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ASSESSMENT 2

12888311

UNISA
PLS1502: Essay Question

Due Date: 04th April 2022

Email: 12888311@mylife.unisa.ac.za
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ITEM DESCRIPTION PAGE

NUMBER

1. Essay 3-7

2. Bibliography 8

3. Academic Honesty Declaration 9

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OPTION A;

“To deny the existence of African Philosophy is also to reject the very idea of
Philosophy”- Ramose (2002)

The word Philosophy was discovered and/or termed by Pythagoras, which was
translated to ‘Love of wisdom’ which in the strict sense stated that wisdom only
belonged to God and that man can only be a friend of said wisdom (Maritain, 2005,
p.10) and in the most literal sense refers to border knowledge about certain fields
and/or disciplines. Imbo (1998) mentions that philosophy cannot be defined as it has
no practical applications (Imbo, 1998, p.5). Philosophy therefore revolves around our
day to day lives, and begins with the sense of wonder of this day to day life.

We as individuals come from different spheres of life, therefore we all see the world
differently as we do not have the same experience of the universe. Our background,
upbringing and culture play a big part of how we perceive the world, therefore
philosophy takes on different views due to the variety of different cultures of people.
There are six branches of philosophy which were grouped by philosophers in order to
address different problems and questions that arise within the different branches of
philosophy (Imbo, 1998, p.5). The branches of philosophy are Philosophy-Ethics
which deals with what is regarded as right and wrong, the second being Epistemology
deals with knowledge and the truth of wisdom, the third being Metaphysics/Ontology
which deals about reality, while the fourth branch is Logic which focuses more on
arguments and facts, the last two branches are Social and Political which deal with
more or less the same thing being people and the government and/or The State (Imbo,
1998, p.6).

African Philosophy like philosophy does not have a set definition, as a result different
philosophers have different meaning to it. Due to its sensitive nature African
Philosophy simulated a heated debate across the globe from the beginning of time, as
a result it was regarded as a warning to exorcise demons, and was therefore a sort of
psychoanalysis (Hountondji, 1996, p.16).
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There has been political debates about defining African philosophy and whether or not
if it truly exists throughout the years. Imbo (2002) states that these questions cannot
be empirical questions as the answers to these questions are not backed up by African
literature and/or African philosophers, instead its people whose origin isn’t African that
give the answers to such questions (Imbo, 1998, p.6). Ramose is of the view that non
Africans cannot debate about African philosophies, because they have no idea about
African life and/or culture so how is it that they can partake in a debate and set
precedents regarding the way and wisdom of African life.

The definitions of African philosophy have been European based, just as the
definitions of philosophy due to the fact that the history of philosophy was ‘pressed
into service of Eurocentrism because European rationality was claimed as the only
rationality universally’ (Imbo, 1998, p.8). History, politics and the world are of the view
that rationality is what the western thought system define it to be, therefore any
different view than the Western view would be regarded as irrational. The basis of
colonization was that African men are not rational human beings therefore Africa
“required” non-Africans to be their spokespersons which lead to Africans being
silenced (Ramose, 2002, p.1). Aristotle’s definition of what is a ‘man’ became the main
struggle of reason between Africans and colonialists, and because of that Africans
were seen as irrational people as they did not meet the set standards of a man, which
therefore led to the idea that Africans are incapable of acquiring wisdom on their own
and can therefore not produce any knowledge.

The history of rationality in Africa began with the unjust wars of colonization which
‘resulted in the forcible expropriation of land from its rightful owners’ (Ramose 2002).
The moment Africans lost their land it meant that the Europeans had control over the
African economy, which further resulted in the loss of power and authority of the
African men. Brueggemann (1997) mentions that the loss of land by Africans meant
that they lost their life due to the close connection the two have, and that without land
one has no life which further means that Africans lost the most vital resource of life
(Brueggemann, 1997, p.10). Due to Africa being forced into the money economy by
the Europeans, and the necessities of the “new norm”, Africans were then pushed into
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poverty because their way of life was now different and now that everything in Africa
required money, Africans where then therefore forced into working for the Europeans
in order to gain money and survive, as they did not have money and they relied on the
natural resources of Africa to survive, so the new way of life was unfamiliar to them
and they had to either adapt by force or be killed.

Over the years the foundation of struggle has remained unshaken and unchanged,
hence African philosophy till this day has people of non-African origin speaking for it.
People were declared rational only by their skin colour and biological features, which
in essence meant that only a particular group of humanity were declared rational.
Ramose (2002) states that the measures used to declare someone rational or
irrational was unsustainable due to the contradiction in the internal logic (Ramose,
2002, p.3), because using the same logic white people in African can then also be
regarded as irrational and may be referred to as sub-humans who lack reason. Paul
bull and Sublimis Deus removed these contradictions and declared that all men are
rational, which further provided a shift, therefore what was used to differentiate
between people ceased to exist and in this case, the different types of races were no
longer classified as white people being rational and black people being irrational but
rather that there is only one race being the human race (Ramose, 2002, p.3), by doing
so they removed the myth that only a particular group of people has power and
exclusivity to rationality while the other group does not.

Non-Africans are at the forefront of questioning African philosophy, Ramose (2002)

states that this is because they believe that Africans cannot philosophize and that is
why these debates never include African philosophers (Ramose, 2002, p. 6). When
non-Africans question Africans and their capabilities it suggests that Africans cannot
think on their own and that we are not rational beings which therefore suggests that
they question the humanity of Africans. Throughout the years it has been implied that
Africa cannot provide anything remarkable and especially in the development and
history of philosophy, therefore historical and scientific African philosophy of blacks
has been rejected by Europeans on many occasions (Ramose, 2002, p.6).
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African philosophers have always been asked to give grounds for their claims
regarding African philosophy while other philosophers are never questioned, which
suggest that there is a specific understanding of philosophy and different methods of
philosophizing and that’s where the distinction between Philosophy and philosophy
came about, and the latter being the ‘correct’ label for African philosophy (Ramose,
2002, p. 5). Ramose argues that all of this steams from the fact that Africans are
regarded as not wholly and that we are not truly human, therefore we cannot be
rational and acquire such lengths of knowledge. Ramose basis his argument on the
thoughts of African Philosopher Osuagwu who pointed out that African philosophy is
the study of African ancestors and how they understood the world and how they
mastered themselves in relation to the world, and knowing of our ancestors thought
would be interacting with people who have the same roots as these ancestors,
therefore Africans would be at a better suited position to discuss this as knowledge
and wisdom gets passed from generations to generations (Ramose, 2002, p.5).

Ramose (2002) argues that knowledge about African philosophy can never be fully
understood without referring to the roots of African people and their past, as this is
very important because human beings prefer to lose their lives rather than their
identity, so studying their history would deplete a clear picture of the identity of
Africans, he further states that the identity Western philosophers have regarding Africa
is not the truth of its people (Ramose, 2002, p.5). Due to cultural differences, Western
philosophy and African philosophy could never be defined the same nor have the
same philosophers at the forefront, therefore African philosophers had to conduct their
own African historical investigation which go further and beyond corrections of
previous research but rather to rectify the historical injustices of negation as well as
the indifferences (Ramose, 2002, p.5).

An important strength about Ramose’s claim is that if we deny the existence of African
philosophy and deny African Philosophers the platform to speak freely about African
philosophy for the sake of maintaining the already existing definition, we will be
undermining the nature of education and science (Ramose, 2002, p.6), and this is
because the very nature of science is to develop over time as new information is
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brought to life, therefore denying Africa this opportunity would not make any sense.
Ramose further states that in order to liberate those who studied and learned under
the Western ideas, the de-liberation of philosophy must be challenged through
transformation of the system (Ramose, 2002, p.6). Ramose basis his argument on the
fact that by letting African philosophers partake and/or be the forefront of these
discussion about Africa will be key in fighting against racism and would therefore affirm
African peoples’ perspective of life has been previously omitted by the Western
countries (Ramose, 2002. p.6). This liberation of African philosophy can only be
reached through taking part in dialogue, which would involve listening to others, i.e
African people as well as actively taking part in such dialogue while giving everyone
the opportunity to also be involved and share their side of the coin.

I strongly agree with Ramose’s argument with regards to African Philosophy, as an

African myself I believe I am more connected to my ancestors as their teachings have
been passed down to me from previous generations, therefore not only do I relate to
Africa’s way of life but I have lived it and have been taught about it by other Africans.
In order to stay connected to ones roots, Africans have been known for passing their
traditions and customs to the next generations, which therefore proves the point that
Ramose argues of African philosophers having first-hand knowledge about our way of
life as we have been taught this from the early stages of our lives. Ramose further
mentions that “African philosophy is by any stretch of the imagination linguistically and
philosophically distinct from whatever might be termed Western philosophy” (Ramose,
2002, p.7). African philosophy and Western philosophy can never be the same nor
identical due to the fact that we have different cultures as compared to the Western
countries and historically we have not be subjected to the same conditions and/or
events.

Ramose ends his argument by stating that “although insights might be similar, they
are always ineluctably clothed and coloured by different experiences” (Ramose, 2002,
p.7). Therefore denying the existence of African philosophy along with the views and
ideas of African would be denying the entire existence of philosophy. African
philosophers should therefore be at the forefront of leading the conversations
surrounding Africa, its people and their way of life.
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Bibliography

1. Brueggemann, W. 1997. The Land. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1997:48

2. Hountondji, P.J., 1996. African philosophy: Myth and reality. Indiana

University Press.

3. Imbo, S.O. 1998. How is African philosophy to be defined? Edited by P.

Mungwini, MLJ. Koenane & ESN. Mkhwanazi. in Re. In (eds.). Readings in
Contemporary African Philosophy. Pretoria, University of South Africa. P1-13

4. Maritain, J., 2005. An introduction to philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield.

5. Ramose, M.B. 2002. The struggle for reason, from philosophy from Africa: A
text with Readings. Edited by P.H Coetzee. Readings in Readings in
Contemporary African Philosophy. Pretoria, University of South Africa. P1-8
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Academic Honesty Declaration:

1. I know that plagiarism means taking and using the ideas, writings, works or
inventions of another as if they were one’s own. I know that plagiarism not only
includes verbatim copying, but also the extensive use of another person’s ideas
without proper acknowledgement (which includes the proper use of quotation marks).
I know that plagiarism covers the use of material found in textual sources and from the
Internet.
2. I acknowledge and understand that plagiarism is wrong.
3. I understand that my research proposal must be accurately referenced.
4. This research proposal is my own work. I acknowledge that copying someone else’s
research, or part of it, is wrong, and that submitting identical work to others constitutes
a form of plagiarism.
5. I have not allowed, nor will I in the future allow anyone to copy my work with the
intention of passing it off as their own work.
6. I confirm that I have read and understood UNISA’s Policy for Copyright and
Plagiarism- https://www.unisa.ac.za/sites/corporate/default/Apply-for-
admission/Master%27s-&-doctoral-degrees/Policies,-procedures-&-forms

Full Name: Keamogetswe Lethabo Motloba

Student No: 12888311