PLS1502 Africanity_and_its_issuing_Philosophy.
THE UNDERSTANDING OF AFRICANITY AND THE ISSUING PHILOSOPHY
INTRODUCTION
Africa is the second largest continent in the world and is joined to Asia by the Isthmus of
Suez. The name Africa though not certain comes from a tribe in North Africa referrin...
, THE UNDERSTANDING OF AFRICANITY AND THE ISSUING PHILOSOPHY
INTRODUCTION
Africa is the second largest continent in the world and is joined to Asia by the Isthmus of
Suez. The name Africa though not certain comes from a tribe in North Africa referring to a group
of people who dwelt near Carthage. The name is usually connected with Phoenician “afar”
meaning dust but a 1981 theory has asserted that it stems from a Berber word “ifri” meaning
st
cave. In this case Africa would mean cave dwellers. In the 1 century Jewish historian Flavius
Josephus asserted that it was named for “Epher”, a grandson of Abraham according to Gen. 25:4,
whose descendants he claimed had invaded Libya. Others say it is from a Greek word “aphrike”
1
meaning without cold and for the Egyptians “af-rui-ka” would mean birth place. But these are
speculations which might not be true. The African people are divided into two main racial
groups. That is the Negroid and the Caucasoid. Negro Africa is generally taken as lying south of
the Sahara.
When we talk of Africanity, humanity we usually refer to the state of being or nature. Thus
Africanity means the state or nature of being an African. Historically when one speaks of an
African, one means the Negro African. Most of the thinkers like Hegel to mention a few who
have denied an African of rationality have in mind a Negro as an African. Even the responses
from African thinkers and writers try to defend Negro Africa. For instance the latest New Africa
magazine has an article trying to trace back the roots of philosophy and civilization to Negro
Africa. Africa is known to be the land of innocence (childhood) because they take reality as
given without any critical logical analysis. This is why the issuing philosophy is at the first level
order and can hardly transcend to the second and third level respectively.
The African Thatness
The notion of thatness goes beyond the nature of something right to its existence. Thus it is
quite evident that in trying to establish the notion of identity we start from the very existence of
something. The notion of thatness points to the reality of an African. This reality is concrete.
That is one cannot separate the thatness from the whatness. In this paper the connotation of
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa.
1
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