An Assessment of Kwasi Wiredu’s Contributions to African Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

The African philosophy of religion has come of age. However, laying the groundwork and shaping its intellectual trajectories was the work of eminent thinkers and philosophers who laboured in recent years. Kwasi Wiredu is one of the scholars who stood tall and strong with the depth of his thoughts and perspectives seemingly traversing the scope of time and space. In light of the overarching objective of this study “to decisively relaunch African philosophy of religion as a self-sustaining field of African philosophy,” it behoves that a review of Wiredu’s contribution to the field is critically examined, considering the postmodern categories and contexts. Using an analytical approach, this paper shows that Kwasi Wiredu’s contribution to the discourse on the substance and nature of Africa is highly informative and enlightening, though it is open to dispute and reflections just like every other philosophical work. A brief review of the catalogues of Wiredu’s scholarly works shows that the issues of conceptual decolonization, cultural reconstructionism and the nature of African philosophies underscore his work. The article argues that for contemporary philosophers, it behoves that Wiredu’s analytic framework may be adopted. But, culturally-inclined and realistic approaches should be adopted in doing Africa philosophy. The diversities of African cultures and traditions as well necessitate a pluralistic approach from various parts of Africa.