User:Ntokozo66/sandbox/African legal philosophy

African Legal Philosophy (ALP)

African legal philosophy is known as a central philosophy for African people. African legal philosophy was developed and evolved overtime. It has played a critical role in the decolonization of legal knowledge by contributing some of its legal principles African jurisprudence. African legal philosophy is old and has existed even before the written African traditional African legal philosophy. Thus the ideas that shaped African legal thinking were unwritten and were predominantly passed through oral traditional customs. The written portions of the philosophy are fairly of recent origin.

The nature of African legal philosophy

Thus, this kind of philosophy is based on communal thinking. Thus, African legal philosophy is sometimes argued that it does not exist at all since it is not codified or written down. African legal philosopher has rejected this notion by pointing out that the continued survival and thriving of African societies indicates the presence of sophisticated concepts and ideas.Secondly there is an argument that there might be something like ALP but impossible to determine its content or substance. Rules in African traditions are indistinguishable from customs and therefore there is no legals system on which to base a philosophy. Idowu rejects this and argues that "to be ignorant to a fact or entity does not mean that fact or entity does not exist. Thirdly that there is a such thing as ALP but it is not really all that different from Western Legal philosophy. There are similarities in the debate but also clear that is markedly different in the African Context. Therefore the nature of African law and African society will make a difference in how this philosophy would respond. The last approach is the one that is preferred. That there is a distinctive African philosophy of law Philosophers like Oruka have argued that African philosophy need to not follow the Western pattern in order to be regarded as philosophy. But it is different in the way it reflects on human life and nature in more intuitive ways. Proponents of an authentic African tradition believe that the African tradition has something worthwhile to say. ALP will give expression to the desire for independence, authenticity and a postcolonial African identity What is being put froward now is a diverse and alternative reality, while the narrative (story telling)element an African philosophy is increasingly emphasized.