Hountondji rejects ethnophilosophy for presenting African thought as static and unargued

Evidence

Hountondji’s philosophical critiques of ethnophilosophy have made the debate an international one. He reveals that Tempels’s Bantu Philosophy was meant for a foreign audience in a bid to satisfy ideological aspirations. The methodology of Tempels and his disciples is flawed, according to Hountondji, because they tend to portray African beliefs as things of the past that do not change, that are somehow eternal. Moreover, African traditional systems of thought do not leave room for argumentation or innovation in the quest for the truth. Hence, it becomes unacceptable to interpret a static body of oral literature or traditions and label it “philosophy.” — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 549

Categorization

• DEFINE: Hountondji’s core critique of ethnophilosophy: it treats African beliefs as eternal and precludes argumentation, which disqualifies them as philosophy.