Why the idea of 'African time' keeps on ticking

By Thomas Widlok, Professor for the Anthropology of Africa, University of Cologne
Joachim Knab, PhD-student in Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Cologne

“African time” delivers more hits on internet searches than “African nature” or “African people”. This shows that people seem to need to feed a stereotype.

As anthropologists, we’re interested in why this need exists and what impact it has on people’s lives.

Various scholars have discussed the idea of an African sense of time. Following the Kenyan-born philosopher John Mbiti, some have suggested that Africans have no concept of the future. Others have claimed that the “relaxed” African attitude towards time,…

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