http://faculty.msmc.edu/lindeman/af....thnophilosophy
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~shil0124/african-philosophy.html
1. Ethnophilosophy--Paulin Hountondji to refer to the works of those anthropologists, sociologists, ethnographers and philosophers who present collective philosophies of life of African peoples. Ethnophilosophy is thus a specialized and wholly customs dictated philosophy that requires a communal consensus. It identifies with the totality of customs and common beliefs of a people. It is a folk philosophy. An ethnophilosopher is committed to the task of describing a world outlook or thought system of a particular African community or the whole of Africa. Apart from Paulin Hountondji, it is also represented by authors such as Placid Temples, Leopold Senghor, John Mbiti and Kagame.
2. Philosophic sagacity--is a reflective system of thought based on the wisdom and the traditions of people. Basically it is a reflection of a person who is acknowledged both as a sage and a thinker. As a sage, the person is well versed in the wisdoms of his/her people and the people of a particular society will quickly recognize that sages possess that wisdom. But that is not enough. For it is possible to be a sage and not a thinker. The acknowledged sage must also be a thinker who is rationally critical and are capable of conceiving excellent options and recommending ideas that offer alternatives to the commonly accepted opinions and practices. Sages therefore transcend the communal wisdom and remain the spokespersons of their culture. Sagacity philosophers are convinced that the study of African Philosophy does not consist in the study of general works but in identifying wise women and men in society whose repute is very high on the basis of their wisdom. By interviewing them, their recorded wisdom and that of the professional philosopher amount to true African thought. Their aim is to show that literacy is not a necessary condition for philosophical reflection and exposition and that in Africa, there are critical independent thinkers who guide their thought and judgments by the power of reason and inborn insight. Their philosophy is based on: the evidence of their research. For instance. in Marcel Griaule's Conversations with Oqotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogan Religious Idea. Ogotemelli is a sage who is interviewed by Marcel and the result is the philosophy of religion of the Dogan people. This philosophical trend is a creation of Professor Odera H. Oruka of Nairobi University and it is a trend subscribed by many contemporary philosophers mostly in Eastern Africa and other parts of Africa.
3. Professional philosophy--consists in the analysis and interpretation of reality in general. It further consists of criticism and argument, which to them, are the essential characteristics and conditions for any form of knowledge to be judged as philosophy. Philosophy to them is a universal discipline that has the same meaning in all cultures in spite of the fact that a particular philosopher maybe conditioned by cultural biases, method and the existential situation in his/her society. According to this school represented by basically four African philosophers, Kwasi Wiredu, Paulin Hountondji, Oruka Odera and Peter Bodunrin, African philosophy is the philosophy done by African philosophers be it on the subject matter that is African or alien. To these philosophers, African philosophy today is predominantly a metaphilosophy dealing with the central theme of, "What is philosophy?" and the corollary, "What is African philosophy?" Viewed in this context, it has some limitations that have been, identified by Odera H. Oruka as lacking personal subject matter, a prolonged history of debates and literature to preserve and expand itself as well as a limited degree of self-criticism.
4. Nationalist-ideological philosophy--is a system of though, based on traditional African socialism and familyhood. It represented by the works of politicians like Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere and Leopold Senghor. This trend of philosophy aims at seeking a true and a meaningful freedom for African people that can be attained by mental liberation and a return to genuine traditional African humanism wherever it is possible. So it is basically a socio-political philosophy.
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