African Thought Research Articles

Soteriology, Human Soul and Eternity: Towards Addressing Salvation in African Thought

The study discusses the African understanding of soteriology as it relates to the soul and eternity positing that salvation is a complete system among the African people. The human soul is a central element in Christian discourse of salvation and eternity. This study attempt a Christian soteriological discourse that hinges on the salvation made available for African soul through Christ‟s Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, Ascension and Second Coming. As such, it addresses the intrinsic need for redemption and reconciliation with God, freedom from oppression, physical healing and prosperity of the soul. This study employs intercultural hermeneutical method and socio-theological analysis through the use of secondary sources to analyse human soul, eternity in African and Christian thought patterns and its implication for Afro-Christian soteriological discourse. The study reveals that soteriological discourse in African culture is a one sided discussion either one that reiterates the body and neglect the soul or the soul and neglect the body which makes it a dysfunctional concept. However, the study recommends that a soteriological discussion that will be contextual and relevant in Africa must speak and impact the spirit, soul and body of human with the guarantee of eternity.

Spaces of African Thought: A Critique of an Enactivist Rendering

Abstract This article addresses Bruce Janz’s “enactivist” reading of African philosophy from two perspectives. The space in which African philosophy finds itself remains problematic, and, thus, this article attempts to unpack this issue. Janz argues that African philosophy allows for only a few or no possibilities for radical thought. However, his own reading of the Nigerian philosopher Sophie Oluwole serves to debunk this claim. Oluwole’s thought highlights the challenges of building a modern African philosophy within the context of postcoloniality, in which problems of untranslatability are encountered when utilizing a metropolitan language, which, in her case, is English. But, beyond the problem of untranslatability, she is able to delineate a holistic cosmology that, in multiple ways, incorporates, complicates, and extends the borders of philosophy.

African Thought and Western (European) Misconception: An Afrocentric Paradigm

The present study is a critical examination of a model of African thought in which Afrocentricity as a theory is employed. During both pre-colonial and colonial times, people from the West (Europe) believed themselves to be more intelligent than Africans. This misconception about African knowledge systems led to the labelling of Africa as the “dark continent”. This article explores this controversial issue by engaging with previous contributions which delved into similar debates. It is argued that “intelligence” cannot be defined by the colour of the skin. The discussion dialogues with Molefi Kete Asante’s Afrocentric theory with regard to African thought and Western misconceptions. Examples of persons celebrated as being endowed with exceptional knowledge in both leadership and academic capacities are cited. Unique architectural sites in southern Africa are also discussed as evidence of ancient civilisations on the continent. Decoloniality is used as a research method.

W.V.O. Quine’s “Indeterminacy Thesis of Radical Translation” and the Logic Problem in the Expression of African Thoughts

Western missionaries, ethnographic and anthropological scholars arrived in Africa, quizzed the pre-colonial African, and adjudged her, pre-critical and pre-logical, since the latter could not disclose or express thoughts according to the dictates or criteria initiated by the former. The criteria are the former’s language and logic. The West’s fundamental but implicit aim is to unearth African equivalents of Western concepts and the failure to discern these have placed the contemporary African in a status quo where she is on the intellectual defensive. Through the method of conversational philosophy, this research interrogates the linguistic and logical assumptions with which the West quizzed pre-colonial Africans. Whereas it invokes and concedes to William Van Orman Quine over the indeterminacy in meaning while translating word for word, from one language to the other, this research goes on to reinforce how the inadequate classical bivalent logic, which undergirds their assessment of African thoughts, is the culprit. After exploring the character of this intellectual misappropriation, this study invokes Gottlob Frege’s discourse on the tandem between logic and language, to foreground that the failure of comprehension whilst translating is not traceable to pre-colonial Africans but to the Western ethnographic and anthropological scholars via the excessive reliance on the background classical logic that underpins thought in that tradition. From this leaning, it becomes clear that the pre-colonial African is neither pre-critical nor pre-logical but intellectually unique in ways beyond the comprehension of the West.

Epistemic Roots, Universal Routes and Ontological Roofs of African “Ritual Archives”: Disciplinary Formations in African Thought

Epistemic Roots, Universal Routes and Ontological Roofs of African “Ritual Archives”: Disciplinary Formations in African Thought

Concrete Data and Abstract Notions in the Philosophical Study of Indigenous African Thought: The Struggle for Disciplinary Identity in the Era of the Near-Hegemonic Natural and Social Sciences

Abstract Due to the growth of neo-liberalism with its emphasis on “market-driven courses,” the humanities, of which philosophy is a part, find themselves disparaged and under-funded. As a result, some African philosophers have yielded to the temptation to deploy the empirical methodology of the natural and social sciences in a bid to illustrate the practical value of their discipline, thereby eroding philosophy’s distinctive characteristic, namely, reflection. Consequently, drawing from the contemporary discourse on methodology in African philosophy, this article argues that in order to preserve the distinctive character of their discipline, philosophers who inquire into indigenous African thought ought to treat the collection of empirical data on the subject as a preliminary step to the core task of philosophical reflection that deploys such techniques as criticism, linguistic analysis, and systematic speculation. Only then will African philosophy make its proper contribution to the interdisciplinary field of African studies.

Guilt and Shame in Western and African Ethics: A Comparative Analysis

ABSTRACTThe idea behind right and wrong is premised on ethics. There have been controversies about the philosophy of right and wrong in Western and African thoughts. There is a perception that the essential difference between right and wrong is honor-orientation versus justice-orientation, which is believed to be based on shame and guilt. With the aforementioned, the researcher sought to explore the comparative analysis on guilt and shame in Western and African ethics using a qualitative research design to make the investigation. It was discovered that Western ideas and beliefs are quite different from those of African society. Western ethical standards have been used wrongly to scan African ethics and ethical conducts and these African ethical conducts have not been given elaborate investigation and clarification. It concluded that using Western ethical standards to judge African moral ideas is biased and demeaning to philosophical scholarship. Some recommendations on extensive analysis and interpretation of moral values on the scale of guilt and shame as well as a rethink on morality as it relates to ethics and corporate existence were made.

The path to decoloniality: A proposal for educational system transformation

It was observed that in all circles of discussion, Africans talk about decolonisation and turning away from systems that favour the West in disfavour of Africans. Thinkers like Molefi K. Asante, Chukwunyere, and others have approached this matter of decolonisation at an angle of Afrocentrism. They intend to present African views from an undiluted African perspective. However, within that struggle, it is quite noticeable that the African basic education system has not done sufficient work to decolonise the presentation of African thoughts. There is a noticeable overrating of foreign languages like English and Afrikaans in terms of subjects or modules taught in South African schools and tertiary institutions. As it is, Sciences national papers are delivered to schools written in two languages, which are not aboriginal in Africa, i.e. English and Afrikaans, regardless of the province where they are delivered to. Within that backdrop, it becomes questionable whether African language practitioners are incapable of producing tools to Africanize the language of learning or the colonial languages refuse to forsake the African educational system. This conceptual study is set forth to explore decoloniality in the education sector and argue for the use of African languages as a mode of instruction in learning and promoting them to be at the same level of honour as those overvalued western languages. In this study, analytic critical theory is used to apply criticality and rationality, which guided the researchers to be more inclined towards reason than emotionality over this dire issue.

Anti-colonial Middle Eastern and North African Thought

I argue that while recognition is important for Middle Eastern and North African philosophers in academia and society, recognition alone should not define the anti-colonial movement. BDS provides a better model of engagement because it constructs identities in order to bring about material changes in the academy and beyond. In the first part of the essay, I catalog how MENA thought traditions have been and continue to be suppressed within the academy and philosophy in particular. I then sketch one possible path to better representation in philosophy by reading Fayez Sayegh’s analyses of Zionist colonialism and Palestinian non-being. In the second half of the essay, I argue that BDS is among the premier anti-colonial movements on American campuses today because it is a materialist anti-racist movement. Insofar as that movement is often shunned and prohibited, an anti-colonial society offers a membership in exile.

African Psychology or Psychology in Africa: Conceptualising Education and African Cultural Imperialism, Implications for Emerging African Psychologists

The debates and anguish expressed by emerging Africentric thoughts such as (Tani, 2015), indicates the continuous negligence of culturally relevant curriculum which meets and fits the contextual needs of Africans. The spat in this conceptual yet analytical paper is that the advent of modern type western education has resulted in the drought of the importance of indigenous forms of knowledge in Cameroon in particular and Africa in general. The paper unfolds by highlighting some of the areas in which the modern Eurocentric philosophy of education has alienated and affected some of Africa’s indigenous education systems. Using the modernization paradigm as the framework, the paper’s contention is that following missionary excursions in Africa and the subsequent colonisation, modern forms of schooling were introduced and expanded phenomenally and with it came notions of cultural imperialism, which tended to denigrate many if not all forms of indigenous knowledge education systems. Some indigenous knowledge systems were regarded as primitive, pagan and heathenish. Some forms of such indigenous knowledge were even de-campaigned as non-knowledge. The research question the paper seeks to address is how can indigenous knowledge education systems be used to foster an Afro centric philosophy of Education? Pursuant to this question, the modernization theory is examined, unpacked and critiqued for equating modernisation with Westernization culminating in the promotion of cultural imperialist sentiments that had an alienating effect on some African institutions and practices. This article Situates views of European enlightenment and epistemic solipsism, ignite and sustained debates of globalizing African thoughts into mainstream psychological inquiry, negotiate the incompatible murky particularism of some African psychologists, and also disabuse modernist psychology of its false spectra.

Epistemology in African Thought: Theory and Language

This work presents epistemology in African thought system as it is informed by theory and language. Numerous problems faced in Africa on how we know what we know and the power of sustaining knowledge becomes clearer as we define knowledge in the question of ontology and metaphysics. The African nations have been termed as not been able to produce written historical documents until recent times. This thought seems to downgrade African theory of knowledge even with it deep seated languages of meaning. To foster an understanding of African theory of knowledge, we employ African epistemology in theory and in language which informed ontology and metaphysics. This work utilizes primary and secondary sources while deploying any useful materials and journals articles on African theory of knowledge, language, ontology and metaphysics. This study linked up the African theory of knowledge with historical search that connect African thought system as we found that African epistemology lies in and beneath the statuesque of African though system. We conclude that in the context of Africa epistemology in theory and language, each culture have a philosophical position that are articulated by its gifted individuals in any given society. Keywords: Epistemology, Theory, Knowledge, Language, Africa, Ontology, Metaphysics DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/69-04 Publication date: June 30th 2020

What Can Be Said? African American Religious Thought, Afro-Pessimism, and the Question of Hope

ABSTRACT Current political conditions in the United States reflecting the socio-cultural dynamics of Trumpism have brought into question the viability of the traditional vocabulary and grammar of democracy. By extension, Trumpism raises questions concerning the political-social assumptions made by liberation theologies such as Womanist and Black theologies. Related to this, my essay seeks to provide sustained reflection on a central question: In light of current circumstances and their consequences, is hope a viable theological-ethical category?

The Living-Dead/Ancestors as Guardians of Morality in African Traditional Religious Thought

The Living-Dead/Ancestors as Guardians of Morality in African Traditional Religious Thought

African Political Thought

Resenha critica da obra Mazrui, Ali (2013). African Thought in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge,Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 369 p.

“African Factors” in the Metamorphosis of Indigenous Pentecostalism in Ekitiland, Nigeria

ABSTRACTPentecostalism is a renewal movement within Christianity that places primary emphasis on gifts of the Holy Spirit, joyful worship, exorcism and discourse on prosperity and the “born again” experience. African Pentecostalism is a segment of African Christianity that is proliferating at an exponential rate. It is the most widespread form of non-Roman Catholic Christianity in Africa today. In Ekitiland, which is predominantly a Christian milieu, indigenous Pentecostalism has become an increasingly prominent feature in the religious and political landscape of Ekiti-kete. The growth of indigenous Pentecostalism in Ekiti Communities has been particularly dramatic since the 1980s. Suffice it to say that, much of the worldviews underlying the important expressions of indigenous Pentecostalism in Ekiti communities like healing, “deliverance” exorcism and belief in spirits resonate with traditional African philosophical thoughts. This is an important factor that contributes to the growth of Indigenous Pentecostal Churches (IPCs) in Ekitiland.

IGUALDADE OU DESIGUALDADE DE GÊNERO NA ÁFRICA? PENSAMENTO FEMINISTA AFRICANO

O estudo aborda a discussão de gênero e cultura na África, delimitando alguns territórios, contribuindo na descentralização das epistemologias ocidentais através da discussão de gênero na África sob o olhar de teóricas/os africanas/os. Com o objetivo de discutir sobre a cultura africana na perspectiva de gênero destituída da concepção ocidental, esse trabalho remete a pensamentos africanos, evidenciando epistemologias outras e, visando, por um lado, a descentralização do conhecimento hegemônico euro-americano e, por outro, a compreensão do complexo debate concernente a relação de gênero na África, focando a seguinte questão: Igualdade ou desigualdade de gênero neste território? Teórico-metodologicamente realizou-se uma Análise Cognitiva das concepções de autoras/es dos estudos de gênero africanos.

History Of African Accounting Thoughts And Development: Evidences From Igbo Land

The aim of this paper was to present the history of accounting thought in Africa with particular focus on Igbo land. The study is carried out via desk research. Secondary sources from journals, textbooks, internet sources and oral accounts have been adopted. The study reveals that Igbo people had a rich history of accounting thought which has remained partially documented. In some ways, accounting development experience of the Igbos was similar to the pre-history period experience of Mesopotamia, Egypt and other early civilizations as there were unique methods in the use of notches on sticks, vertical and horizontal marks on the wall, use of counters made of pebbles, grains and palm kernel stored in calabashes and wooden boxes as measurements of wealth. The 1494 double entry system published by Luca Pacioli, an Italian monk and mathematician, which brought sweeping changes in the method of recording business transactions across Europe and America, similarly affected the development of accounting in Nigeria. Also the formation of accounting bodies in Europe and America between 1854 and 1897 influenced similar developments in Nigeria which culminated in 1960 to the formation of the Association of Accountants in Nigeria and subsequently the charter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) by the Parliament in 1965. The formation of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in 1979 added the dimension of internationality and comparability to the reporting quality in Nigeria. This paper will be of critical significance to accounting history researchers and students.

The Positivist Demand and the Betrayed Tradition of Tacit Knowledge in an African Thought System

Rad utvrđuje krizu afričkog stanja koje predstavlja izdaju tradicije skrivenog znanja u esanskom sustavu mišljenja, ostavljajući za sobom prijelome u epistemologiji esanaca. U pozadini situacije nalazi se pozitivistički zahtjev za verifikacijom i potvrđivanjem u potrazi za pouzdanom epistemologijom. Navigirajući trenutnim stanjem u esanskom sustavu mišljenja, rad otkriva da je tradicija skrivenog znanja izigrana i odbačena zahtjevima moderne. S obzirom na to da epistemologija ljudi utječe na to kako se nose sa zbiljom, suočavaju s problemima i nailaze na prepreke, i s obzirom na to da afričko stanje počiva na prelomljenim epistemologijama (dočarano esanskim epistemičkim pozicijama), rad predstavlja sliku tradicije koja je pukla, a koja treba zalječenje i povratak svoje duše. Ta je tradicija sadržana u skrivenom znanju i implicitnim idealima. Samo se provedbom povratka može u prednji plan iznijeti pouzdan epistemološki program koji će ispravno tretirati stanje Esana, a time i Afriku, otkrivajući bit zajedničkog dobra. Rad iznosi neke primjere izdane tradicije kako se izražava i pojavljuje aspektualno u životima ljudi, poput zdravstvene skrbi i društvenih odnosa. Time eksplicitna postaje veza između epistemologije, ontologije, društvenog poretka i moralnosti.

The Menkiti-Gyekye conversation: framing persons

Ifeanyi Menkiti’s “Person and Community in African Traditional Thought” is criticized from the standpoint that the author assumes a dichotomous framework taken over in his decision to articulate the African view of the person in the idiom of modern philosophy. Kwame Gyekye’s critique of Menkiti in “Person and Community in AfricanThought” is also scrutinized to see if it manages to break free from this framework. I conclude by calling for a departure from quasi-scientific approaches to human nature and experience that attempt to apprehend culture from a position without culture.Keywords: Menkiti, Gyekye, Personhood, Community, Persons

Person and community—a retrospective statement

Over the past four decades, I have been asked many questions regarding the substance and methodology of my essay “Person and Community in African Thought”. I cannot in the space of these pages retrieve or reframe the content and implications of these several questions and it would be fool-hardy to attempt an answer to all of them here. But that is no reason not to try to say a few things, by way of additional commentary, on the occasion of this retrospective on the essay. It would be helpful to proceed by concentrating on a few issues which have been of some concern, or interest, to readers over the years, adding a response, however brief, as I go along.Keywords: Community, Personhood, Descriptive Metaphysics Africa Philosophy Human Person