IGBO CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY POETS AS AFRICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SAGES

Abstract

A cursory glance at the historical development of Western philosophy reveals the categorization of some poets as Western philosophers. Through their poetry, they were able to make philosophical contributions. These Western poets include: T. S. Eliot, Hildegard von Bingen, Homer, Percy Bysshe Shelley, James Wright, Marianne Moore, Pablo Neruda, William Carlos Williams, Mary Oliver, Rainer Maria Rilke, Leslie Marmon Silko, Robert Creeley, Fernando Pessoa, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Bataille, and so on. With the argument of some western thinkers and those of African thinkers who were trained in the West that Africans have no philosophy peculiar to their worldview, the occasion has once again arisen to look into the development of thought in Africa, especially in the area of poetry, to see if there are African thinkers whose contributions in the area of poetry can be categorized as philosophy. This piece has made this study and submits that African poets, through their critic of society qualify as philosophical sages.