system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What kinds of African philosophy are there?

I realised that I'm aware of a number of philosophical traditions, from the Greeks, to the Chinese, to the British, the Arabs, Americans, and so on, but I have absolutely no knowledge of African philosophy.

Are there any good African philosophers to read? Do they come from a standpoint unique to Africa? Is there a unique African philosophical tradition? Do they all stem from The field seems drastically underrepresented to me.

Any information about African philosophy would be much appreciated!
gpt
African political philosophy is particularly vibrant, especially given the history of the continent vis-a-vis postcolonial identity.

The best philosophers to read are John Mbiti, Ifeanyi Menkiti, Paulin J. Hountondji, and D.A. Masolo. African philosophy tends to hold two primary camps: the first is the position of ethnophilosophy, which believes that the task of the African philosopher is to re-engage with traditional beliefs that have gone underrepresented in academic literature, and is close to being part-ethnography, part-sociology, part-history of ideas. The latter camp, usually African philosophers trained in the UK, are staunchly analytic and believe that there is no such thing as 'African philosophy'; there is just 'philosophy', and Africans happen to do it.

It's a very interesting debate, and it's very lively debate within the literature utterly ignored by the West. Don't think that the African philosophical tradition doesn't exist, or that it is under-represented, there is an excellent mixture of African contributions to current philosophical debates, and Africans discussing the key debates within their own continent, that has been neglected by western scholars for decades.

I recommend 'An Introduction To Africana Philosophy' edited by Lewis R. Gordon, as well as 'African Philosophy as Cultural Inquiry' by Ivan Karp for a solid grounding in the ethnophilosophical approach.