African Philosophy and The Problem of Methodology

This piece asserts that the problem of methodology in African philosophy, like the issue of trends, dates back to the period when African thinkers began to question the perspective that traditional African beliefs and worldviews, as embedded in pre-colonial African cultures, constituted African philosophy. However, contrary to the universalist perspective, it argues that the cultural differences found among human beings accounts for the differences found in their methodol- ogy. To deny the differences in methodology is to deny the differences in worldview and culture. However, it observes that care has to be taken to avoid a situation of relativism, where every one's position, no matter what it looks like is considered to be good. It further addressed particular methodological issues of orature and collective thought dominant in African philosophy. However, this piece submits that the issue methodology in African philosophy, is a discourse between the universalist and particularist schools, between the modern and the traditional. While it hardly changes the dominant discourses in African philosophy, its relevance is that it keeps African philosophy alive on the dialectical path.