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Philosophic Sagacity and Inter- Cultural Philosophy Philosophic sagacity and inter- cultural philosophy African Studies Centre Leiden African Studies Collection, vol. 62 Philosophic sagacity and inter- cultural philosophy Beyond Henry Odera Oruka Pius Maija Mosima Published by: African Studies Centre P.O. Box 9555 2300 RB Leiden The Netherlands [email protected] http://www.ascleiden.nl Cover design: Heike Slingerland Cover photos: Pius Mosima Printed by Ipskamp Printing, Enschede ISSN: 1876-018x ISBN: 978-90-5448-152-2 © Pius Maija Mosima, 2016 Dedication To my father: Papa Joseph Mokonya Mosima (Rest in Peace) Contents Acknowledgements xi Summary xv Résumé xvii 1 INTRODUCTION: AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY 1 Introduction 1 The particularizing perspective 7 The universalizing perspective 7 Models of African philosophy 9 Ethnophilosophy 9 Is Tempels an African philosopher? 9 Nationalist-ideological philosophy 13 Professional philosophy 14 Philosophic sagacity or sage philosophy 15 Hermeneutical philosophy 17 Other approaches in contemporary African philosophy 18 Intercultural philosophy 21 Research questions and hypotheses 24 Methodology 25 Relevance of the general debates on philosophic sagacity 25 Outline of the dissertation and overview of chapters 30 2 ETHNOPHILOSOPHY 33 Introduction 33 Pike’s codification in the study of culture 35 Placide Frans Tempels 37 Tempels’ vision of a Bantu philosophy 42 Griaule’s Ogotemmêli 46 Alexis Kagame and the ethnophilosophical school 50 Structuralism and language 51 Analytical philosophy 51 Kagame and the challenges of interculturality 53 Conclusion 57 vii 3 FROM ETHNOPHILOSOPHY TO PHILOSOPHIC SAGACITY 59 Introduction 59 Main criticisms of ethnophilosophy 60 Oruka’s criticisms of ethnophilosophy 66 Presbey’s attempt at greater precision 69 Revisiting the critics of ethnophilosophy 70 Conclusion 73 4 SAGE PHILOSOPHY: BASIC QUESTIONS AND METHODOLOGY 75 Introduction 75 What is sage philosophy? 76 Categorization of sagacity 76 The relationship between wisdom and philosophy 77 Africanist expressions of traditional wisdom 78 The historical basis of philosophic sagacity 83 Oruka’s project of philosophic sagacity 84 Ethnophilosophy, unanimity, and African critical thought 84 Oral tradition and literacy in philosophic sagacity 85 The African sage tradition and Eurocentric bias 86 Areas and persons of research 87 Methodology 89 Wisdom and non-wisdom 90 Cultural contexts 90 Provocation 91 The role of the interviewer 92 Distinguishing the philosophic sage from the folk sage 92 Oral practice and the practice of modern education 93 Subject matter: Extracts and commentaries on selected Kenyan sages 93 Paul Mbuya Akoko 93 Mzee Oruka Ranginya 96 Njeru wa Kanyenje 97 Conclusion 98 5 RE-THINKING ORUKA’S PHILOSOPHIC SAGACITY IN AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY 99 Introduction 99 What is post-modernism? 99 Sceptical and affirmative post-modernism 101 Some common features of post-modernism 101 Criticisms of sage philosophy 102 viii Methodological and definitional objections 103 Orality and writing in sage philosophy 105 Greek sages and traditional African sages 108 Oruka’s interviews with individual sages 113 Beyond the modern individual author 115 Ethnophilosophy, unanimity and individual African critical thought 119 Situating sagacity between universalism and particularism 122 Conclusion 123 6 PHILOSOPHIC SAGACITY IN AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY: PROPAGATING THE WEST? 125 Introduction 125 Colonialism and Western hegemony in academic African philosophy 126 Colonial invention of Africa 126 From anthropology to intercultural philosophy: Some critiques of Africanist anthropology 130 Anthropology as ideology 131 Anthropology and intercultural knowledge production 135 Conclusion 137 7 TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHY OF GLOBALIZATION 139 Introduction 139 What is globalization? 140 Globalization and its post-modern philosophical elaborations 140 Towards the globalization of African sagacity 143 Oruka’s cultural fundamentals in philosophy and philosophical debate 145 The hermeneutics of intercultural philosophy 149 The rise of more dynamic and optional approaches to ‘culture’, as th from the middle of the 20 century 152 Cultural relativism and difference: Beyond the culturalist thesis 153 Beyond Bernal’s boundaries 159 Conclusion 162 8 THE AFRICAN/INTERCULTURAL PHILOSOPHER TODAY: CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES 165 Introduction 165 The need for an intercultural hermeneutics: Oruka on the scale of hermeneutics 166 ix Intercultural philosophy and the counter-hegemonic challenge 169 Crossing cultural boundaries with African wisdom traditions 171 References 175 x Acknowledgements Any academic work is the fruit of the collective effort of many. It is with this awareness that I would like to acknowledge, with sincere gratitude, all those who have helped me in realizing this work, especially those mentioned here. I would like to offer gratitude to four categories of people. In the first place, I am heavily indebted to my supervisors, Professor Wim van Binsbergen of the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and the African Studies Cen- tre, Leiden, The Netherlands; and Professor Walter van Beek of Tilburg Univer- sity and the African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands. Professor van Binsbergen not only elected me from among many applicants for doctoral super- vision, but has consistently guided me from the time of conceiving the theme to the final write-up of this dissertation. Besides provision of guidance, he also looked for several grants for me to help in the completion of this project. Profes- sor van Binsbergen also made three very successful teaching/supervision tours in Cameroon. The fruitful discussions and lectures led this project to take an inter- esting pace with unforgettable human intercultural encounters. His visits and in- teractions with the people of my village have encouraged the entire village to award him part of the royal title I share. Let me also add that my relation with Professor van Binsbergen went beyond just that of a professor/student relation. He and the wife, Mama Patricia van Binsbergen, play the role of parents to me and love is felt between our families in Haarlem and Buea. In this regard, I wish to thank Mama Patricia van Binsbergen and all the children. I am also grateful to Professor van Beek for providing pertinent comments to this work and for final- izing the proceedings for the defence of this thesis. Secondly, my lecturers at the University of Yaounde I and the University of Yaounde II-Soa have also been very instrumental in my orientation. In this re- gard, I thank Professor Hubert Mono Ndjana, Professor Godfrey Tangwa, Profes- sor Bongasu Tanla Kishani, Professor Nkolo Foe, and Professor Michael Aletum Tabuwe. These professors took great interest in my work and made very helpful comments and suggestions. I am also grateful to Ruadhan Hayes for his construc- tive criticisms and his correcting and editing of this work. Thirdly, I am particularly grateful to my colleagues at the Department of Soci- ology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto-Nigeria. They include Professor Mohammed Kuna, Dr Fatima Adamu, Dr Amzat Jimoh, and the post-graduate students of that department (2007/2008). I am also very grateful to Dr Ulrike xi Schultz of the Freie Universität Berlin, and to the Volkswagen Stiftung Germany for providing travel grants for my trips to Nigeria. My colleagues at the Erasmus University Rotterdam were also very instrumental in providing insightful com- ments during research seminars where my research proposal was critiqued and commented upon. Their insightful criticisms and suggestions were subsequently incorporated into this dissertation. I mention here Dr Stephanus Djunatan, Dr Julie Duran-Ndaya, Dr Louise Muller, Mrs Kirsten Seifikar, Dr Pascal Touoyem, and Dr Fred Woudhuizen. I am immeasurably indebted to the Editorial Board of Quest: An African Journal of Philosophy, especially the Editor, for providing me with back copies of that journal, enabling me to have a wide range of various world-class articles on the subject of African/intercultural philosophy. I also thank Dr Marloes Janson and Dr Kai Kresse of the Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Germany for providing me with research documents on Afri- can/intercultural philosophy. I must extend my appreciation to the Gruen Berlin Park und Garten for funding my trip to Berlin for guest lectures and research on African/intercultural philosophy. My research students and friends in Germany and Norway need to be mentioned here. I am thinking of Ulrike Schaper, Tomo- ko Mamine, Elisabeth Bollrich, Karl Gaufin, Ilka Eikenhoff, Andrea and Kamel Louafi, Petra Schlegel, Helmut Siering, and Hendrik Gottfriedsen. I am also in- debted to Professor Barry Hallen of Morehouse College and Associate in the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, USA, for providing me with vital documentation on African philoso- phy. I thank them also for their support and valuable advice, suggestions, and criticisms of my ideas. I express thanks to Professor Helen Lauer of the University of Legon, Ghana, Professor Joseph Asike of Howard University, USA, and Dr Anna Mdee of the University of Bradford, UK, for their enthusiasm and constructive contributions to this work. I also wish to extend thanks to the entire staff and students of the Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan (2010/2011). Those who imme- diately come to mind are Dr C.O. Agunlanna, Dr Bolatito Lanre-Abass, Dr Fran- cis Offor, Dr Olatunji Oyeshile, Dr Isaac Ukpokolo, Mr Michael Igaga, and, in particular, Dr Adebola Ekanola. In connection
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