Editorial: Of the Philosophies of Africa – Theory and Practice

Abstract

Volume 8.1 of Culture and Dialogue is devoted to aspects of African thought and in particular philosophy, whether theoretical or practical. This issue has been generously guest-edited by Felix O. Olatunji, of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology and Osun State University, Nigeria. As reflected in the selection of essays, the overall concern of this issue is not really to question whether there is such a thing as “African philosophy.” Thankfully, for many, the answer to this question is simply provided in the significant and multifarious corpus of texts produced across the continent of Africa and its history. Of course, any question concerning “African philosophy,” i.e. a specifically pan-African discipline with its own methods and forms, is partly different from that of “African thought” in general, for the latter includes not only processes of consciousness that reflect on the natural and human fields, but also practices whose very nature is to create or express specific cultural textures. Indeed, the choice of “African Thought” – rather than “African Philosophy” – in the title of this journal issue is a way of leaving the door open to thought-practices that would be considered as foreign or simply borderline to what is usually considered as philosophy by the Western establishment, that is, by those who have come to believe and persuade the rest of the world that the love of wisdom is the love of logos. For example, how practical, literary, or ethnological can philosophy be before it becomes something else? From this perspective, the question as to what constitutes philosophy “proper” within the context of Africa can understandably be, in itself, dismissed as a mere semantic one. This is not to say that endeavours to characterise, develop and renew a body of philosophical disciplines that is typically of Africa – African philosophy – is meaningless. Philosophy as a thinking-process that develops within specific natural and human environments, or as awakening to modes of being or the emptying nature of things or even to their relational nature, counts as one of the fundamental ingredients that contribute to building a voice for others to listen to, learn from, and in turn be renewed. On this account, what can be more justified and even natural than to seek to think through one’s own languages and customs? Of course, the histories of the countries and various regions and