Nnadiebube Journal of Philosophy

One of the fundamental problems that is faced by man’s existence is the facticity of time. Time remains an essential aspect of man’s existence. The meaningfulness and the meaninglessness of human existence is fundamental inspired by time because human existence is limited by time. This paper critically examines the African ontology of John Mbiti’s concept of time. His philosophical inquiry of African concept of time was not holistic. The concept of time is a universal phenomenon and it goes beyond the Western and African perspective of time. Every human person lives within the non-tangibility, immateriality and non-spatial framework of time. Time remains one of the fundamental factors or cardinal elements of every human existence. It has been popularly asserted by some Nigerian musicians that “time is money”. The concept of time in Mbiti’s African philosophy has been criticized by some critics and scholars. Many critics argued that Mbiti’s concept of time is based on his Christian perspective. Some of Mbiti’s critics also argued that Mbiti’s concept of time in African philosophy is visual or not in-depth and that his conceptual analysis of time is idiosyncratic and does not truly represent the whole peoples of Africa. This paper adopts the analytical framework in discussing the ontology of time in Mbiti’s African philosophy. Time, just like most philosophical concepts have a definitional difficulty. The very fact that the concept of time is definitional difficulty is more of a challenge than a discouragement to further discuss this concept. Time has been defined in different ways by many people. There is no universally acceptable definition of time. The findings of this paper are that (1) the concept of time has an ontological and metaphysical status; (2) the concept of time has eschatological significance; (3) time is a universal phenomenon and it cuts across all race and cultures; and (4) the concept of time is universalistic and relativistic, objective and subjective. This paper concludes that human value is fundamentally inspired by time. Time reminds human existence the need to live consciously in terms of their deliberate choices and actions.

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