UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY AS A DEFENCE OF AFRICAN CULTURE

Abstract

Quite sadly for Africans, there have been certain, or to put it in a better way, several attempts by external forces to either deprive Africans of the tenability of African cultures both as a tool of preserving philosophy or as a consequence of specific philosophical reflections. The consequence of this has been dire for the African experience. It is the realization of this that philosophy as a professional enterprise on the African continent became a tool both for extending the tenets of African cultures or for the expression of what African cultures are. In both cases, the idea of preservation of culture as well as the validation of cultural determinants is rightly expressed. The aim of this paper is to examine the philosophical discourse of African philosophy as a defense of African culture. In other words, this paper will consider how philosophy has been conceptualized, and used as a tool for addressing the protection, preservation and validation of African cultures from decimation from Western imperialism on all fronts.