'African Legal Philosophy'

African Legal Philosophy (hereinafter referred to as APL) is an old philosophy than one may think. Example, the Christian Philosopher St Augustine was born in 354 CE in Algeria and the Ghanaian born philosopher Amo who was born in 1703. This is because the African thinking was largely shaped by oral traditions. Written documents on APL are more recent. Like all other philosophies, ALP is too, still developing and evolving and is an important part of the decolonisation of Africa. To some large extent, African customary law systems and courts were replaced with those of the colonisers and African lawyers and academics were trained in the laws of these European countries.^[1]

Definition

ALP is a critical thinking by Africans on their expression of legal matters. It has it origin in the communal thinking.

Nature of African Legal Philosophy

APL has just escaped the debates about what this philosophy really is. Idowu identifies four possible attitudes towards this,^[2] the first one being that, from a Eurocentric viewpoint, argue that APL does not exist at all. This based on the fact that APL does not have written traditions and has its origin in communal thinking. Kaphagawani defended this by point out that some Western philosophers also employed communal thinking that was not originally written down.^[3] Idowu rejects the second argument that there might be something like ALP but it’s impossible to determine its content or substance.^[4] The third argument is that, ALP is not really that different from western legal philosophy. For example, the African debate on the relationship between law and morality. The last approach to this debate and one philosopher prefer, is that there is a distinctive African philosophy law. Philosophers like Oruka have argued that African philosophy need not follow the western pattern in order to be regarded as philosophy. It is different in the way it reflects on human life and nature in more intuitive ways.^[5] ALP will give expression to the desire for independence, authenticity and a postcolonial African identity.

Types of African Legal Philosophy

Africa as a vast continent has a number of philosophers and all have different approach and method. There are three broad approaches to African philosophy in general. APL will be applied to them specifically.

a) Ethnophilosophy is philosophy based on communal thought and collective wisdom traditionally orally transferred. It is based on systematic ideas of individuals^[6] and relies on metaphysical assumptions and African traditional wisdom which tend to combine philosophy, mysticism and religion while reason and critical analysis take a back seat.

b) Saga philosophy is the opposite of ethnophilosophy. It is based on the ideas of one person, a sage (wise person) who is the custodian of the society’s survival. It’s based on thoughts of individuals who are concerned with the fundamental ethical and legal issues of their society with the ability to offer insightful solutions to some of those issues.

c) Nationalistic-ideological philosophy attempts to produce a unique political theory based on tradition African socialism.^[7] This type can be found in ideas of example, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere and the like, its neither capitalist nor socialist but based on an African communalism. This kind of philosophy is closely related to ideas of Black Consciousness.^[8]

Notes