FLASH: JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION & PEACE STUDIES

African philosophy is a critical analysis and interpretation of the traditional worldviews and wise sayings of the African people as embedded in their languages, religion and cultural values. However, this approach to African philosophy is what has been denigrated as ethnophilosophy, which Hountondji regards as non-philosophical or pseudo-philosophical, and scholars such as Placide Tempels, L.S. Senghor, Alexis Kagame, Cheikh Anta Diop, and John Mbiti labeled ethnophilosophers. The radical universalist critique of ethnophilosophy notwithstanding, is not without scorn, thus the need for a new space of philosophical thought. This study present a critical evaluation on Hountondji’s critique of ethnophilosophy. Using the philosophical method, the study discovered that the irony of African philosophy revolves around the tendency of certain African philosophers to denigrate the intellectual orientation in African philosophy while, at the same time, depending on ethnophilosophical resources to advance the various ideas and concepts to which they are committed. The study expresses displeasure at the reluctance of universalists like Hountondji to appreciate ethnophilosophy as the original and true philosophy of Africans in the same sense that there is a British philosophy, an American philosophy, a Greek philosophy etc. The study advocates for the development of original thought-systems, an aspect of philosophy that has not received due attention from African philosophers.

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