The communitarian personhood idea was deployed to reinforce African distinctness and authorize authenticity claims

Evidence

The communitarian notion of personhood has had quite a far-reaching impact on African thought systems. Not only is it seen as an inalienable truth about the foundation of African thought, but it has also influenced important aspects, such as ethics and political philosophy. I will not discuss the details of this influence. What I seek to draw attention to is the significance of this notion in developing the idea of what has come to be identified as authentic African notions as well as the implications thereof. While the notion of personhood was presented as communitarian to demonstrate the difference between itself and its Western counterpart, what is more significant is how its use in politics and ethics has tended to reinforce the distinctness of Africans. This distinctness is then used to support whatever theories, beliefs or practices that flow from what is presented as the authentic African mode of “being”. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 442

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to broader postcolonial critique of how ‘authentic’ difference is constructed and weaponized, echoing Edward Said’s orientalism analysis of how difference is pressed into service of political projects.