Emmanuel Ofuasia

National Open University Of Nigeria | NOUN · Philosophy

Several criteria for what constitutes African philosophy have been offered by different African and non-African scholars. For Jonathan Chimakonam (Ezumezu: A System of Logic for African Philosophy and Studies. Cham: Switzerland, 2019), a philosophy is either African, Western, or Asian because of the logic that fortifies it. Chimakonam, following th...

Neglected monotheism is how Thaddeus Metz and Motsamai Molefe designate the common denominator among the various religious cultures found across sub-Saharan Africa. This is a product of their engagement with such traditional African religious themes as God’s nature, God’s will, life beyond death, and the duration of existence beyond or without a bo...

Medical and technological breakthroughs opened the way for ectogenesis as a way of carrying to full term foetuses that would otherwise have been lost to death. Subsequently, most Western feminists have found in ectogenesis a plausible tool for combating patriarchy. Hence, some Western feminist scholars have recently started questioning the essence...

In recent times, scholarship has reduced the paradigm for why Africa remains largely underdeveloped to two: the externalist and the internalist views. The former is conceived to comprise scholars who tender that the reason Africa is underdeveloped and remains thus is due to the exploitative presence of Western capitalism and, in recent times, China...

In the present century, a new wave of criticisms, from two Western inter-cultural philosophers: Jurgen Hengelbrock and Heinz Kimmerle arrived to accuse the task of African philosophers as nothing but intellectual exertions steeped in ‘copycatism’ and transliteration of Western episteme. This is coming in the aftermath of previous attempts by notabl...

Western missionaries, ethnographic and anthropological scholars arrived in Africa, quizzed the pre-colonial African, and adjudged her, pre-critical and pre-logical, since the latter could not disclose or express thoughts according to the dictates or criteria initiated by the former. The criteria are the former’s language and logic. The West’s funda...

Agada's new book has arrived at a time when contemporary African philosophers are gradually engaging one another's work and participating actively in system-building. It is based on this "new wave" in contemporary African philosophy scholarship that I provide some critical comments over Agada's book Consolationism and Comparative Philosophy: Beyond...

In this essay, I will argue that the discourse over the existence of the Devil/Satan has no place among the religious cultures in sub-Saharan Africa. This may be contrasted with the numerous efforts in the dominant philosophy of religion tradition in the Anglo-American sphere, where efforts toward the establishing grounds for the existence of God h...

The later Martin Heidegger claims that metaphysics has reached a dead end. He arrives at this conclusion using Friedrich Nietzsche’s critique of Western metaphysics as a template. He claims that with Nietzsche, all the possible configurations of any metaphysical theory had been expended. This is owing to his conviction that authentic efforts toward...

In recent times, there has been the general public admission that it is possible for Ifá divination to be performed via smartphones and laptops. The implication is not far-fetched – the extinction of the babaláwo/ìyanifá, in the trio communication which comprises them, the client and Ọ̀rúnmìlà, the Yorùbá deity. What kind of education regarding the...

This article takes its inspiration from Jacques Derrida to consider how de-constructionism can be done inadvertently. This possibility is underscored when one considers how a very significant phrase in Ifá texts-"A díá fún. . ." has been construed away from its transliteration as "Ifá divination was performed for. . ." by each of Oluwole and Kareng...

In this research, my principal occupation is to address the possibility of science in traditional Africa as Sophie Oluwole maintains in one of her numerous unpublished drafts. Specifically, this research ponders over Oluwole's conviction in the face of the dilemma within the academia, whether or not ancient African sages have ever reflected in ways...

Following the publication of Jonathan O. Chimakonam's astounding book, Ezumezu: A System of Logic for African Philosophy and Studies, a monumental piece in the history of African philosophy and logic, which also undergirds the backbone of conversational thinking, various uncharitable misconceptions and misrepresentations have greeted the work. Of t...

As a consequence of his attack on the verification criterion which was employed by the Vienna Circle, Popper proposed an alternative through his idea of falsificationism. Popper did not only see falsificationism as an improved demarcation criterion, he was also convinced that falsificationism attests to the fallible nature of all knowledge systems....

It is pertinent, at this point in human intellectual history, to address the pervasive but misleading position among Africans that witchcraft is necessarily feminine and cruel. The medieval era’s untenable conception and detection of witchcraft as an absolutely callous and womanly affair filtered into colonial and then contemporary Africa to become...

The work espouses a three value logic in Yoruba traditional thought based on the personality of Esu, a primordial divinity in Yoruba religion. It skewed out three laws of thought that under guide thought in traditional society. The exposition is a testament to the fact that traditional Africans were not illogical as expressed by some Western philos...

The ethnocentric discourse which centers on the incompetence of the traditional African to conceive an idea of a Supreme Being has encountered critical ripostes from topmost African theologians, one of them being the late professor John S. Mbiti. Contrary to the ethnocentric warrant that African Traditional Religions (ATRs) are, at best, paganism,...

Is it ever plausible to simultaneously believe in the existence of God, admit the reality of evil without invoking an entity as its effective causation? This is the principal question that this chapter seeks to engage. This exploration is pertinent since it is the norm to tandem evil, in its moral and natural disclosures, with an entity (Devil for...

Prototypes or models of African logic that have been offered by scholars are comprehensive but not encompassing enough, especially when one applies them to traditional Yorùbá ritual archives. Hence, this study sets out to disclosing the inadequacies of the proposals on African logic from the gauge of traditional Yorùbá thought system. Having consid...

This is a review of Jonathan Chimakonam's 2019 publication: Ezumezu: A System of Logic for African Philosophy and Studies

In recent times, conflicts and extremism linked to Abrahamic monotheisms have reached an alarming level, both nationally and internationally. The Yorùbá, aboriginals in southwest Nigeria, have experienced an unfair share of this horrid trend. Unfair, because the intrusion of Christianity and Islam into Yorùbá life contributed to upsetting the seren...

Book Review of Herme Kroesbergen's The Language of Faith in Southern Africa: Spirit World, Power, Community, Holism.

This blog post details the erroneous and uncharitable misrepresentation of witchcraft and its social consequences.

The quandary generated by the origin and identity of the Yorùbá people has enchanted historians, archeologists, sociologists, ethnographers, anthropologists and even religionists. The prime and foremost consequence of this allure is the dearth of consensus regarding the origin and identity of the Yorùbá people. The discussion has led to two camps:...

Owing to the nearly tangible result in the quest toward inclusive development in Africa, there has been the clamour that perhaps the Social Sciences, charged with the responsibility of providing solace for the menace are no longer adequate. This is the axiomatic basis upon which this essay builds its argument as it aims to blaze a trail that is usu...

Traditional Yorùbá theology has been construed by some African scholars as monotheism albeit with slight but significant departures from the mainstream and dominant variety. Of these scholars, Bolaji Idowu [1962]; Omotade Adegbindin [2011]; and Akintola Adebowale [1999] are foremost. Their agenda derives from the attempt of circumventing the polyth...

Abstract The concept of destiny in Yoruba thought system has generated intense scholarly debate for years on end, bordering on whether such a thing exists at all, and if it does, it raises the question why should an individual be praised or punished for actions seemingly outside their control. Some scholars see the many ideas of how destiny is ac...

This piece explores the all too human parameter or paradigm for all existents.

In his [Africans are not Black: The Case for Conceptual Liberation], Kwesi Tsri relies extensively on myths and non-fictional narratives to dictate the origin of the racial disparagement of Afro-Americans and Africans from south of the Sahara. Owing to the synonymy between ‘black’ and ‘Africa(n)’ as well as the derogatory symbolism in the former th...

It is laudable and appealing, the proposal that philosophy be taught at the pre-tertiary level in Nigeria. Since we live in an era where everything is technologically-laden and driven, it seems natural that technology too will help in pedagogy. Consequently and presumably, any technological gadget that can make the task of knowledge acquisition and...

Process theology, an emergent of process metaphysics was hitherto unknown to academics of theology until the intellectual intrepidity of Alfred Whitehead, Charles Hartshorne and other process scholars. The ignorance of this brand of theology is chiefly responsible for the ethnocentric warrant that the entirety of African traditional religion is pag...

Ezumezu, a prototype African logic, developed by Jonathan Chimakonam as a framework which mediates thought, theory and method in the African place, is according to him, extendable and applicable in places non-African too. This seems to underscore the universal character of the logic. I interrogate, in this piece, the logic to see if it truly mediat...

While deconstructionism, one of the cardinal features of postmodern philosophy, was not popular until the preceding century in Western intellectual circles, the traditional Yorùbá are not new to the practice. This claim is especially striking once an inquiry into the procedural and epistemic underpinning of Ifá divination is attempted. If this hold...

Traditional Yorùbá culture admits the hegemonic locus that humans rank above all else on the planet. The outlook received decisive ratification several millennia ago in one of the Odùs of their Ifá Corpus. Specifically, in Odù Ògúndá Otura, one of the numerous chapters of the Ifá Corpus, Ọ̀rúnmìlà, the founder and primordial deity of Ifá discloses...

The quandary which emanates from the effort to coalesce the persistence of evil in the world, on one hand, with the existence of a benevolent, all-powerful and all-knowing God on the other hand, does not upset the traditional Yorùbá. Their perspective is unique, especially when one recalls how this conundrum (branded as theodicy) has bothered schol...

Even when postmodern philosophy reveals divergent thematic issues and approaches, as corollary to the enormous scholarly intentions in the field, three common denominators are deep-seated. Firstly, postmodern philosophy debunks the possibility of having an objective truth, only to settle for the subjectivity of truths, thereby repudiating the corre...

The logical positivists were verificationists, who wielded the problem of meaning on the positive idea of verification as their way of demarcating science from non-science. In contrast, Karl Popper believes that the logical positivists were mistaken to have coalesced the problem of meaning with the problem of demarcation. In Popper"s view, the mist...

Technology has its therapeutic and enthralling repercussions. The 21 st century obviously is one that is not only steeped but completely reeks in technology. Like a drug addict, humanity is irreversibly hooked. It is therefore pertinent to query: Between humanity and technology who is superior? Is it the case that the one controls the other? If thi...

In this paper, the linguistic philosophy of L. Wittgenstein (1963; 1961; 1958) is defended against charges brought against it by C. Okoro (2011); J.I. Unah (2004); and J.A. Omolafe (2000). Wherein these erudite scholars of African descent argue that the linguistic philosophy of Wittgenstein is hostile to Metaphysics, we counter their arguments to p...

The ideological underpinning that guides our interaction with non-human animals needs revision. The traditional outlook, according to which humans have a higher moral status vis-à-vis non-human animals, is now otiose. If these claims are to be justified, what ideological framework would serve this end? What are the moral implications of endorsing t...

The Gettier Problem may be summarily articulated that whereas one may fulfil the requisite for knowledge justification, it does not spare one, the prize of ignorance. Plato (1973); Ayer (1956); and Chisholm (1957) have endorsed the model for propositional knowledge as Justified True Belief (JTB). However, in 1963, Gettier (1963) provided two instan...

In this paper the epistemic stance of David Hume is employed to dislodge a rational belief in Ori, and argue that the concept is first and foremost anthropocentric with negative implications for the human species. Secondly, that pre-natal existence and the creation process surrounding Ori are closer to mythology than reality. Hence, it is shown tha...