Openly discussing colonial tensions strengthens rather than weakens intercultural dialogue.

Evidence

But in the weaknesses of Bantu Philosophy also reside its strength and its possibility to be an instrument for a different philosophical perspective. Placed in its time, Bantu Philosophy can be seen as a first step in an intercultural learning process. An innovative step, as Pascah Mungwini (Chapter 3) called it, but as we can now see, a step without the liberation of readers from Wester-centrism and without a dialogue of encounter based on presenting both African and Western orientations. If we are to understand and create a dialogue, we have to admit these negative connotations. The connection between participants in a dialogue benefits from openly discussing underlying tensions, especially in situations where this is dif- ficult. A positive result of such reflection could be the deconstruction of the trend towards new forms of dominance inside and outside academia and public space. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 1032

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes Gadamer’s hermeneutic insistence that acknowledging prejudice is the precondition of genuine understanding, and resonates with decolonial work on ‘epistemic disobedience’.