Innocent Onyewuenyi

Innocent C. Onyewuenyi is a Nigerian philosopher and an important figure in the development of modern African philosophy. His work has focused on African philosophy, African metaphysics, African epistemology, traditional African aesthetics and the relationship between African and ancient Greek philosophy. Quotes The re-discovery of African philosophy has influenced African scholars in writing about African personality or what the French-speaking Africans call Negritude. Onyewuenyi was discussing the rediscovery and development of African philosophy and its relationship to African intellectual movements such as Negritude. A philosophy of unity and complete encounter of all things and beings Onyewuenyi was describing what he regarded as a characteristic of African philosophical thought. He connected this philosophy of unity with the communal structure of African society. Man attains growth and recognition by how well he fulfils a function for the over-all well-being of the community. Onyewuenyi was explaining the communitarian dimension he associated with African philosophy. He argued that individual development and recognition are connected to contribution to the wider community. The African communion with ancestors and their influence on their living descendants has been incorrectly labeled “reincarnation” by Western anthropologists. This is Onyewuenyi's position as reported in a later scholarly discussion of his work on African beliefs concerning ancestors and reincarnation. His argument distinguishes the African relationship with ancestors from the Western anthropological classification of that relationship as reincarnation. There is not a belief in reincarnation in African culture strictly speaking, but a belief in the regeneration of life. Onyewuenyi in his philosophical reappraisal of the African belief in reincarnation. The argument concerns the relationship between ancestors, the living and continuity of life. category: Philosophers from Nigeria