NOTION OF “AFRICAN” AS A STRATEGIC IDEOLOGICAL EPISTEMIC POSITION IN AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

This article argues that the racial essentialism implicit in the geographic criteria of the meaning of “African†in African philosophy (as black, ethnic and sub-Saharan) limits the development of African philosophy as a disciplined methodological inquiry into the question of African − and the African question in philosophy. It articulates instead a strategic ideological notion of “African†in African philosophy; defined by a commitment to the ethics of social justice for the historical injustice of racial dehumanisation of Africans, to transcend the racial essentialism implicit in the above geographic criteria of the meaning of “African†in African philosophy.