African philosophy the philosophy produced by the preliterate cultures of Africa, distinctive in that African philosophy in the traditional setting is unwritten. For someone who is interested in studying, say, Chinese or Arabic philosophy, the written works of the individual thinkers are available; African philosophy, by contrast (with the exception of Ethiopian philosophy), has produced no written philosophical works. The lack of written philosophical literature in Africa’s cultural past is the outstanding reason for the persistent skepticism about the existence of African philosophy often entertained by scholars. There are some who would withhold the term ‘philosophy’ from African traditional thought and would reserve that term for the philosophical works being written by individual African philosophers today. There are others who, on the basis of (i) their own conception of the nature of philosophy, (ii) their sense of the history of the development of philosophical ideas in other cultures, (iii) their conviction about the importance of the universal character of the human capacity to wonder, or of the curiosity that leads some individuals in various cultures to raise fundamental questions about human life and experience, or (iv) their conviction that literacy is not a necessary condition for philosophizing, would apply ‘philosophy’ to African traditional thought, even though some of them would want to characterize it further as ethnophilosophy or folk philosophy. Two assumptions made about the character of African traditional thought have earned it those labels: one is the alleged communal (collective) subscription to a ‘monolithic’ set of ideas or beliefs; the other is the alleged lack of individualist elements in traditional thought. These assumptions have led some scholars to believe that African thought is a system of ideas or beliefs unanimously held by a whole tribe (ethnos), even though it may be argued that thought as such is always the product of an individual intellect. An individual may refine or build on the philosophical work of another individual, but the product will still be an individual intellectual enterprise. What seems to have happened in Africa is that due to lack of a doxographic tradition, the ideas of unnamable (because unidentifiable) individuals that gained currency among the wider community became part of the pool of communal thought, as if they were the thought or a production of a whole ethnos, and expressed in its oral literature: in proverbs, myths and folk tales, rituals, religious beliefs, art symbols, customs, and traditions. These would, in fact, constitute the warp and woof of the fabric of traditional philosophy in Africa. An extensive and profound critical evaluation of concepts and values of traditional thought can be the starting point of modern African philosophy. The reason is that most of the traditional concepts, beliefs, and values have not relaxed their grip on modern African life and thought. But the modern African philosophy will also have to include the conceptual responses to the circumstances, experiences, and problems of modern African societies. This aspect of the philosophical enterprise will have to deal with the critical analysis, interpretation, and assessment of the changes that traditional values and ideas are going through in response to the pressures, both internal and external, weighing heavily on them through the ethos of contemporary life. Thus, African philosophy will not be a unique system, a windowless monad impervious to external influences. But it is conceivable – perhaps expected – that it will have some characteristics of its own.
As to the central themes of African philosophy, what one can appropriately do at this stage of its development is indicate some of the persistent assumptions, beliefs, and values embedded in African cultural and historical experiences. These would undoubtedly include: supernaturalism – ideas about God and other spiritual entities conceived in African ontologies, the dualistic or monistic perception of the external world, the (alleged) religiosity or spirituality of the African life, human destiny, and the moral life; personhood and communitarianism – social and humanistic ethics, notions of the community and the common good, the nature of the good life, the status of individuality in African socioethical thought; political ideas – chiefship and traditional political authority, traditional ideas of democracy, democratic thought in a communitarian framework, consensual politics and decision making, political legitimacy, corruption and political morality; and tradition and modernity – the notion of culture, ethnicity and nationhood, the nature and development of national culture and identity, the concept of development, technology, society, and values.
These themes and others have generated various ideas that must be critically analyzed and evaluated by contemporary African philosophers, who would in this way create a modern African philosophy with origins in the comprehensive culture and many-sided experiences of the African, yet aspects of which may be considered by other cultures to be worthwhile. Thanks to the literary culture they have inherited, contemporary African philosophers, through their own individual analyses and arguments, are in a position to contribute to the emergence of a modern African philosophy that would naturally comprise a multiplicity of individual philosophical ideas, arguments, and positions. K.G.