A Critical Review of Alexis Kagame’s Four Categories of African Philosophy

Abstract

Philosophy as a rational enterprise is and remains the search for truth. This endeavour is basically centred on man and his activities. This man as a rational animal is a product of culture and this underscores the continued rapport between culture and philosophy. This correlation and the inevitability of culture in the codification and existence of philosophy precipitated the drive and the move of some African scholars to shunt into the culture of Africans to garner and galvanize the latent philosophy therein. This was in the wake of the polemics against the existence of African philosophy. Albeit, taking a critical look into these affairs, it became plausible that some of the works produced from this task remains a paradox and a travesty as they were inflicted and affected with foreign categories and schemes that further leave the search for an authentic African philosophy open and their endeavour a charade. However, this lousy situation can only be address through proper reflective activities of African scholars towards originality of ideas that corresponds and represents the African world and that will make the African world intelligible to Africans.