Introduction and Discussion of Oruka’s Philosophic Sagacity

The general introduction discusses overarching issues in philosophic sagacity discourse. The chapter adopts the meaning of philosophic sagacity in the view of Odera Oruka, the originator of the idea, but broadening it. While Oruka tends to narrow the concept of philosophic sagacity to second-order philosophy as a reflection on African traditional wisdom, and restricts it to individuals, this book extends wisdom philosophy to include ideas found in African languages, wisdom sayings, and proverbs. Different chapters are based on the different branches of Western philosophy. Though discrepancies still exists about these adoptions, with antagonists arguing that philosophy is a universal science based on human rationality, so what is true of Africans must be true of any other people’s philosophy. The protagonists, on the other hand, argue that there is an apparent contradiction to accept the existence of African philosophy and at the same time deny the existence of specific branches of philosophy to Africa. Actually, doing this, the protagonists argue, is tantamount to denying the existence of African philosophy itself. The chapter picks selected African languages and proverbs to exemplify the existence of African philosophic sagacity. The contexts of the selected African people and the philosophical worldview of their languages and proverbs are discussed. The methodology used in this study is basically analytical. On the basis of this analysis, the book discusses the different branches of African philosophy as they can be derived from selected African languages and selected proverbs.