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African Legal Philosophy is characterized by its oral tradition, communitarianism, reconciliation and a lack of separation between law, religion and morality Some argue, from a Eurocentric point of view, that ALP does not exist at all. The reason for this is because AFL does not have a written tradition and has its origin in communal thinking. African Legal Philosophy (ALP) have a written tradition and has its origin in communal thinking.

African philosophies reject the idea that some Western philosophies also came from communal thought and were originally not written, however, they point out that the continued survival and thriving of African societies indicates the presence of sophisticated concepts and ideas. According to a philosopher. Oruka, African philosophy need not follow the Western pattern in order to be regarded as philosophy. African Legal Philosophy may be found in in the various academic fields of philosophy such as metaphysics and epistemology. African legal philosophy is divided into three types of philosophy.

In the first place ethnophilosophy is based on communal thought and it is transmitted orally. It relies on metaphysical assumptions and traditional African wisdom and tends to combine philosophy, mysticism and religion while reason and critical analysis take a back seat. In the second place sage philosophy is the opposite of ethnophilosophy. It is based on the ideas of one person. It is based on the grounds of individuals who are concerned with the fundamental ethical and legal issues of their society, and who have the ability to offer insightful solutions to some of those issues. African Legal Philosophy regards sage philosophers as being responsible for addressing the fundamental issues relevant to their society. In the third place nationalistic-ideological philosophy attempts to produce a unique political theory based on traditional African socialism. This political philosophy is neither capitalist nor socialist, but based on an African communalism. According to this view, African philosophers have a political role to play. African Legal Philosophy tries to answer the questions all philosophies try to answer, namely(a) what the nature is of that which exists (the ontological question) and (b) how do we know this (the epistemological question)?. At its most basic African Legal Philosophy is influenced by the ontological assumptions of African society. African Legal Philosophy has three main characteristics, communitarianism, reconciliation, and Ubuntu. The idea of communitarianism is very strong in African Legal Philosophy, in National-ideological philosophy, it is tied to what can be called African socialism. Communitarianism emphasises that the community is regarded as more important than individualism.

Communitarianism is constructed with individualism. According to African Legal Philosophers, there is no separation between law and morality. The African conception is based on the reconciliatory theory of law. The reconciliatory approach has an element of humanism, thus it is opposed to the idea of justice as retribution. Ubuntu is arguably the most important contribution of African Legal Philosophy to general theory. Ubuntu emphasises on group solidarity, it stresses conciliation, harmony through social relations within the group. It emphasises that humans are dependent on one another.