¹ Oruka, H. O., ‘Four Trends in Current African Philosophy’, presented at the William Amo Symposium in Accra, 24–29 07 1978Google Scholar.

² Hountondji, Paulin, ‘Le Mythe de la Philosophic Spontanée’, in Cahiers Philosophiques Africains, No. 1 (Lubumbashi, 1972). Although Oruka had Hountondji in mind, it must be realized that Hountondji was not the first to use this expression. Kwame Nkrumah had written a thesis on ‘Ethno-philosophy’ in his student days in AmericaGoogle Scholar.

³ (i) Tempels, Placid, Bantu Philosophy (Paris: Présence Africaine, 1959)Google Scholar; (ii) Senghor, Leopold S., On African Socialism, trans. with introduction by Cook, Mercer (New York: Frederic A. Praeger, 1964)Google Scholar; (iii) Mbiti, J. S., African Religions and Philosophies (New York: Doubleday, 1970)Google Scholar; (iv) La Philosophie Bantu– Rwandaise de l'etre (Brussels: Académie des Sciences Coloniales, 1956).

⁴ This is from an unpublished version of the paper referred to in footnote 1 above.

⁵ Nkrumah, Kwame, Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970)Google Scholar and Nyerere, J. K., Ujamaa: Essays in Socialism (OUP 1968)Google Scholar.

⁶ See the revised version of Oruka's paper referred to in note 4, footnote 15.

⁷ Just as the contact of the Greeks with the Egyptians, and that of Medieval Europe with Arabic thought had influences on the thoughts of those peoples.

⁸ Jean-Paul Lebeuf called attention to this in 1962. See ‘The Philosopher's Interest in African Thought: A Synopsis,’ Second Order: An African Journal of Philosophy 1, No. 1 (1972), 43.

⁹ Some of my colleagues criticized the syllabus I drew up for the Philosophy Department, University of Ibadan, in 1974 as being not sufficiently African and too Western.

¹⁰ This is in disagreement with Professor Ntumba's universalist interpretation of African familyhood, and Nyerere's own claim in his Ujamaa. See note 5 above.

¹¹ Kwasi Wiredu, ‘Philosophy and Our Culture’, Proceedings of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (forthcoming).

¹² Haley, Alex, Roots (New York: Doubleday, 1976)Google Scholar.

¹³ Kwasi Wiredu, loc. cit.

¹⁴ Inconsistencies? This point will be discussed later.

¹⁵ Hallen, Barry,‘A Philosopher's Approach to Traditional Culture’, Theoria to Theory 9, No. 4 (1975), 259–272Google Scholar.

¹⁶ In defending himself against the charge of atheism brought against him by Meletus, Socrates said that the views attributed to him were in fact those of Anaxagoras whom he would not plagiarize. Anaxagoras' book, Socrates adds, was readily available at a cheap price at every corner store. Of the Athenian jury Socrates asks Meletus, ‘Have you so poor an opinion of these gentlemen, and do you assume them to be so illiterate as not to know that the writings of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae are full of theories like these?’ (Plato, Apology, 26d).

¹⁷ Quoted by W. A. Hart, loc cit., note 8 above.

¹⁸ I do not use this term with any pejorative connotations.

¹⁹ Ayoade's, E. G. J. A. ‘Time in Yoruba Thought’, African Philosophy: An Introduction, Wright, Richard A. (ed.) (University Press of America, 1977), 83–106Google Scholar.

²⁰ I argued this way in my ‘Problems and Prescriptions for an Action Philosophy in Africa’, Proceedings of the Inter-African Council of Philosophy, Proceedings of the 1975 Accra Conference.

²¹ See R. Wright's arguments in his book cited in note 19 above, pp. 21–24.

²² Ibid., 23–25.

²³ Staniland, H. S., ‘What is Philosophy?’ Second Order: An African Journal of Philosophy, 7 (1978)Google Scholar.

²⁴ Second Order, 2 No. 2 (1973) 12–20.

²⁵ Frankfort, Henri, Before Philosophy (Penguin, 1951)Google Scholar.

²⁶ Sodipo, op. cit., 18.

²⁷ W. A. Hart, op. cit. 47, quoting from Evans-Pritchard.

²⁸ Barry Hallen, loc. cit., note 15 above, pp. 265–270.

²⁹ Ibid., 266

³⁰ Ibid., 268

³¹ Ibid., 270.

³² In the line of argument that follows I am greatly indebted to Professor Kwasi Wiredu's ‘What is African Philosophy?’, presented at the William Amo International Symposium referred to earlier.

³³ Ibid., 7.

³⁴ Ibid., 11–12.

³⁵ An earlier version of this paper was read to the Philosophy Department, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, USA, and before the Ibadan Philosophical Society. My thanks are due to the audiences in these two places. My thanks are also due to Professor Kwasi Wiredu of the Department of Philosophy, University of Ghana, Legon, for his useful criticism of a later draft.