African Philosophy: The Question of Periodization and African Historical Events from Ancient Era to 21ˢᵗ Century

This paper set out to interrogate periodization attempts on African Philosophy. There were versions of perspectives to those attempts, as well as factors behind the intellectual activities that characterized them. While some could be conceptual, others could be as a result of alignment with the Western periodization scheme. Here comes the problem. Following the point that some of these scholars had conceptual misguide and aligned with the Western periodization scheme, they dated African philosophy from the 19th and 20th Centuries. Pondering on this, the paper found out that there were two cardinal factors behind this, namely: 1) misconception of what philosophy really means and implies, 2) Western influences which had not only questioned African wisdom but also politicized African philosophical history. It is against this backdrop that the paper argued that dating African philosophy should extend backwards to ancient era and then to the events of today so as to postulate what would be the future of African Philosophy. In the end, the paper presented an African view of philosophy that would not only justify its arguments but would also give a direction to what philosophy means and implies. It also gave a direction on how not to always copy everything trending in Western philosophical tradition and address it as an African Philosophy. Finally, it further interrogated today’s events that are threats to humanity, all of which that raise philosophical questions and beg for philosophical and historical documentation as they are life-changing events. The paper adopted historical and conceptual analyses as methods. The historical method helped in interrogating previous scholars and African events that shaped African experience. Conceptual analytic method helped in an insightful postulation of a better periodization option than those already had through a critical analysis of African experiences.