Course code BAC101

Course title AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY AND THOUGHT

Lecturer DR. J MKUSHA
Qsn CRITICALLY ANALYZE THE VALUE OF
AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY AND THOUGHT
Due date 20 APRIL 2015

Philosophy is a term derived from the Greek word philo meaning love and Sophia meaning
wisdom. Thus philosophy can be termed the love for wisdom and wisdom is very important in
people making the right decisions and acquiring knowledge. Philosophy entails that people
should acquire an inquisitive mind, thirsty for wisdom which helps us know our past, the
present and can shape the future. This paper seeks to identify and explain the value we derive
in studying African Philosophy.
Philosophy, according to Coetzee and Roux (1998) is an act undertaken to ensure total
understanding and clarity in relation to pertinent and fundamental issues. It can be deemed the
study of ultimate reality and in this study, reason; sense and imagination are of important use.
People can also gain science knowledge form the study. Philosophy is also termed as “the study
fundamental principles of existence which in some sense both unify and transcend the insight
offered to us through both religious faith and the scientific knowledge” according to Harrison
(2011:1). African philosophy according to Western scholars like Kant and Hume, does not exist
.They are of the warped belief that Africans as a people are devoid of any ability to create their
own institutions of wisdom and societal structure. Thus ever since the question of African
Philosophy has been heavily contested with the Afro-Centric school of thought ,Mukusha (2011)
and Ramose (1999) among others articulating their position to the regard that African
Philosophy indeed exists. There are four types of philosophy and these are Ethno philosophy,
philosophical sagacity, and Nationalist Political ideology philosophy.
Philosophical sagacity is a trend identified fiend by Oruka (2002). Philosophical sagacity as put
forward ‘’ is a thought or reflection of various known or named individual thinkers not a folk
philosophy and, unlike the latter ethno philosophy, it is rigorous and philosophical in the strict
sense” (Oruka cited by Ochieng-Odhiambo (2002:22). Ikuenobe (1997:193 asserts that African
philosophers do not need any form of Western education for them to critically delve into
matters of fundamental interest. Western scholars like Hume and Kant are of the opinion that
only Western and Western educated philosophers deserve such positions in society. They see
Africans being devoid of such ability. Oruka (2002:21) reacts to this assertion “Africans, even
without outside influence, are not innocent of logical and dialectical critical inquiry; that
literacy is not a necessary condition for philosophical reflection and exposition”.
Thus if one takes a look at our African systems like the socio-cultural setup, our philosophical
ability is there for everyone to see. There have been a lot of African philosophical sages who
have made history world over. Think of Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kaguvi and Chaminuka in
Zimbabwe, Salomon Traore the great leader of the Mandinka Empire in Mali, Ras Menelis and
Ras Tafari of Ethiopia. One thing which binds these great Africans together is their philosophical
view of challenging European invasion and mental domination of Africans. Yet all these great
Africans never received any form of Western education and exposure.
Professional philosophy is a method used to claim that Western trained and educated
philosophers are the only category recognized by Western scholars to identify if one is a
philosopher .They believe that only Western education can enable one to critically analyze
fundamental issues. Higgs and Smith (2006) opine that western philosophers are the only ones
able to pore into fundamental issues. Thus the position is that no philosophers exist other than
the ones in the Western world. This assertion on closer probe is far from the truth as opined by
Oruka (2002:23) who points out that these scholars do not even recognize ethno philosophy.
Greek philosophy is celebrated world over with the likes of Aristotle having a godfather status in
the field but few have bothered to trace the origins of the philosophy.
James (1954) believes that Greek philosophy has its roots in Egypt. Egypt is a part of Africa. If
one has a look at Egypt as a country and its development systems, there is a philosophical hand
on it. Historians like Ousmane Semebene of Senegal believe that Egyptian civilization is one of
the forbearing civilizations in Africa if not even the world. Egyptians had their own writing called
Hieroglyphics way before our exposure with the Europeans and their perceived way of writing
and literacy. Or one can take a view of the University of Timbuktu, in northern Mali. Africa’s
oldest university or even the world over, yet it was started by Africans who did not have any
form of Western education. That UNESCO made it a World Heritage Site makes a huge
statement of our ability as Africans to have a philosophy of our own a view shared by Oruka
(1990).
The other value of African philosophy is that it involves critical, independent, insightful and
rational thinking. This has been a contested field with Eurocentric opinion abound with the
notion of African philosophers and philosophy being irrational ,lacking one of the key attributes
of a being a human. Ennis (1964:599, 1989:4) defines critical thinking as ‘the correct way of
assessing statements’ and ‘reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or
do’. The humanity of a human being can be measured by how rational he or she thinks. It is this
rationality which separates human beings from animals. Western philosophers opine that
African philosophers, if they ever exist do lack the ability to think rationally. African philosophy
had been reduced to the confines of matters African and culturally African, which in the eyes of
scholars like Lesteka and Venter(2012) means that there is no rational thinking ,all of this
emanating from a Eurocentric view of Africa and its culture. In Africa there are critical and
independent thinkers in abundance and these people are human, hence rational.
 The irrationality of Africans and their philosophy, one can observe, has been pushed forward by
European colonialists in a bid to mentally indoctrinate Africans as part of their colonial agenda.
The French through their Assimilation policy (Gifford and Wieskel 1971) are the ones who
mainly drove home this point of Africans being a people without a philosophy because they
wanted African culture and systems be washed off the face of the earth. But a look on the
French speaking territories of Africa shows that there is a lot of evidence of Philosophical
thinking particularly amongst the Wolof people of Senegal, Mandinka and Northern Muslims in
Mali and part of the former French Cameroon according to media historian Miles (1994). Thus it
is common to find the ordinary man opining that Europeans are better thinkers than us. Waghid
(2004) opines that African philosophers are rational and reasonable people. This can be shown
in some of our cultural processes like Lobola, which is a process to formalize a union and in the
same vein formalize relationships between two non-related families (vatorwa) unlike Europeans
who believe in cohabiting and individualism.
The other philosophical trend identified by Oruka (2005) has been the nationalist ideological
political philosophy. The Nationalist ideology seeks to reawaken the spirit of nationhood in a
people. Nationhood basically relates back to unity as one family, shared problems, shared
vision, common goals and aspirations and directing all our energies in fighting off one common
enemy or cancerous and divisive elements. Africans have shown that they have a philosophy in
the same vein as the French during Napoleon’s era by rising above their tribal, ethnic and other
differences to rally around and fight off the common source of their problems: colonialism and
European interference in Africa. African Nationalist philosophy encompasses issues to do with
self-determination, freedom, independence and sovereignty of Africa and its people. Examples
of Africans how bear the torch when it comes to nationalist philosophy are the first President of
Independent Ghana and OAU chairman Osegafeyo Kwame Nkrumah, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere
the first President of Tanzania , the first democratic leader of Zimbabwe and current AU Chair
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Nelson Ronhlahla Mandela of South Africa , the first
President of the Mozambican Republic General Samora Moises Machel and immediate past AU
char President Abdelaziz Boutfelika of Algeria.
Also African philosophy is valuable in the sense that it pushes for unity as African nations and
peoples, resource sharing ,respect for each other’s territory and economic emancipation and
self-determination. Africans have shown their philosophy of oneness by assisting each other
fight off colonialism with Kwame Nkrumah assisting nations like Zimbabwe and Zambia to attain
independence. The late Mozambican leader Samora Machel also assisted Zimbabwe and South
Africa gain independence before the cruel Western hand showed up and the General perished
in an air crash. This explains why we have European leaders attacking African nations against
adopting all these methods to ensure prosperity of their nations and peoples. This trend has
been adopted by Iran and Venezuela which believe in self-determination, economic prosperity
for their peoples and total economic, social and political sovereignty.
Another trend identified by Oruka (2002) is that of ethno philosophy. Oruka describes this trend
as a reflection of what the community thinks ,values ,promotes and revers in .as such this
means ethno philosophy is what we Africans place value in ,our communal system of life ,our
shared cultural beliefs . The reflection of a particular or typical African community is seen
through its culture. The culture includes language, religion, processes, dressing, dance, music
and others. Africans as a people have the philosophical structure to ensure that what they
believe in, encounter on a daily basis, eat, talk and appreciate are in sync with the community.
Thus we can have folklore, myths and proverbs as a reflection of community, a way to ensure
cultural norms and values are not trampled on. The colonialists tried very hard to eliminate
ethno philosophy through various means like cultural erosion all in the drive to colonize Africa.
The creation of Black Frenchman and Victorian Englishmen in Africa is part of a drive to divorce
us from our culture. In recent times we have seen Tanzanian people reawakening the spirit of
Ethno philosophy by declaring that Kiswahili is now the first and foremost medium of
communication in Tanzania and the island of Zanzibar. This can be in official businesses ,church
and schools thus one can also observe the key elements of nationalist ideology coming in at
play because the Tanzanians want to reclaim what is theirs and in the process being reflective of
their society (language).
African philosophy is of value to us because it has been used to assist in day to day problem
solving mechanisms. Ramose (1999) asserts that the spirit of Ubuntu can be and has been
applied to solve problems in Africa be it on whatever scale. Problems between two seemingly
unrelated people can be solved in an amicable way if we use totems. A dispute between a
Mhofu and Soko Mukanya can be solved if the two are related through inter-marriages. On a
larger scale as Africans we have been able to solve problems on our own. The African Union can
be the settlement process in Sudan between the North and the South which culminated in the
birth of the world’s newest nation, South Sudan or the Global Political Agreement in Zimbabwe
in 2008 after a hotly disputed Presidential election. All this has been achieved without Western
help, thus as Africans we have a philosophy.
In conclusion one can note that African philosophy is valuable in the sense that it gives us an
appreciation of our role as Africans in the global setup of interaction, where we are coming
from, our present setup and what the future holds. African philosophy has also been helpful in
giving us a moral and mental compass in life, particularly the young African who consumes a lot
of Western and Eurocentric information on a daily basis.

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210.

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