Abstract

The dark complexioned African academics have written profusely about ‘African philosophy’ and are consequently causing some confusion in the philosophic realm. A continental tag implies homogeneity of the people on the continent which is not the case. Embracing a nebulous term, ‘African philosophy’ has a semblance of emotional reactivity. The dark complexioned African academics while in European universities were caricatured as descendants of a people who had no history or philosophy. They wanted to prove their academic worth and thus embraced the term ‘African philosophy’. The nebulousness of the term ‘African philosophy’ needs to be exposed so that philosophers focus on the then core issues of contextual philosophic thinking of the dark complexioned indigenes of Africa. The term ‘African’ is interrogated and the works of renowned ‘African’ philosophers were purposively selected and critically analysed to expose the contributions of these academics to the perpetuation of the nebulous term.

Key words: African philosophy, nebulous label, indigenous philosophies.