African philosophy

African philosophy is the study of knowledge, reality, and the human experience from the perspective of people from sub-Saharan Africa. The idea of a distinctive African philosophy is a relatively recent concept, only taking shape in the twentieth century. Because the continent is home to a myriad of diverse cultures, some experts believed it was impossible to build a common African philosophy. However, the African worldview’s fundamental difference from Western thought—seen through its traditional spiritual beliefs and concept of community—acted as the basis for a developing school of philosophy. Furthermore, many African people had shared experiences with colonialism and racism that acted as an additional catalyst for a common philosophy. It should be noted that some scholars consider the philosophy of northern Africa to be part of a continent-wide school of thought; however, northern Africa has been greatly influenced by Egyptian, Christian, and Islamic philosophies, further differentiating its worldview from that of the rest of the continent.

Background

The first major civilization on the African continent developed in Egypt about five thousand years ago. The Egyptians dominated the land around the Nile River for three thousand years, inventing the region’s first writing system and creating a distinct culture and religious philosophy. Eventually, the Egyptian empire was overrun by foreign invaders that included the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and the Romans, each introducing their own set of cultural and religious values. The religion of Christianity gained a foothold in northern Africa about the first or second centuries CE, and flourished over the next few hundred years. In the seventh century CE, armies of Muslim Arabs conquered much of northern Africa, supplanting Christianity with the religion of Islam. About that same era, a series of great African empires arose in the northern part of the continent. Among them were the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai empires, which became some of the wealthiest trading states in the world from about 700 to 1500 CE.

The majority of the continent, the region that lies below the Sahara Desert, remained mostly untouched by the foreign influences that pervaded northern Africa. The main reason for this was a natural geographical barrier formed by the hot Sahara and the dense tropical jungles below it, which discouraged any large-scale explorations. As a result, thousands of diverse cultures developed in sub-Saharan Africa, each of which had its own traditions and language. European explorers first encountered the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa in the fifteenth century and soon established a trading network along some of the coastal areas. During the late nineteenth century, in what was called the "Scramble for Africa," the nations of Europe began eying Africa for its natural resources and began to carve up the continent into colonies. By 1914, all but two African nations were under European control. After decades of colonial rule, many sub-Saharan nations began a push for independence in the 1950s and 1960s, and by 1980, almost all of Africa had broken free of European control.

Overview

While the cultures of northern Africa had developed writing and were exposed to the teachings and philosophies of numerous outside forces, the people of sub-Saharan Africa were left alone to develop their own distinct identities. Despite the wide mix of individual cultures, the people of the region did share a common religious philosophy and a sense of community values. The people did not have their own writing systems until the nineteenth or twentieth centuries, so the knowledge was passed down through the generations by word of mouth. Much of traditional African knowledge takes the form of proverbs, philosophical sayings through which the wisdom of the older generation can be transferred to the young. In many African communities, people who were considered to be wise developed a way of examining the world that was later called African Sage Philosophy. They examined basic questions such as the nature of god, humanity, life, and the afterlife, passing down their thoughts through sayings or proverbs.

Traditional African spirituality holds that the world was created by an all-powerful god who holds a place atop a hierarchy of deities but is detached and distant from the day-to-day activities of humans. This view of god is not as a human-like being, but as a spiritual force that can be experienced throughout the natural world. To communicate with this supreme god, the people rely on the intercession of the spirits of their ancestors. Ancestor worship is a key element of traditional African religious philosophy and is an extension of the emphasis on community in many African societies. The living invite their ancestors to share in their daily life and ask them for blessings and aid when needed. The importance of the ancestors also carries over to a deep respect for community elders, who are seen as having a closer relationship to the ancestral spirits.

Traditional African beliefs also evolved a concept of time and the life cycle that differs from Western ideas. The future is viewed only in terms of “potential” and is not considered to be part of time in African thought. Great focus is placed on events from the past and present, with an eye toward the immediate future. Life and death are considered part of the same long journey to the afterlife, with a person’s true birth taking time to achieve and occurring throughout adolescence and into marriage.

While these traditional ways of thinking have been ingrained into African cultures for generations, many early twentieth-century scholars did not view them as sufficient to form a cohesive body of African philosophy. The reasons for this were many, including a lack of written sources as well as the colonial-based misconception that African societies were backwards and needed Western help. African scholars who studied philosophy in the West came away frustrated with how Western scholars viewed their traditional worldviews. When some African scholars returned home, they began to compile a modern African philosophy that was both a rejection of the colonial and racist attitudes of Western societies as well as an embracing of traditional African cultural thought.

Most experts date the beginnings of a distinctive modern African philosophy as occurring in the 1920s. Many of these experts also debated the exact definitions of African philosophy; some included the longstanding philosophical works of northern Africa and others limited it to the thoughts of sub-Saharan Africa. Although that question is still being debated, scholars predominantly define African philosophy as that produced by Indigenous African people from the sub-Saharan region.

Although various scholars define African philosophy in different ways, many break it into six major schools as defined by twentieth-century Kenyan philosopher Henry Odera Oruka. One of the earliest schools to form was the ethnophilosophy school. This school uses the traditional beliefs, customs, practices, and languages of African cultures to form a community-based philosophy. Proponents of this method view the traditional proverbs of local cultures as an important element of a region’s philosophical history. Another concept formed in this school is that the African worldview is based more on emotion than logic.

The school of philosophical sagacity is similar to ethnophilosophy, except that it focuses more on an individual approach to philosophy than a community approach. This view states that a true African philosophy can only be found in the collective wisdom of men and women considered wise by their community. This school forms the basis for the concept of African Sage Philosophy. However, critics of the method often claim that it is impossible to determine the validity of such wisdom, since no written records exist to determine its historical authenticity.

The professional, or modernist, school views African philosophy as purely a work in progress and sees it as being constructed apart from the ethnophilosophy-based methods. This method sees true African philosophy as needing to evolve to be universally accepted and stand up to outside critical analysis. Proponents believe this philosophy should not be based on traditional African school of thought, but once developed, should be used to address African concerns.

The nationalist/ideological school developed out of the African independence movements of the mid-twentieth century, and is a direct response to the rejection of colonialism. This school used the traditional beliefs of local African societies as the basis for an ideological-driven, postcolonial philosophy that focuses on a national identity. The literary, or artistic, school studies Africa’s traditional cultural philosophies through literature, fiction, and artworks. In a similar vein, the hermeneutic school does the same by studying African oral traditions and languages.

Still, other scholars posit that defining African philosophy as a concept is impossible because no single narrative can encompass the cultures, languages, ideas, voices, and histories of the large, culturally varied continent. Aiming to define African philosophy is to view its concepts through a Western lens. However, one concept related to the interconnected nature of humankind and collective responsibility, Ubuntu, gained particular attention among scholars in the twenty-first century. Social responsibility and the treatment of our Earth to limit climate change is a global concern, and Ubuntu emphasizes the individual aspects of the problem that become the whole.

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