The ‘Pre-Logicality’ Sin and the Intelligence Question

This chapter considers the second sin that announces itself albeit implicitly, as a factor against authentic African philosophy. The ‘pre-logicality’ sin or thesis offers how African ideas were rejected or even refuted on the grounds that they do not conform to the dominant and influential classical logic with the laws of thought. If Africans have not yet developed the capacity to express their thoughts logically, then it means that they do not count as a subset of the Homo sapiens endowed with intelligence. When phrenologyphrenology entered the discursive fray, intelligence was denied Africans on the basis of cranial mass. As part of the efforts to indicate why such an outlook is incorrect, I consider how African and non-African scholars have not only argued that Africans can articulate their thoughts logically but also considered how classical logic with the traditional laws of thought are inadequate. On this reasoning, it becomes clear that an alternative system of logic is needed to assist with the comprehension of the central thesis of Ìwà metaphysics. This search for an alternative system is pertinent since the fusion of classical logic with the ‘language(s)’ used to codify the African conception of reality is inadequate and serves as a reason for the structured misrepresentation of African metaphysics.African metaphysics.