Abstract

In this chapter, I take my cue from Stanley Cavell, who says that philosophical inquiry is not merely about giving thought to a set of related problems, but rather a way to examine a set of texts, including what can be identified as problems within texts, whether written or oral. Ontologically speaking, African philosophy of education comprises texts that are situated in the sub-texts of Négritude, African Americanism and Africana-ism as advocated through the seminal thoughts of Leopold Senghor, W.E.B. du Bois and Lucius Outlaw, respectively. And, firstly, an examination of the aforementioned texts is tantamount to doing African philosophy of education on the grounds that these texts are aimed not only at deprecating stereotypical value judgements that depict Africans as uncivilised, but more importantly at cultivating dialogues amongst all Africa’s people – the latter involving experiences of an educative kind. Secondly, I argue that one such text, namely Africana-ism – as a gathering term for all other texts – delineates African philosophy of education into three traditional genres: ethno-philosophy of education as enunciated by Richard Bell, critical philosophy of education as espoused by Paulin Hountondji and sagacious philosophy of education as advocated by Henry Odera Oruka. Combined, these genres make up African philosophy of education on the basis that any philosophy of education in the first place is concerned with human actions. Thirdly, I argue that African philosophy of education also has a strong moral, socio-political and economic imperative, aimed at engendering justice, democratic engagement and human development on the African continent, respectively. In relation to the notion of Ubuntu articulated through the seminal thoughts of Mluleki Munyaka and Mogethi Motlhabi and Magobe Ramose, I show how justice, democracy and human development can be enacted. I specifically focus on Ubuntu’s inherently democratic bias that can disrupt inhumane forms of human injustices on the African continent, and conclude my defence of African philosophy of education by examining some of its implications for a more just society, and hence for educational experience with its unconstrained pedagogical encounters.