REVISITING THE DEBATE ON AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURAL IDEAS
The definition of what exactly constitutes African Philosophy has been problematic and the issue has giving rise to debates concerning its constitutive ontology, content, authentic nature and methodology. For two decades beginning from the 1970’s till the close of 1990, the debate on the existence of African Philosophy has raged among scholars of philosophy in and outside Africa. The great debate was centered on whether or not there is African Philosophy. These philosophers polarized into two opposing position namely the Eurocentric scholars of the western and African descent and the Afrocentric scholars. The Eurocentric scholars of the western and the African descent stood in rejection of the possibility of an African philosophy its member include Peter Boudurin, KwasiWiredu, Henri Maurier, Paulin Houuntondj, Lucien Levy Bruhl only to mention a few. While the Afrocentric scholars argue in defence of the possibility of the existence of African Philosophy. Its members include Joseph Omoregbe, John S. Mbiti, Richard Wright, Kwame Gyekye, C S. Momoh and so on. This paper deals with the issue of what constitutes African Philosophy. It also debunked the idea of consenting to using the western paradigm of philosophizing to ascertain African Philosophy because of their historical difference. The paper concludes that there is African Philosophy which must not necessarily conform to the demands of Aristotelian and Russellian logic for is not a necessary condition of philosophy, but African philosophy is embedded in the culture and experiences of the people.
Keywords: Africa, African Philosophy, African culture and community thoughts,