African Philosophy - Pre-modern African Philosophy

Pre-modern African Philosophy

Joseph I. Omoregbe's broadly defines a philosopher as, "one who devotes a good deal of his time reflecting on fundamental questions about human life or the physical universe and who frequently and habitually does this” and though no clearly articulated and documented philosophy exists, there is still a philosophical tradition. Put simply, even if there were no known African philosophers, there was African philosophy. This may be supported by observing from The Iliad and other Greek literature that philosophic concepts such as hubris, heroism, and the superiority of Greek culture were extant prior to the Late Classical period of Greek Antiquity. Thus, a form of natural philosophy, has been present in Africa since very ancient times.

If we take a philosophy to be a coherent set of beliefs, but not a system explaining the unity of its understanding of all the world's phenomena, the nature of the world and the place of human beings in that world, then few if any cultures lack a philosophy.

The standard view of the rise of philosophical (and of scientific) thought is that it probably required a certain sort of social structure (one in which, for example, a significant part of society had the leisure to think and debate), but that even given this necessary background condition, there's a further complex set of factors needed.

Philosophy in Africa has a rich and varied history, dating from pre-dynastic Egypt, continuing through the birth of Christianity and Islam. ancient Egyptian philosophy dates to pre-dynastic times. Arguably central to the ancients was the conception of "ma'at", which roughly translated refers to "justice", "truth", or simply "that which is right". One of the earliest works of political philosophy was the Maxims of Ptah-Hotep, which were taught to Egyptian schoolboys for centuries.

Ancient Egyptian philosophers made extremely important contributions to Hellenistic philosophy, Christian philosophy, and Islamic philosophy.

In the Hellenistic tradition, the influential philosophical school of Neoplatonism was founded by the Egyptian philosopher Plotinus in the 3rd century CE.

In the Christian tradition, Augustine of Hippo was a cornerstone of Christian philosophy and theology. He lived from 354 to 430 CE, and wrote his best known work, The City of God, in Hippo Regius, (now Annaba, Algeria). He challenged a number of ideas of his age including Arianism, and established the notions of original sin and divine grace in Christian philosophy and theology.

Later African philosophy looks more familiar to those who have studied the conventional history of Western philosophy: the literate traditions of Ethiopia, for example, which can be seen in the context of a long (if modest) tradition of philosophical writing in the horn of Africa. The high point of such writing was the work of the 17th-century philosopher Zera Yacob, who has been compared to Descartes, and of his disciple, Walda Heywat.

It is also worth observing that many of the traditions of Islamic philosophy were either the product of, or were subject to the influence of scholars born or working in the African continent in centres of learning such as Cairo and Timbuktu. Many of these intellectuals and scholars created a philosophical tradition in these cities. Ibn Bajjah philosophized along neo-Platonist lines in the 12th century. The purpose of human life, according to Bajja, was to gain true happiness, and true happiness is attained by grasping the universals through reason and philosophy, often outside the framework of organized religion.

Ibn Rushd philosophised along more Aristotelian lines, establishing the philosophical school of Averroism. Notably, he argued that there was no conflict between religion and philosophy, and instead that there are a variety of routes to God, all equally valid, and that the philosopher was free to take the route of reason while the commoners were unable to take that route, and only able to take the route of teachings passed on to them.

Ibn Sab'in challenged the above view, arguing that Aristotelian methods of philosophy were useless in attempting to understand the universe, because those ideas failed to mirror the basic unity of the universe with itself and with God, so that true understanding required a different method of reasoning.

There is at least one example of a pre-modern sub-Saharan African philosopher: Anthony William Amo was taken as a slave from Awukenu in what is now Ghana, was brought up and educated in Europe (gaining doctorates in medicine and philosophy), and became a professor at the universities of Halle Halle and Jena.

In terms of political philosophy, the independence of Ethiopia and the exercise of native African nation expressing its independence in the face of European colonialism and oppression served as a rallying cry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was one of the cornerstones of the Pan-African movement that would spur independence from European colonialism by the middle of the 20th century. This movement and philosophical ideas would influence both modern African philosophy and the anti-colonial movements and peoples of the Third world.