Truth, Certitude, and Conviction in the Nso’ World View: An African Epistemological Challenge

The worldview of a people principally determines their daily approaches, perception, and reaction to reality and circumstances or situations. Confronted by complex African epistemological apprehensions, the peculiarity and uniqueness of the Nso’ concepts of truth, certitude, and conviction strongly request and oblige a comprehensive research for enlightenment and exploration. Therefore, the current research revolves around African epistemological challenges, exploring the interconnectedness of Nso’ concepts of truth and word, in relation to certitude and conviction. The fundamentals of African epistemological challenges as represented by the Nso’ in this context, highlight inabilities of individuals to discern or access truth in its entirety. Consequently, an understanding of truth apropos “the spoken word,” certitude, and conviction is paramount and inevitable. Epistemological ramifications of truth conception and requirements of belief and justification, challenges in African thought, prospects, and dimensions: ontological, ethical, medical, religious, politico-social, and economic are essential. Thus, truth in relation to certitude and conviction is indiscriminately binding to everyone; in the face of doubts, the individual must make recourse to communal prescriptions, institutions, and established societal norms, believed to emanate from the ultimate reality (supernatural being).