African philosophy: A brief personal history and current debate

Abstract

In his letter of invitation to me, the Editor of this volume made a suggestion that I (1) limit the paper to the period '1970-83' and (2) include in it what I consider personal contribution and role in the development of philosophical thought and literature in Africa during this given period. To be able to accommodate this request I have divided the paper into two major sections: The first section sketches from a personal historical experience, what I see as the main events and intellectual exchanges that signify the development of African philosophical thought in the 1970s and early 1980s. The theme of this section is given as A historical account. There is, of course, no pretence or claim that this account covers the whole of Africa. It is mostly limited to the subsaharan English-speaking Africa that was independent during the period in question. In the second section, I try a formulation and then an evaluation of the views of the various schools of thought that have contributed to the debate on the subject of African Philosophy. At the unavoidable risk of exposing myself to the charge of over-generalization, I have classified such schools into three broad categories: they are the ethnographical, the rationalist and the historical schools. There is no strong claim, however, that these classifications are mutually exclusive. The classification is mostly for the purpose of identifying the participants in the debate. The discussion here is, therefore, presented under the topic, The debate.