by Lewis Gordon
Dr. Hanétha Vété-Congolo, Professor of Romance Languages and an affiliate in the Latin American Studies Program and the Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies Program at Bowdoin College, was elected President of the Caribbean Philosophical Association (CPA) in August 2019. She began her three-year term on January 1, 2020.
Professor Vété-Congolo earned her doctorate in general and comparative literature from the Université des Antilles et de la Guyane. Her research and scholarship focus principally on Caribbean and African ideas, philosophy, literature and orality. Very interdisciplinary and comparative, her work pays particular attention to discourses by women and about women of the Caribbean, West and Central Africa. In addition to her numerous literary and theoretical writings, she is also a published poet (here and here).
A committed and dynamic intellectual, Professor Vété-Congolo has been actively involved in the Caribbean Philosophical Association’s project of shifting the geography reason well before becoming a member of the organization. This work includes her efforts to link ideas across the Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean with those of West Africa and Europe. As a member of the Caribbean Philosophical Association, she was Secretary for Francophone outreach and Chair of Africana Orality Research, during which she co-organized the joint conference of the Caribbean Philosophical Association and La Société sénégalaise de philosophie (SOSEPHI), Shifting the Geography of Reason XV: Ways of Knowing, Past and Present at L’Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD) in Dakar, Sénégal, in June, 2018. Attracting a few hundred presenters from countries across the African continent and those of the Caribbean and South America, as well as others from countries of Eastern and Western Europe and as far away as New Zealand, the conference also drew an eager audience of a few thousand from Senegal and other countries. Professor Vété-Congolo spent her time after the conference in workshops and presentations across Senegal building relationships that continue to this day.
In the words of former President Jane Anna Gordon (2013–2016)—who now directs the CPA Summer School and co-edits the CPA’s two book series Creolizing the Canon and Global Critical Caribbean Thought: “I am delighted that Hanétha Vété-Congolo energy and vision will be at the helm of the CPA for the next three years! We thank her in advance for her service at this moment when the significance of our organization for the world could not be more pronounced.”
Now former President Neil Roberts (2016–2019), who co-edits the Creolizing the Canon series, adds: “Serving as President of the Caribbean Philosophical Association was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life, and I cannot think of a more adept and visionary scholar in the world than Professor Hanétha Vété-Congolo to lead the CPA, for Vété-Congolo’s life and work not only contribute to shifting the geography of reason, but also will provide the groundings to guide the CPA and its global community into, as C.L.R. James memorably wrote, ‘regions Caesar never knew.’”
In her letter to members of the Caribbean Philosophical Association, Professor Vété-Congolo states:
The age we are living in today is neither more nor less turbulent than previous ones. All ages have seen their share of confusion, turmoil, and ambiguities. However, the sentiment of regression today is felt by many in the domain of ideas. While progress has been achieved to spread education and make information more accessible, essentially via the means of new technologies, the same means have also precipitated confusion or made it more complex. Those who, not so long ago were afraid of emitting inhuman, racist and xenophobic ideologies in public, are no longer afraid to do so.
This is one of the reasons why the philosophical project carried by CPA reveals itself to be pertinent. Shifting the geography of reason remains valid more than ever. Casting light on a philosophy and thoughts that challenge ideologies jeopardizing the basic human decency expressed in freedom and justice is a duty. Disseminating the ideas offered through CPA is consequently also relevant. The social media apparatus offers help in this view….
The Caribbean Philosophical Association is like no other. We want the CPA to be home, a home and a sure intellectual anchor for those who make it and give it its sustenance. We want it to continue to be so for academics and the world beyond
President Vété-Congolo and Vice President Yomaira Figueroa are in the process of building a set of new initiatives and co-organizing the next international conference of the CPA, which will be in collaboration with the Literary Festival and Book Fair of the U.S. Virgin Islands and the University of the Virgin Islands at Saint Croix. The conference’s title is Shifting the Geography of Reason XVII: Dignity, Power and Place in the Caribbean.
For more information on the Caribbean Philosophical Association, please consult the organization’s website and Facebook page: http://www.caribbeanphilosophicalassociation.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/CaribPhil/.
Lewis Gordon is the series editor for “Black Issues in Philosophy.”
