Every belief system began as an individual’s critical thought before becoming tradition

Evidence

In spite of Oruka’s argument above, Serequeberhan sees sage philosophy as Oruka’s attempt to carve out a middle way between ethnophilosophy and professional philosophy. He describes the sage philosophy as the thought of indigenous wise men “who critically engage the established tradition and culture of their respective ethnic groups and/or societies” (Serequeberhan, 1991a, p. 19). These sages, says Serequeberhan, occupy a critical space in their culture; they are not merely preservers of tradition. The thesis put forward by Oruka that philosophic sagacity differs from ethnophilosophy on the grounds that philosophic sagacity entails critical and personal thought while ethnophilosophy does not cannot be sustained. This is because any belief system must have been first initiated by an individual thinker or a restricted group of thinkers before becoming a generally accepted belief system. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 586