User:Tsitsi Mlambo/sandbox

Introduction
African Legal Philosophy (ALP) is a central philosophy for Africans. It is a philosophy which is still developing and evolving and is an important part of the decolonisation of Africa. it is a philosophy which is incredibly old but was not written down back then due to colonisation. The written tradition of ALP is more recent. However, despite not being written down it was strong enough to have survived up to now. It is a philosophy which has brought about debate about its true existence. Those with Eurocentric view argue that it does not exist but African philosophers such as Idowu reject that arguing that ,”to be ignorant of a fact or an entity does not mean that fact or entity does not exist. Because Africa is a big continent, it is unlikely that all philosophers will have the same approach. However, there are three broad approaches to African Philosophy.

Ethnophilosophy
The first one is known as the Ethnophilosophy which is philosophy based on communal thought and collective wisdom that is traditionally orally transferred. It is closely tied to natural law and relies on metaphysical assumptions and traditional African wisdom. It tends to combine philosophy, mysticism, and religion while reason and critical analysis are pushed back. It creates a collective philosophy and does not distinguish between different African cultures but tend to gloss over differences. The second approach is known as the sage philosophy which is the opposite of ethnophilosophy.

Sage Philosophy
Sage philosophy is based on the ideas of one person, unlike collective in ethnophilosophy. It is more of individualist approach. The main task of the sage philosophy in summary is to identify men in society who are repudiated for their wisdom, as critical and independent thinkers who guide their thoughts and judgements by their power of reason and inborn insight rather than by authority of communal consensus. It is therefore based on the thoughts of individuals who are concerned with the fundamental ethical and legal issues of their society and offer insightful solutions to the problems. ALP regard sage philosophers as being responsible for addressing the fundamental issues relevant to their society and have a political role to play.

Nationalistic Ideological Philosophy
The third approach is the Nationalistic-ideological philosophy which attempt to produce a unique political theory based on traditional African socialism. This philosophy is tied to socialism and Black consciousness. This type of philosophy can be found in ideas of former African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Yomo Kenyatta and Leopold Senghor. This political philosophy seems to be neither capitalist nor socialist, but base on African communalism. According to this view, African philosophers have a political role to play and they should indicate the best options of social and political organisations for Africa’s conditions.

Themes in African Legal Philosophy
The ALP also has three themes which tend to run across all various groups and cultures in Africa. These are based on the way in which society is structured and common features of these structures. The first theme is the idea of Communitarianism which is very strong in ALP. This view is based on the importance and significance of the family in African societies. The second theme is reconciliation. This view of law is held to be a conciliatory instrument for the restoration of social equilibrium. Philosophically the reconciliatory theory has a law of humanism. The last theme is that of ubuntu. Ubuntu speaks of the essence of being human. It is found in different languages throughout Africa and is regarded an African concept. It is also the most important contribution of ALP and many writers have pointed out that it is a difficult concept to define.