Is Pan Africannism Alive and Well?

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The idea of a diaspotic african identity seems pretty lively in the world to day. But if you ask them to do something practical about it, like take down borders, i don't know that that is going to go anywhere any time soon. On the one hand, there's probably a million ganens in nigeria living gunan citizens. We've had massive expulsions from each country,. not recently, but in the past. Nearly a million nigerians expelled by doctor pozie in the early seventies. And then a nigerian expulsion later. That's crazyand you know, we've had these weird things.

Born to a Ghanaian father and British mother, Kwame Anthony Appiah grew up splitting time between both countries — and lecturing in many more — before eventually settling in America, where he now teaches philosophy at New York University. This, along with a family scattered across half-a-dozen countries, establishes him as a true cosmopolitan, a label Appiah readily accepts. Yet he insists it is nonetheless possible to be a cosmopolitan patriot, rooted in a place, while having obligations and interests that transcend one’s national identity.

He joins Tyler to discuss this worldly perspective and more, including whether Africa will secularize, Ghanian fallibilism, teaching Jodie Foster, whether museums should repatriate collections, Karl Popper, Lee Kuan Yew, which country has the best jollof rice, the value of writing an ethical advice column, E.T. Mensah, Paul Simon, the experience of reading 173 novels to judge the Man Booker prize, and what he’s learned farming sheep in New Jersey.

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Recorded June 12th, 2019 Other ways to connect

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