Metaphysics in Selected African Languages and Proverbs

Though arguments for or against the existence of African metaphysics abound, the view that it exists is endorsed in this chapter. The task is to show that if African metaphysics exists, then particular African cultural metaphysics also exists. In fact, what constitutes African metaphysics is derived from the different African cultural heritages on the salient issues that existentially affect different African societies forcing them to look for solutions. In these solutions subsist the different African cultural metaphysics. In this chapter, African metaphysics is understood to mean the African perspectival understanding of the nature and science of essence. African metaphysics, as has been derived from their languages and proverbs, attempts to identify these perspectival views on the nature of existence. Taking the proverbs, though limited in a way, is the most reliable means of doing this, since most of these proverbs have existed prior to the influence of other world views. To be genuinely African does not mean it can only be found in African languages and proverbs. The following are some of the metaphysical principles found in selected African languages and proverbs: the personal dimension of personhood is ontological, while the social dimension is circumstantial; freedom is the ability to act in spite of constraints; social relations are ontologically built; and preservation of society is more important than self-preservation.