African thought questions how and why rather than who, resisting fixed definitions

Evidence

As a way of thinking, the true question which deserves an answer in African Vitalogy is that of the “sense”. The form is not “Who is?”, but “How is it?” or “Why?”. The answers which follow such questions are involved and do not allow for any definitions here; however, they do give room for a description of the phenomenon. And it is for this reason that in African Vitalogy every reality always offers itself to a new interpretation without declaring the previous reflection wrong. Thus, the importance of the present moment in African daily-life experience. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 248

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A genuinely paradigm-shifting contrast: Vitalogy’s question-form (How/Why, not Who) makes new interpretations additive rather than supersessive, an epistemics where no reflection declares prior ones wrong — a frame that refigures the very idea of philosophical progress.
• SEED: Essay angle: how a question-form itself determines whether inquiry accumulates or replaces — Western ‘Who is?’ ontology vs. Vitalogy’s ‘How is it?’ interrogatives.