Substantial Debates on the (In) Existence of African Philosophy

Abstract

Africa is largely absent from the stage of world philosophy. People‘s level of philosophical advancement is always appears to be a sine qua non in measuring their intellectual development. Although, we can assert the existence of African philosophy, when the question is asked whether this tradition has justified its existence, our confidence diminishes and threatens to evaporate altogether. The failure to achieve justification by far accounts for the peculiar absence of Africa from the stage of world philosophy. The books of ethnologists, historians and even philosophers that portrayed Africa as savage unable to do anything, develop nothing, and can't make history, has gave birth to the question of whether there is an African philosophy. The bastardized image of Africa presented by continental philosophy raised the question as to if the people so ascribed could own a philosophy of their own. However, a cursory glance at the thought system of Africans reveals that they can and do philosophy. This short essay discusses the foundations as to how and why Africans are denied a second order thought and challenges these foundation by making an in-depth analysis which ultimately brought to use Messay's word, 'relativizing' the West. To this end, the paper employs a discursive reason methods and analysis of various literatures in the area.