Revisiting John Mbiti’s Suspicion of Futurity: Ritual Models of Non-Linear Time

This paper begins by surveying the debate provoked by John Mbiti’s claim that African epistemologies lack attention to the distant future. It argues for the relevance of this debate in our current context of climate crisis and resource depletion. The problems of our day demand a revisiting of Mbiti’s mostly philosophical claim about the value of non-linear models of time. But can this claim be empirically grounded, as demanded by Mbiti’s critics? This paper argues that it can, pointing to evidence from “traditional” rites of passage that, in at least three distinct parts of the continent, may be better termed “rites of return.” The aim of this paper is to provide empirical evidence, mostly lacking in Mbiti’s work, for the needed recognition that non-linear and non-teleological models of time, growth, and development not only exist, but, if taken seriously, would benefit the world at large.