ALEXIS KAGAME’S ONTOLOGICAL CATEGORIES
ALEXIS KAGAME’S ONTOLOGICAL CATEGORIES

Summary/Abstract: One of the recurring ideas in the criticism of the Universalistic School of African philosophy against ethno-philosophy is the emphasis on culture and collective thought. Very recently, African philosophers of the hermeneutic school, have argued that African philosophy must be hermeneutical, that is, an individual interpretation of one’s cultural symbols, mediated by one’s understanding and self-understanding. This makes the thoughts of philosophers like Placid Tempels, Alexis Kagame and Leopold Senghor valid thoughts for inclusion into the corpus of African philosophy. This paper, further argues that African philosophy is an ontologico-existential hermeneutics. Albeit, taking a critical look into these affairs, it became plausible that some of the works produced from this task remains a paradox and a travesty as they were inflicted and affected with foreign categories and schemes that further leave the search for an authentic African philosophy open and their endeavour a charade. However, this lousy situation can only be addressed through proper reflective activities of African scholars towards originality of ideas that corresponds and represents the African world and that will make the African world intelligible to Africans.

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