The African and the Task of Becoming a Phenomenologist

Abstract

If there were a self-evident way of becoming a phenomenologist perhaps the African’s task of becoming one would not pose as many difficulties as it does. Unfortunately, what it takes to become a phenomenologist is not self-evident. In his effort to become a phenomenologist the African undertakes a task whose objective is uncertainty and this uncertainty touches him in his very being. As he seeks to become what he is uncertain of, his own being is at issue. One cannot seriously pursue an uncertain objective without being affected by uncertainty. Thus, in the African, one is not dealing with a being whose being is self-evident. As he seeks to eliminate the uncertainty in phenomenology the African seeks, at the same time, to eliminate uncertainty in his own being. For the African, therefore, the task of becoming a phenomenologist is intimately tied to the task of becoming himself.