The Great Debate

In its middle period, African philosophy turned on a debate about its own existence. Traditionalists sought to build an African identity from the cultural elements recovered in the early period, while universalists rejected that project as ethnophilosophy. Is it right to speak of one African philosophy, when Africa’s cultures differ? Does African culture contain philosophy in the strict sense? Philosophic sagacity, professional, hermeneutical and literary schools all flourished in these years.