An African Theory of Knowledge

Abstract

A theory of knowledge is about the way we come to understand reality. It consists in how we acquire, articulate and justify our knowledge claims about reality. Against the notion that knowledge consists in the mind’s ability to accurately represent reality as espoused by traditional Western epistemology, the African theory of knowledge postulates a cultural and situated notion of knowledge. This postulation rests on the African ontological notion of reality as a continuum in which both the subject, as the cognitive agent, and the object, as the cognized phenomenon, are part and parcel of the same reality. Thus, cognition goes beyond the object of cognition imposing itself on the consciousness of the cognitive agent; other variables, like environmental and social factors as well as the dispositions of the cognitive agent, play a role in the process of cognition or knowing. This paper describes research into the notion of African epistemology as that which is firmly based on the African ontological conception of reality, and it examines critically how African epistemology justifies epistemic claims. The aim is to outline an African theory of knowledge. It is both expository and evaluative.