline’ (83). He points out that even some scholars linked to the
Africana philosophy tradition have among them a sociologist (W.
E. B. du Bois) and a psychologist (Frantz Fanon) (83). Moreover,
he highlights famous existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Sim-
one De Beauvoir, Karl Jaspers and Søren Kierkegaard, who did
not hold doctorates in philosophy or teach at universities (83). I
find this justification plausible, because if two of Biko’s renowned
philosophical influences, Fanon and Sartre, do not meet the criteria
either, then it seems that philosopher status can be earned through
demonstrated, original contribution to philosophy.
Yet, I raise one more possible objection to More’s view that Biko
is a philosopher. Some would argue that if Biko is bestowed with
this title, surely some of his BCM compatriots—who crafted the
BC philosophy together with him through discourse, speeches and
writings on various platforms—should also be considered as phi-
losophers. More mentions and cites several of them, including Bar-
ney Pityana, Themba Sono, Sam Nolutshungu and Chabani Noel
Manganyi. He also acknowledges the poets among them, including
Mafika Gwala, Mongane Wally Serote, Oswald Mtshali, Don Mat-
tera, Sipho Sepamla and Mbulelo Mzamane (140–141).
Perhaps Biko’s untimely death immortalised him and his con-
tributions to the struggle in theory and practice. Perhaps the com-
bination of his charisma, his gift as an orator, his fortitude and
revolutionary spirit, as famously documented in numerous books
and articles, set him apart in a historically significant way. How-
ever, to single him out might amount to hero worship, and inci-
dentally, this is something that he and Nelson Mandela have in
common. More touches on this when he argues that ‘[l]ike Nelson
Mandela, Biko is progressively becoming more than himself, not
a saint like the post-1994 Mandela but evidently something more
than himself’ (2).
With respect to the second theme of the book, that of the consti-
tution and influence of the BCM as a liberation organisation, More
traces the organisation’s Black philosophical intellectual founda-
tions to Marcus Garvey’s Black nationalist movement; George
Padmore’s Pan-Africanism; Negritude; Julius Nyerere’s African
socialism; and the Black Power Movement, among others (84).

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 Book Reviews 125

More’s thorough historical analysis of the BCM fills a space-and-

time contextual gap by bringing all these influences into dialogue
with the predominant ideological orientations during Biko’s era,
which still prevail in the post-apartheid milieu. These include Afri-
kaner nationalism and apartheid (130–139), Marxism and socialism
(220–248) and liberalism (159–219). As such, he demonstrates how
Black existential-phenomenological categories such as Blackness,
embodiment, alienation, consciousness, identity and liberation are
still useful lenses for examining the current lived experience of
Black people. Further, he shows how Black people are still striving
for psychological freedom and collective liberation, even in a post-
apartheid, post-colonisation, and post-slavery world.
The structure of the book’s nine chapters is loosely divided
between the ontological (what is) dimensions of both Biko and the
BCM, and the teleological (what ought to be) dimensions. More
explains the differences and connections between the two (77). The
first five chapters focus on how Biko and the BCM conceptualised
ontological, psychological and subjective freedom from apartheid.
The following four chapters focus on the ideologies of liberalism
and Marxism, which More argues were both antagonistic towards
BCM philosophy and politics. The final chapter outlines Biko’s
vision for a new humanism. More ends the book by demonstrating
that Biko and the BCM emphasised Black solidarity as the vehi-
cle for objective or collective liberation. The book, in my view, is
rather dense; there is a lot to absorb in terms of content and context.
More manoeuvres between the South African, European, Ameri-
can and Caribbean contexts to trace the intellectual foundations of
Biko’s and the BCM’s philosophies, so the book is transnational, as
opposed to focusing only on South Africa.
The book itself is situated among a significant number of works
that document Biko’s biography, his political tenets, his activism
and his social discourse. Just to name a few that have been pub-
lished by South African scholars over the last few years, there are:
Andile Mngxitama et al. (2008), which includes a chapter by More
titled ‘Biko: Existential Philosopher’; Daniel Magaziner (2010);
Lindy Wilson (2011); Xolela Mangcu (2012); Derek Hook (ed.)
(2014); and more recently Tendayi Sithole (2016).
While an account of the ‘woman question’ or ‘gender question’
within the BC philosophy and from Biko’s philosophical standpoint

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 126 Book Reviews

is conspicuously absent, I reserve my critique of this problem for

another occasion. Overall, this book is a well-executed theoretical
genealogy of the philosophies of Biko and the BCM. It has interdis-
ciplinary value and is essential reading for all students and scholars
in philosophy, politics, sociology and psychology, as it touches
on ideological, existential and phenomenological themes that span
these disciplines.

References

Hook, D (Ed). 2014. Steve Biko: Voices of liberation. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Magaziner, D. R. 2010. The law and the prophets: Black Consciousness in South
Africa, 1968–1977. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
Mangcu, X. 2012. Biko: A biography. Cape Town: Tafelberg.
Mngxitama, A., Alexander, A., & Gibson, N. C. (Eds). 2008. Biko lives!
Contesting the legacies Steve Biko. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
SASO. 1969. ‘SASO Policy Manifesto’. SA History Online. https://www.
sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files2/pol19710709.032.009.746.
pdf (accessed 21 November 2022).
Sithole, T. 2016. Steve Biko: Decolonial meditations of Black Consciousness.
Lanham, MD: Lexington.
Wilson, L. 2011. Steve Biko. Auckland Park: Jacana Media.

Sarah Setlaelo
University of Johannesburg

Renate Schepen, Kimmerle’s Intercultural Philosophy and Beyond:

The Ongoing Quest for Epistemic Justice. Routledge, 2022, 247
pp.

In her latest seminal work, intercultural philosopher Renate Schepen

presents the intersectional dimension of intercultural philosophy
by questioning the established givens of the present struggle for
epistemic justice. Epistemic injustice is the source of all kinds of
oppression; without the abolition of epistemic violence in its mul-
tiple layers, the realisation of global justice is unlikely – that is the
core theme of the book. Focusing on Kimmerle, who is one of the
Holy Trinity of intercultural philosophers along with Ram Adhar
Mall and Franz Wimmer, Schepen defends her position from the

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 Book Reviews 127

perspective of feminist standpoint theory. For Schepen, the inter-

sectionalisation of intercultural philosophy serves the excluded
other – women, Black people, minorities and nature – in revealing
the layers of epistemic injustice in hegemonic Western epistemolo-
gies and ontologies, thus reconstructing pluralistic philosophies of
liberation (93–98). This aesthetic defence of marginalised people
is supported by a dialogical performance with female artist-phi-
losophers (Chapter 8). Schepen argues that for Kimmerle, philoso-
phy ought to be practical and intercultural to be socially relevant.
Schepen’s book is significant, and connects with Kimmerle’s asser-
tion, in that it aims to transcend the practice-oriented intercultural-
ity towards intersectionality using a method that our present world
lacks: playful dialogue.
To celebrate Kimmerle’s contribution to the struggle for global
epistemic justice and to introduce playful dialogue into intercultural
philosophy, the book outlines the nature, evolution and scope of
three important concepts: intercultural philosophy, epistemic jus-
tice and dialogue. In doing so, Schepen structures her manuscript
in three parts, charting in the first the three layers of Kimmerle’s
philosophy: dialectics and difference; deconstruction and herme-
neutics; and deconstruction and decoloniality (Chapters 2–5); in
the second, dialectical dialogue as a method for epistemic justice
(Chapters 6–9); and in the third, her own playful and imaginative
thinking on how to extend intersectionally oriented intercultural
philosophy to the ‘second sex’ and nature using an interdisciplinary
and nomadic approach, wherein she defends the thesis of ‘thinking
as acting in a play’ (Chapter 10).
Embarking on the trajectory of ‘epistemological pluriformity’ as
a new paradigm, Schepen traces the literature of the multilayered,
violence-oriented Eurocentrism that culminates with Hegel’s proj-
ect of ‘epistemic and ontological totality’: the ‘European Western
way of structuring the world and knowledge’ (83). To understand
this epistemic and ontological totality through Kimmerle’s foot-
steps, Schepen explores his influences – Hegel, Schleiermacher,
Gadamer, Heidegger, Lyotard, Derrida and many African phi-
losophers – and fills the gaps by reading De Stael, Irigaray, De
Beauvoir and Crenshaw (Part I). She also examines the methods
Kimmerle employed – dialectics, hermeneutics, deconstruction
and ‘decolonisation’ – in establishing the setting for a radical form

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 128 Book Reviews

of intercultural philosophy, namely, dialectical dialogue. In addi-

tion, to embrace ‘difference’ as a mechanism of epistemologi-
cal pluriformity in his dialectical dialogue, Kimmerle adopted the
concept of ‘inter’ (41). Encouraged by Kimmerle, and intending
to extend the original knowledge back to the excluded ‘Eve’ – the
mother of epistemic justices – Schepen adds the notion of ‘play’
and makes the labour of intersectional inter-play philosophy com-
plete (209).
In this work, Schepen deconstructs Kimmerle’s philosophi-
cal discourse of sixty years, and reconstructs a new narrative of
Kimmerle’s long journey whereby he envisioned epistemic justice
for Black people, women and nature from within the circle of the
hegemonic discourse. Schepen claims that Kimmerle shows ‘how
Africa has been excluded from modern world history and therefore
how indigenous religions and philosophies in Africa are neglected’
(122-174). In this case, she says, Kimmerle should be regarded as a
‘spokesperson in action’ (to use the Fanonian term) of the excluded
others, including people of liminality. However, as Kimmerle was
a white German man, it would have been a shame for him and his
disciples if he had less concern about the problems of the oppressor
minority and their associates: feelings of guilt, alienation, totalitar-
ian thinking and racism (92). Thus, this ‘in-betweenness’ made
his identity dialectical dialogue oriented – an anti-Hegel Hegelian
personality. For instance, Kimmerle showed how Hegel excluded
Africa and how Hegel’s works offered openings for intercultural
reading (84). In general, Kimmerle departed from Hegelian assump-
tions to explore his philosophical innovations. However, this dia-
lectical nature of philosophy and self-consciousness is essential
in intercultural philosophy, as it works against all centrism – the
source of ‘isolation’ and ‘arrogance’ as well as injustice – except
‘tentative centrism’.
In Kimmerle’s Intercultural Philosophy and Beyond, Schepen
has shown some crucial factors that Kimmerle left behind for us
to undertake. Aiming to extend his legacy, this work is a result of
extensive research and devotion, of deconstructing and reconstruct-
ing Kimmerle’s journey. Schepen produced her first book in 2014
with Kimmerle, her ‘Rabbi’, who introduced her to this intercul-
tural journey, particularly to African philosophy. In addition to the
‘Socratie friendship’ they both enjoyed, Schepen has had access to

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 Book Reviews 129

Kimmerle’s archive since his death, which contains unpublished

and untranslated German and Dutch texts. This enabled her to
produce another original ‘emerging thought’ through which she
reincarnated Kimmerle with a third dimension: intersectionality.
In this playful journey of reincarnation, not only has the author
presented a well-written manuscript in the form of prose and verse,
she has also presented the content in a way that has philosophical
depth: thought-provoking, dialogical, clear and coherent. Above
all, the composition is rhythmic – a textual emerging thought in
play. Philosophy, for Schepen, is ‘playing with ideas and methods,
articulated in words,’ and this work is an evidence (199). Despite
this vivid and playful emerging thought, it is natural to find some
epistemic gaps in the ideation, distinction and labour of the extraor-
dinary mind-child. For now, let me deal with three small, but very
important, contradictions: selective thinking, deliberate imposition
and one-dimensional rationalism.
One of the flagships of intercultural philosophy (attributed to
Kimmerle) is the invitation of art to the sphere of interculturality.
However, Schepen, in her exploration of the distinction between
philosophy and art, seems to overlook a critical input, as she
endorses Hegelian assumptions (135, 182, 194, 197, 198 and 199).
If Schepen had consulted the aesthetics of liberation (post-Schiller
and Adorno) and the artistic trend in philosophy, ranging from lit-
erature to cinema, for instance, her thought experiment on the rec-
onciliation of play with reason could have been more fruitful, even
going beyond the debate on searching for philosophical art, which
is anti-Hegelian – liberational. This shows the first contradiction,
selective thinking. Second, while Schepen perceives herself as a
disciple of epistemic decolonisation, employing colonial terms such
as ‘animism’ instead of using African spirituality reveals a lack
of attention (mis-‘approximation’), if not a deliberate imposition.
Third, in addition to the exclusion of the discourse on Sarah Baart-
man, the victim of intersectional violence in liminality, Schepen
ridicules Frantz Fanon, the martyr of African decolonisation and
intersectionality, and the man who signifies ‘the historical meaning
of the veil’ (81), for citing Sartre (who is considered by some Afri-
can philosophers as a treachery of African liberation from Negri-
tude to New Humanism; Mudimbe 1988) instead of his soulmate,
Simone de Beauvoir (99–100). In my opinion, inviting Sartre and

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 130 Book Reviews

De Beauvoir into the sphere of interculturality is one thing, and

deconstructing Fanon’s work for the sake of re-orienting decolo-
nization is another – between the two, there shall be no confusion
in reconciling the confluences of difference to provide a new birth:
Seada Nourhussen, a victim of ongoing epistemic violence and
unjust silence. This is what I would like to refer as one-dimensional
rationalism.
Still, in spite of this critique, the introduction of playful dialogue
has been successfully achieved here, and Schepen’s is the most
comprehensive book to date on intersectional intercultural philos­
ophy.

Reference

Fanon, F. (2004[1961]). The wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove press.
Mudimbe, V. Y. (1988). The Invention of Africa. Gnosis, Philosophy and the
Order of Knowledge. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Yonas Belay Abebe

Leiden University

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