Search

The articles in this Special Issue were selected from responses to a call for abstracts on the theme “Generation of African Scholars and the Intellectual Legacies”. The idea was originally conceived by the late Professor Michael Cross, pioneer Director of the Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies (AMCHES), University of Johannesburg, South Africa, to be a flagship project of the budding centre. It aimed to bring together, outstanding scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives to critically investigate, analyse and document the intellectual legacies of African scholars, leaders, and institutions. Its central objective was to analyse the nature of African scholars’ contributions to knowledge production with the specific goal of influencing and/or shaping the higher education landscape, discourses, policies, and practices in Africa.

The place of the world in the life of individual human being cannot be underestimated. This fact has culminated in the high esteem in which the concept of the world is held in the existentialist thinking. Using the Sartrean existentialist methodological approach, the paper critically examines the notion of the world (ayé) in the existentialist thinking of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. The paper argues that although humans find themselves thrown into the world (ayé) amidst situations that are not of their own making, sometimes amidst untoward circumstances, the right mark of an authentic existence is ṣíṣe ayé which literally means “doing the world”, rather than mere gbígbé ayé, that is, living in the world. The paper concludes that the hallmark of authentic existence is to be found in the act of “doing the world” rather than just living in it.

The place of the world in the life of individual human being cannot be underestimated. This fact has culminated in the high esteem in which the concept of the world is held in the existentialist thinking. Using the Sartrean existentialist methodological approach, the paper critically examines the notion of the world (ayé) in the existentialist thinking of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. The paper argues that although humans find themselves thrown into the world (ayé) amidst situations that are not of their own making, sometimes amidst untoward circumstances, the right mark of an authentic existence is ṣíṣe ayé which literally means “doing the world”, rather than mere gbígbé ayé, that is, living in the world. The paper concludes that the hallmark of authentic existence is to be found in the act of “doing the world” rather than just living in it.