Dimensions of Epistemology and the Case for Africa’s Indigenous Ways of Knowing

Authors

  • Amaechi Udefi

Abstract

The debates within African philosophical practice have concerned its status, relevance and methodology appropriate or usable for doing it. Many African philosophers still express reservations concerning the importance of Africa’s indigenous ways of knowing. Paulin Hountondji, a leading African philosopher, famously denies that African traditional thought is true philosophy, classifying it as mere ethnophilosophy, since it deals with orality and other ethnographical materials like proverbs, parables, folklores, fables, songs etc. Hountondji’s position is, to say the least, exclusionist, since it denies traditional heritage a position in the on-going philosophical conversation or discourse. The paper suggests that Hountondji’s position rests on one-sided conception of epistemology. And wishes to show that philosophical practice is as old as the history of mankind in Africa,

Author Biography

Amaechi Udefi

University of Ibadan, Nigeria

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Issue

Vol. 16 No. 1 (2015): January - June 2015

Section

Research

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