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The belief in spirits has diminished in Western thought since Enlightenment. But it has not disappeared totally. In the subconscious of people and in different subcultures and also in literature and art it is still alive. Derrida, before his death, worked out a new spectrology in which the status of reality of spirits is interpreted as absently present. In Sub-Saharan African thought this belief is broadly present and deeply rooted. It is the core of traditional African religions. Also intellectuals, although they may have taken over Christian or Islamic convictions, mostly stick to this belief. An important aspect of the African belief in spirits is that they also dwell in nature. In principle they can choose for all natural things to dwell in them, and there is a special inclination for trees. The spiritual conception of reality as a whole is called animism. This important religion has been devaluated in connection with colonialism. Recently the respect for nature which comes forth from this religion is highly appreciated by ecological philosophy.

The author argues in this paper that we need a new paradigm for the idea of development. Its linkage with the notion of ever on-going progress has to be abandoned. Mere tinkering with this concept of development, such as advancing the idea of organic development, is no longer sufficient. In fact only phases of development exist within a dynamic equilibrium. This idea, however, does not seem to be appropriate, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Hence, a provisional strategy is necessary to implement a countermovement to the idea of development. This countermovement can arise from a reflection upon art and philosophy which are non-developmental phenomena, i.e. they do not have a development in the sense of unlimited progress. Thus, in the fields of art and philosophy a distinction between developed and developing countries cannot be maintained, while developmental differences between the Western world and sub-Saharan Africa are of course very real in other fields. A dialogue between artists and philosophers from both parts of the world can and has to take place on the level of complete equality. As such it also acts as a counterforce to the idea of development in areas other than art and philosophy.