Revisiting the Language Question in African Philosophy
Confronting the contemporary African Philosopher, is a major linguistic challenge, forged out of the controversies involved in using foreign languages, to do African philosophy. An increasing number of scholars are beginning to realize today, how the use of foreign languages in African Philosophy, is itself an obstacle, to a truly unfettered research into African thought.1 This is because to choose a language is to choose a particular thought pattern and the choice of the language already predetermines the most important issues. But, the critical responses of Africans to the intellectual onslaught of Eurocentrism, ironically had to be through the medium of the European languages (for example, English, French and Portuguese).2 This ipso facto, poses a methodological problem, arising from the need to ensure that African meanings, are not distorted in the process of analyzing them within the conceptual frameworks of alien languages. The problem is further compounded, with the realization that the African continent possesses many languages in which to express itself. This makes the problem more abstruse, thereby begging the question: in what particular language amongst the different languages in Africa is African philosophy to be genuinely constructed?3 Armed with the nitty-gritty of the ex post facto cogitations, this paper, therefore, attempts to bring to limelight the related issues, difficulties, problems and implications, associated with the use of linguistic imports that is sufficiently alien to Africa, in the Herculean task of rendering the discursive formations and ideas of Africa’s culture, religion and philosophy. The paper jettisons the idea that only the use of African languages, guarantee authentic African philosophy and finally, recommends a rather pragmatic approach to the subject matter.
