Interview with Professor Franklin Nyamsi, President of the Africa Institute of Freedoms (Bamako, Mali). Philosophy of African decolonization

Born on March 31, 1972 in Cameroon, Professor Franklin Nyamsi is a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Lille 3 and has successively taught in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, France, Turkey and now in Mali, where he founded the Institute of African Freedom. He has notably taught at the Universities of Lille, Rouen, and now at the Catholic University of West Africa. He is a member of the Orientation Council of the Institute of Black Peoples (L’Institut des Peuples Noirs) of Burkina Faso. Author of around fifty works of philosophy, literature, and political analysis, Franklin Nyamsi is an international speaker recognized for his commitment against neocolonialism, imperialism, and despotism in Africa.

His works are focused on the emergence and evolution of African philosophy; the political development of Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire; theological issues and animism; Western metaphysics; the phenomenology of the German scholar E. Husserl; the ethics of the French philosopher E. Levinas; and a critique of the approaches of the German existentialist M. Heidegger. In recent years, he has devoted considerable attention to the problems of social development in the member countries of the Alliance of Sahel States, including the challenges of international terrorism in the region and countering extremist ideology in the context of nation-building. In his interview, F. Nyamsi analyzes the main African intellectual movements, placing particular emphasis on the evolution of Pan-Africanism and Afrocentrism. Characterizing the particular political development of African civilization, he cites the concept of Maât, which includes a unique perception of truth, justice, and solidarity. He provides a critical analysis of the prospects of capitalism and socialism in the African context.