2007/2008 COURSE CATALOGUE

NAIROBI, KENYA

Course: MARY AFST 528: Sage Philosophy: The Root of African Philosophy and Religion

Course Outline:
The general nature of Philosophy and its connection with Religion and Religion in Africa. Ethno-philosophy and African Traditional Religions. The question of sages and their work in practice, folk Sages, philosophic Sages: Sages Views on God, Culture, Customs, Life and Death, man and animals.

Nature of Philosophy 

Philosophy as a first and second order activity 

- Common view of (folk) philosophy
- Critical philosophy 

Culture as worldview (a given)

- Philosophical activities as universal 
- Asking fundamental questions

The conventional conception of the African mentality 

- Collective and individual thought

- God and other categories of beings 

- The individual and social order 

a) Communalism as a social theory 

b) The tensions of individualism 

1. Emotivism 

2. Myth and Reality 

3. Conscious 

4. Primitive mentality and primitive unanimity 

The African origin of civilization and philosophy 

 

- Who were the Egyptians? Were they black? 

- The Egyptian origin of Greek philosophy 

- African foundations Greek philosophy 

- The silence of western philosophers and their suppression of the African contribution to the discipline of philosophy 

 

Nature of African philosophy and its relationship to culture 

1. On defining African philosophy 

2. On the idea of African Philosophy 

3. The legitimacy of taking African 

Sources of African philosophy 

- Four Trends 

1. Ethnophilosophy 

2. Nationalist-Ideological Philosophy 

3. Philosophic Sagacity 

4. Professional Philosophy 

Why Sage Philosophy 

Sage Philosophy : Definition and Methodology 

- Popular or folk sagacity 

- Philosophic sagacity 

- Sages as opinion leaders- understanding a community 

- The place or role of Sage-Philosophy to religion in modern Africa 

- The two basic qualities of a sage 

Critique of sage Philosophy 

Conception of time in African Philosophy and Religion 

- Cultures without time, Mbiti's religious knowledge 

- Mbiti and generalization 

- A prophet and concept of future 

- Akan concept 

- Time and Language 

- Waste of time or waiting for time 

Implications of Tempel's and Mbiti's views - Communalism 

- African concept of time in Mbiti and its relation  to Christianity 

- Tempel's view 

- Mbiti's view 

Bibliography 

Abraham, W.E. (1962). The Mind of Africa. Chicago: Chicago University Press.  

Gyekye, Kwame. (1996). African cultural Values: An Introduction. Philadelphia: Sankofa Co.  

Titus, Harold H. (1995). Issues in philosophy. Ninth Edition. California: Wadsworth.  

Oruka, H. Odera. (1990).  Sage Philosophy: Indigenous Thinkers and Modern Debate on African philosophy. New York: E. J. Brill.  

Oruka, H. Odera. (1990). Trends in Contemporary African Philosophy. Nairobi: Shirikon.  

Chukwu, Cletus N. (2002).  Introduction to Philosophy in an African Perspective. Eldoret: Zapf Chancery. 

Hountondji, Paulin J. (1996). African Philosophy: Myth and Reality. Second Edition. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.  

Imbo, Samuel Oluoch. (1998). An Introduction to African Philosophy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.  

Wiredu, Kwasi. (1980). Philosophy and an African Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  

Eze Emmanuel Chukwudi. (1998). African Philosophy: An Anthology. Malden: Blackwell Publishers.  

Nkrumah, Kwame. (1970). Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization. Revised Edition. New York: Monthly Review Press.  

Masolo, D. (1994). African Philosophy in Search of Identity. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

Mudimbe, V. Y. (1988). The Invention of Africa: gnosis, Philosophy, and Other Knowledge. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

Ochieng'-Odhiambo, F. African Philosophy: An Introduction. Nairobi: Consolata Institute of Philosophy, 1995.

James, George G. M. (1989). Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy. Newport News, Va.,: United Brothers Communications Systems. 

Onyewuenyi, Innocent Chilaka. (1993). The African Origin of Greek Philosophy: An Exercise in Afrocentrism. Nsukka: University of Nigeria Press. 

Tempels Placide. (1969). Bantu Philosophy. Paris: Presence Africaine. 

Nkafu Nkemnkia, Martin. (1999). African Vitalogy: A Step Forward in African Thinking. Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa. 

Mbiti, John S. (1990). African Religions and Philosophy. Second Revision. Oxford: Heinemann. 

Serequeberhan, Tsenay.  (Ed.). (1991). African Philosophy: The Essential Readings. New York: Paragon House.