Since time in memorial, philosophy has played a central and significant role in human thoughts and civilizations. From the likes of ancient Indian, Chinese to Greek and other western philosophies.

Back here at home in Nigeria and Africa, we seem to be lacking philosophical tradition say at least in the Nigerian or African context. There are handful of philosophers of African descent.

Philosophy is understood as the study of general and fundamental problems. Looking at the magnitudes of problems and social ills facing Africa. After all, it was such uptick in philosophy that ushered in the 'Age of Reason' in the western world, and, therefore, contributed greatly to the development of their societies in every facets of life.

Do you think more emphasis on philosophical reasoning by trained philosophers will go a long way in addressing many problems plaguing Africa? Because the people I see on TV commenting on these issues are mere commentators. Some of them even happen to be after their own interest.

We had African philosophy but white man came with his ornaments and rum.

We started drinking white man's rum and we never been the same since.

Its possible to get our philosophy back without giving up white man's rum.

We have to sell him black man's gin.

Unfortunately, we are not good at selling anything to the white man.

Until we perfect the skill of selling and then sell our gin to him and get him drunk in it, Its the only way we get our philosophy back from him. He still has it in his custody.

Our law makers didn't study law or philosphy. yet they are put in charge of a nation's policy making!!

wow!!! Just wow!!!


nigeria going down the drain. Many Nigerians aren't so contempt with philosophy as a university course to study because majority of philosophers don't believe in god,

I had the opportunity to meet a senator who was visiting his son in UBC once and we were all talking. He asked what I was studying and I told him. To me greatest surprise, he said I should make sure I study law after that and maybe start my own think tank agency. I was like why think tank? He said Law and philosophy are the gemstones of a civilization Philosophy is used to understand, interpret and evolve LAW which affects the nation!!! I asked my friend about his dad 2wks ago and he said he is out of Nigerian politics for good,

Every aspect of education needs philosophy. Atheistic Philosophers didn't just choose not to believe in God; they came to a conclusion not jump to one!!!



Philosophy is a very very important course in human development.! if you can not critically analyze a situation, you can not understand such situation. How can our Law makers just sit there without a degree in Law or philosophy? these guys aren't even smart in any sense! Bigots, corrupt foools, blind, dumb what not? I wish we have a government that understands that philosophy is important and think tank on every aspect of a nation is important.

Scientific think tanks, medical think tanks, social think tants, agricultural think tanks etc, think tanks not ministries!!!!!!!!!!!!! Inter relation of the think tank agencies are important too because then scientist can come up with a new solution to agricultural problems etc, I wish a leader shares my vision! Nigeria will be a solid ground!!!

We had philosophy and white man rum robbed us of it? What a load of crap . . . . We traded it for gold and silver( wealth) @Poster. The average person you meet would rather get rich quick than spend time developing his/her mind/universe.

Kobojunkie:

We had philosophy and white man rum robbed us of it? What a load of crap . . . . We traded it for gold and silver( wealth) @Poster. The average person you meet would rather get rich quick than spend time developing his/her mind/universe.

The only comment I won't argue with the o hi o girl over!!!

All you need to do is go on youtube to see all the traditional gurus from India, China, Japan, South America etc etc revealing all sorts of ancient knowledge. Meanwhile if you check the history of those places, the first arrivals and civilizers were black Africans who took that knowledge there.

Meanwhile in modern, post-colonial Africa, such griots and holders of Ancient Thought and Philosophies are deprived of recognition, left illiterate, neglected in the villages; hounded as 'pagans' by our christian/muslim converts to spiteful, imported faiths which teach that anything outside their Jewish/Arab purview is ''of the devil'.

So Africa, the ORIGINAL land of Philosophy and the Sciences. The land of the gods, as it was called by the Ancient Egyptians, the land which sent forth the likes of Buddha, Krishna and others to teach and heal the world, now finds itself wondering where all it's sages went. Scampering about - colonial stupor barely worn out - blind to its philosophies, grasping at Jewish/Arab myths and fables. How long will the charade last? How long can it last?

i dont believe that is tru. we have enough philosiphy and other diciplines in Africa. I was in a brith library and i found a book writen on governance by usman dan fodio, now this was b4 even the comming of the british, and i was made to understand there were lot of book he authored which they have. now that made me proud. now u cant find this even in our national librraries.

BIGER BOY:

i dont believe that is tru. we have enough philosiphy and other diciplines in Africa. I was in a brith library and i found a book writen on governance by usman dan fodio, now this was b4 even the comming of the british, and i was made to understand there were lot of book he authored which they have. now that made me proud. now u cant find this even in our national librraries.

Are you sure you have your tenses right? You claim WE HAVE but you produce information on a man who you claim died before the white man came? Notice the @Poster asked of the thought process of present day Nigerians . . .  not Nigerians long gone.

@Negro Ntns

I see that you are trying to be funny.

But, blaming the white man on every issue that relate to Africa is becoming a platitude. We don't need to

get the white man drunk to realize that we have got to develop and espouse our own philosophy. We

have minds, all we need to do is 'Think'.

@Olumide

You raised some important points. The Nigerian system is fundamentally flawed. Most of America's founding founders were philosophers, political theorist,lawyers, economists and so on. In Nigeria, we have always had lawmakers and leaders who doesn't appreciate these fields of study. I won't be surprised if they can't even define it! Preparing legislation in a democratic system requires in-depth knowledge of law and philosophy in most cases.

Philosophy pioneered many of the discipline that is studied in school today. Many Nigerians don't know this. The world greatest mathematicians were philosophers. Kudos to your friend's dad for acknowledging that and encouraging you more. I can't imagine why he entered into Nigerian politics in the first place. Good that he is out.

All over Europe, America, Asia, there are school of thoughts,think tank agency that help to foster discourse in tackling issues facing their nations and civilizations. There is utter deficiency of those in Africa and we wonder why Africa's problems persist?

Why can't we engage our minds and approach issues through our own eyes. A white man would always say that, "An African man can't think for himself", that is why we are so obsessed with anything that comes from the west.

Revolutions started as a result of philosophical thoughts. Liberalism, Communism, Pragmatism and so on are all products of philosophy. Until the day we begin to think for ourselves and develop our own philosophy in the African context. Things will continue to falter, our dignity mashed and the future of our children mortgaged.

lol, I have mentioned this several times on this forum, this is my personal therory on why people in developing countries seem to lack philosphical thought.

The cause of these problems is the demographic stage Africa is in ie post-industrial. The stage when a country is no longer underdeveloped but still not industrialized.

people in this stage still have the mentality of underdeveloped people, survival of the fittest and a low regard for human life. They wont realize it but they have a low regard for their own lives as well. this is why people in LDC's drive recklessly, have unprotected secs in a country with a high Aids rate etc. These people are to busy trying to survive to think philosopically.

When you compare this to a post-industrial society like Japan you see that they are polar opposites.

A persons  mentality is shaped by your demographic stage, (a study showed a country does not begin to really care about pollution until the average annual income reaches 10k)  This is inexcapable, so all Africa needs to do is industralize and these problems will melt away.

Mr Why,

Thanks for understanding the humor.


Let's trail the origin of the metaphorical "alcohol".

Babylon invaded other lands and established its teachings and culture within their society. They in turn became the medium through which the babylonian philosophy is spread to other far lands. In addition to the invasion, it also immigrated freigners into its own land and converted them into its beliefs and philosophies.

Egypt, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia, Greek, Rome, United Kingdom, USA. Every one of these imperial powers repeated the Babylonian model.

Why do they take their philosophy out and sold it to foreign cultures?

Simple! A philosophy is useless to itself. In isolation and narrow capacity the philosophy does not receive wide application. Philosophy is a people's messenger.

A messenger is persecuted and not appreciated amongst his own people, he must travel out and exist in foreing land and amongst appreciative strangers who in turn become custodians and adherents of the new teaching.

So in order to push African philosophy, we must learn first the skill of selling. So that we can sell our messenger to the white man and he will become drunk in the message in his hands and start spreading.

I'm philosophical in my outlook.

This thread is trash.

Who said we lacked philosophical thoughts?

Speak for your own people.

I don't agree with the premise here. Timbuktu, Sokoto, Egypt, Ethiopia, North Africa just to name a few places.

Maybe the hot tropical sun has an impact on ones ability to think!! Maybe, just maybe!! But if that were truly the case, Singapore would not be where it is today!!

@ ekt bear

Well,those regions you mentioned contributed in their own way dunkies of years ago, Why didn't we continue the tradition.? Instead it is the white man that is still exploring in Egypt, Timbuktu and other places you mentioned, learning and adding to their own civilization. The fact remains that there is utter lack of philosophical tradition within the African shores.

Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, George Hegel and many other philosophers philosophies are continuously being studied and applied in many western countries as we speak. Even the Chinese still has Confucian school of thought.

We have to philosophize continuously about issues that affects Africa at least. Only then we will be able to broadly understand and propose solutions ourselves.we have to think and see our problems through our own eyes.

@ Eze Uche

Name one school of thought that you know of at present, that is dedicated to a particular philosophy in Nigeria or Africa.

We have remnants of ancient philosophy, but that's about it. Indigenous philosophy has for the most part long since been been abandoned for what the white man had to offer.

@ Kobojunkie

"Thought process of present day Nigerians, not Nigerians long gone".

You really hit the nail on the head. More grease to your elbow.

Do we even bother to think? Black people just go with the 'gut'. Don't ask me how or why.

Going with one's gut feeling is more times, than not, a good thing. I don't think I can say that this is what we Nigerians, and most Africans do.

Kobojunkie:

Going with one's gut feeling is more times, than not, a good thing. I don't think I can say that this is what we Nigerians, and most Africans do.

You do have a point.
Most times we're chained by bullshyt fiction from the ages, and some made up ancient stories, plus some good old African religious intimidation.
There are a number of theories, none of which serves to place responsibility on us. Some will say, we were great back in the day, but got euchered by the white man. Others will say, we just suck and there's nothing we can do about it. Either way, we have a plethora of really good excuses for the crap lives we live.

some made up ancient stories,

what do you mean by this? what made up ancient made up stories?

pleep:

what do you mean by this? what made up ancient made up stories?

You know all those, if you do this, Sango will do that, all that sort of thing.
Old wives tales and stories, meant to intimidate and scare people from tampering with the status quo. Sort of like a European religious climate before the Renaissance.

Mr--Why:

@ Eze Uche

Name one school of thought that you know of at present, that is dedicated to a particular philosophy in Nigeria or Africa.

I believe the Ifá tradition amongst the Yoruba is not only a religion but a philosophy found in Nigeria.

This is something I admire about the Yoruba. Their culture and religion remain strong in the face of both Islam and Christianity. This should emulated amongst other groups.

^ this is your last day on nland?

pleep:

^ this is your last day on nland?

I'm equally reeling in shock

Ezeuche my friend! Retire from politics join the romance section, it's all fun and games there!
I did, you won't regret.

the Politics sections is draining and depressing.

pleep:

Ezeuche my friend! Retire from politics join the romance section, it's all fun and games there! 
I did, you won't regret.

the Politics sections is draining and depressing.

The Politics section is very draining. I am tired of the constant bickering.

Sometimes I wonder how I can talk to my friends from other groups, after I made generalized statements about them on Nairaland.

It is painful.

because we are blacks,

Hhmm because we have chosen to totally abandon everything African for everything European.

I see a good but few # of our peers now trying to engage each other tho. Here Ghe-Nti radio where young folks call in to discuss topics. The problem is that many of our Ppl find discussing philosophical and intellectual issues boring. It will change with a massive movement