AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY AS AN ONTOLOGICO-EXISTENTIAL HERMENEUTICS

Résumé

One of the recurring ideas in the criticism of the Universalistic School of African philosophy against ethno-philosophy is the emphasis on culture and collective thought. Very recently, African philosophers of the hermeneutic school, have argued that African philosophy must be hermeneutical, that is, an individual interpretation of one’s cultural symbols, mediated by one’s understanding and self-understanding. This makes the thoughts of philosophers like Placid Tempels, Alexis Kagame and Leopold Senghor valid thoughts for inclusion into the corpus of African philosophy. This piece, further argues that African philosophy is an ontologico-existential hermeneutics. The hermeneutical method that is described as ontological and existential is based on the universal character of philosophy and the African context as the locus for philosophical reflection. Using the historical and analytical methods of inquiry, it argues that hermeneutics is the instrument for analyzing the African experience.