African Philosophy - Essay Example

African Philosophy When discussing the origins of philosophy, the immediately summons thoughts of Western philosophy with its origins in Plato’s Greece then its advance to Rome and the European Continent. Sometimes it conjures thoughts of the Eastern philosophies of Confucius and the like. The mention of African philosophy does not invoke the same familiarities that these and other types of world philosophies do. The reason for this is that African religion and philosophy is widely viewed as essentially primitive and of a mystical nature. Until recently, the varied traditions of African thought were documented predominantly by western researchers whose descriptions and evaluations were based on their training in western ideologies. This discussion further examines the lack of African philosophical history, attempts to give some insight into its culture of thought and explains the recent evolutions of philosophical direction in this lesser-known and mysterious region of the world. Many generations of Africans have endured life essentially as slave laborers in the colonized regions of the continent. They were regarded as mere tools, both physically and intellectually, used for the advancement of the occupying nation and tolerated only as the lowest subjects of the new ruling government. This condition, combined with the natives’ lack of formal education, spawned and confirmed the perception in the minds of the ruling population that they were a people of limited intellect. Certainly these sub-humans, according to typical ruling-class methodology in colonized Africa, could not think in abstract, introspective ways much less formulate philosophical postulations. However, Africa is a large land mass. The account if its philosophical history cannot be accurately portrayed by the writings of western authors. The northeast portion of the continent, Egypt and the surrounding area is famous for architecture, art and has a documented history of philosophical and religious literature dated prior to the works of the great Grecian philosophers. The regions of Africa that were under various Islamic and European nations’ control also show evidence of having unique cultures steeped in traditions, rich in both religious and philosophical conceptions. For the past 500 years or so and only ending very recently, these cultures experienced a chaotic scattering of their people, traditions and philosophical heritage. The insurgent foreign nations broke apart African communities by kidnapping many thousands of slaves. They also forced a new language and religious philosophy on the indigenous peoples while unwittingly wiping out entire villages by bringing new forms of diseases to which the villagers had no immunity. All this and the presence of a new and often harsh governmental and policing system caused much of the continent’s population to lose a great deal of its cultural, traditional, religious and philosophical heritage. Many African cultures enjoyed centuries-old ideologies, passed down verbally and by means of artwork to generation after generation. How much was lost to the pillaging and exploitation of invader nations will forever be an unknown. Unfortunately, only a minute amount of documentation survived which described impressive examples of intellectual accomplishments. “It is not that the peoples of Africa have not had the kinds of reflections about the meaning of life or how they came into being. In most of the subcontinent of Africa, however, what attention was given to such reflections in the first half of the twentieth century must be credited largely to Western social anthropologists” (Bell, 2002, p. 8). Western and Eastern thought is generally understood to be the standards of philosophical thought for the world’s populous to follow. African history includes marvelous examples of human self-discovery such as art, religion and music much the same as other regions of the world. However, African cultural advances in regard to philosophical thought have been largely ignored although the evidence is clear that this region of the world has experienced similar human expressions of self and, therefore, explored similar philosophical questions and revelations. “Whereas the latter cluster of disciplines has been, and is still being cultivated or pursued by scholars, both African and non-African, in the various Centers or Institutes of African Studies around the world, African philosophy as such is relegated to limbo, and its existence doubted” (Gyekye, 1995, p. 3). The continent that saw the first beginnings of mankind has all but lost the accumulated wisdom of the ages. In recent years though, philosophy emanating from traditional Africa thought has been studied as an independent and credible source of accepted wisdoms. “They are, more or less, universal in character but are identified with the African context in particular” (Bell, 2002, p. 21). Traditional African thought, in this context refers to the indigenous cultures preceding the introduction of foreign religions and ideologies. The fundamental inspiration of traditional African philosophy is built upon the belief that the spirits of their ancestors can make their intentions known. In addition, those spirits have the ability to instigate physical actions or occurrences that include consequences intended for the living relative. In the understanding of the intentions of the spirits actions translate to an understanding of physical happenings. Ancestral spirits are also believed to be recognizable as the person they were in life. This is not to say that the spirit has any resemblance to their living self whatsoever. The fact that they are in another form doesn’t make their existence any less real or less obvious to the question of who they were in life. “Ancestral spirits are purported to be quasi–material, in the sense that they can manifest themselves in physical objects that have no obviously recognizable characteristics belonging to their prior human counterparts. They can reside, for example, in artifacts such as masks or in living creatures such as cattle” (Brown, 2004). The basic issue of contemporary thought as opposed to traditional is a fundamental concern facing the emerging philosophies of Africa. “Whether Africans ascribe the inability to join the modern world to the inappropriateness of their legacy or to the ruin of their original identity, in both cases they are compelled to construe the West as an unavoidable challenge inducing them to reexamine their legacy and culture” (Kebede, 1999). Two schools of African thought termed professional philosophy and ethnophilosophy are examples of the divide between today’s African thought processes regarding an identifiably African philosophy, whether it relies more on tradition or modern viewpoints. “While ethnophilosophy thinks that the rehabilitation of African traditions conditions the drive to successful modernization, especially after the disparaging discourse of colonialism, professional philosophy is of the opinion that success depends on the exchange of the traditional culture for modern ideas and institutions” (Kebede, 1999). African ethnophilosophic philosophy and views on the natural order of life is based on the rituals and ancient conceptions. Those who subscribe to the professional philosopher point of view instead place emphasis more on a universally accepted philosophy with little regard to the diverse cultural heritage of Africans. Again, though, neither theory is widely accepted on a global scale because of the long held bias against the perceived primitive societies of Africa, thus their inability to formulate a philosophy that is more insightful than existing works (Jaja, 1997). Intellectuals in Africa, including its politicians, teachers and philosophers, are attempting to liberate their homeland from western influence and to establish their own unique views on living based upon their unique experiences. The people of the continent are becoming less and less dependent upon western thought because they are re- developing one of their own, at long last. One that is documented and will not be lost to the ages has much of their ancestor’s perspectives on life. D. A. Masolo, a teacher at the University of Nairobi is a noted African philosopher from Kenya who said that “the debate on African philosophy today is the African response to the Western discourse on Africa, which means the distorted image that the West has created of Africa. Unfortunately, even many educated Africans have adopted this view of Africa as a primitive and uncivilized continent,” in his latest work, ‘African Philosophy in Search of Identity’ (cited in Stenger, 2005). Even many African students would rather speak French or English than their native tongue because they see their own language as substandard. The art of writing is a skill that came later to the African continent than many other parts of the world, but that is a dynamic that is also fast changing as more of these traditional ideas begin to find their way into print form and many oral traditions are becoming preserved on the pages of African history books and elsewhere. Ideologies unique to Africa are finally emerging but face the roadblock of years of preconceived ideas regarding its primitive culture. Words from a missionary working in the Congo in the 1930’s still ring true today. “To declare that primitive peoples are completely lacking in logic, is simply to turn one’s back on reality. Every day we are able to note that primitive peoples are by no means just children afflicted with a bizarre imagination” (Stenger, 2005). Wisdom is universal and the level of literacy is not a boundary to critical thought, as is consistently being proven upon the Dark Continent. As the philosophy of Africa continues to emerge, this sentiment will become self-evident and begin to alter false preconceived notions about its ‘primitive’ culture being a hindrance to philosophical contemplations. Works Cited Bell, Richard H. Understanding African Philosophy: A Cross-Cultural Approach to Classical and Contemporary Issues. New York: Routledge, 2002. Brown, Lee M. African Philosophy: New and Traditional Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Gyekye, Kwame. An Essay on African Philosophical Thought: The Akan Conceptual Scheme. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1995. Jaja, Cheedy. “What can Philosophy do for Africa? A Critical Review of Tseney Serequerberhan’s The Hermeneutics of African Philosophy: Horizon and Discourse.” APA Newsletters. Vol. 96, N. 2, Spring 1997. Florida Atlantic University. July 29, 2006 < http://www.apa.udel.edu/apa/archive/newsletters/v96n2/black/hermen.asp> Kebede, Messay. “Development and the African Philosophical Debate.” Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa. Vol. 1, N. 2, Summer 1999. Stenger, Fritz. African Philosophy I: The Time Has Come to Take Ourselves Seriously. Stenger, 2005. July 29, 2006 < http://www.karibu-stenger.net/de/articles/african_philosophy1.shtml> Read More