THE SEARCH FOR LANGUAGE AS A PANACEA FOR AN AUTHENTIC AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY

It has been generally argued that Africans do not have a philosophy. How can it be that Africans do not have a philosophy when they are among the three known world cultures namely oriental, western and African cultures? If we say Africans do not have a philosophy we are saying directly or indirectly that they are not human beings and therefore cannot reason and reflect like other human beings. In other words, it means that Africans are sub-humans. This cannot be a fair assertion to Africans since Africans possess all the qualities that all other human beings possess. Hence, in this work, attention is focused on examining whether or not Africans do have a philosophy by establishing at least one of the avenues through which any philosophy can be expressed i.e. through a language. The oriental philosophy can be expressed in oriental language while western philosophy can be expressed in western language. Can African philosophy be expressed in African language like the other two world cultures? If it can, then, the existence of African philosophy is not impossible. Thus, this paper stands to examine language as a source through which authentic African philosophy as one of the authentic world recognized and famous philosophies can be possible.