African philosophy

The expression can seem problematic. On a side, the expression indicates the ethnophilosophie of Africa: exposure and analyzes Sagesse or better still of African wisdoms.

The problems of the African ethnophilosophie saw the day with the publication in January 1945 of “ philosophy bantou ” by Placide Frans Tempels (1906/1977). This resounding work corresponded to its time, with a rehabilitation of the values Nègre S extremely ambiguous. Ironically, Tempels was not a philosopher. And it was not African. It was a Belgian Moine Franciscain and missionary with the Congo.

The ideas of Tempels represented a progress in substituent with the concept of " negro without culture" defined by Hegel in its Lessons on the philosophy of the history , the concept of " culture nègre". But while at Hegel, the inertia of the black people is irremediable because they do not have culture, for Tempels, this inertia is cultural. According to Tempels, the going beyond of this inertia is clear: “Civilization bantoue will be Christian or will not be”. Following Tempels, Alexis Kagame, philosopher Rwanda is (1912/1981), published, from the same point of view of evangelization bantu-Rwandan philosophy To be it (1956) and compared philosophy bantu .

On another side, the irony of the history wanted that they are contemporary African philosophers (Hountondji, Boulaga) who started the most radical criticism of the theses of Tempels on the " philosophy bantou". Others critical of the theses of Tempels are in works of Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, and Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze.

Paulin J. Hountondji, philosopher of Beninese origin born in 1942, firmly challenges the attitude which consists in calling " philosophie" vision of the world of given people. He proposes the following discriminatif use: " - Philosophy itself (without quotation marks): together of texts and explicit speeches, philosophical literature of intention.

" - " Philosophy " with the unsuitable direction, underlined here by the quotation marks: collective and hypothetical vision of the world of given people.

" - Ethnophilosophie : seek which rests, in whole or part, on the assumption of such a vision of the world, test of rebuilding of a " philosophie" collective supposée".

Marcien Towa, philosophical Cameronian born about 1935 has pourfendu the theses of Léopold Sédar Senghor on the Négritude which it compares to the Néo-colonialisme. In “ the test on the philosophical problems of Africa ”, (1971), it denounces the éthnophilosophie which compares philosophy to any mink of the world. But in “ the idea of a African philosophy ” (1979), after having criticized the mythical thought, field of the received opinion, it tries while being based on the examples borrowed from the Egypt and the tales of the Black Africa, to show that there is a true African philosophical tradition.

The African philosophy of the Pharaonic period is especially studied and systematized by the Congolese philosopher Mubabinge Bilolo. Bilolo which is Egyptologist, political economist and historian of pre-tempelsienne African philosophy does not limit to the problems of the existence of ancient African philosophy, but it presents of them the various schools and the various topics approached: creation-to become, the thought of the One, the passage of the One with the multiples, negative theology, ecological ethics, epistemology, etc

In anglophone Africa, the African philosophical tradition Moderne is composed of works of philosophers like Anton Wilhelm Amo, Kwasi Wiredu, Kwame Gyekye, and Peter Bodunrin. The philosophical tradition postmodern in Africa is supported by the works of Anthony Appiah, Achille Mbembe and V.Y. Mudimbe. The others, like Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze, practice African philosophy postcoloniale.

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