Ethno-Philosophy and the Challenge of African Humanity

Abstract

This paper discusses what it regards as ethno-philosophy’s unfinished business, and its implication for Africa today. It appraises the background to ethno-philosophy, its response to a challenge, the ‘response to the response’ on the part of ‘professional philosophers’, the failure of ethno-philosophy, and how this failure has continued to dog African philosophy and Africa even in contemporary times. It concludes by insisting that, unless the core issue involved in the attack on Africa (to which ethno-philosophy was responding) is frankly acknowledged and decisively dealt with, no effort on the part of African philosophers is likely to cast off the blanket of perceived inferiority from the African image.