Thread by @HistPhilosophy

THREAD

On Henry Odera Oruka (1944-1995) and his idea of “Sage Philosophy,” which sought to identify and learn from outstandingly wise members of traditional African societies.

Oruka’s project was a reaction against “ethno-philosophy” as practiced by figures like Placide Tempels and John Mbiti, in which philosophical ideas were ascribed to large groups and peoples, or “Africans” as a whole. Oruka called this “mythology paraded as philosophy.”

Against this Oruka proposed finding “sages” (often men, sometimes women): figures who were honored in their own communities as outstandingly wise. Oruka and his colleagues interviewed them to find out about their ideas.

Oruka defined “sage philosophy” as follows: “Sage philosophy is the expressed thoughts of wise men and women in any given community, and is a way of thinking and explaining the world that fluctuates between popular wisdom and didactic wisdom.”

Unlike ethno-philosophy which emphasizes ideas passed down through stable oral tradition, Oruka was particularly impressed by sages who “transcend the communal wisdom,” for instance by rejecting misogyny. Those who failed to do this were for him only “folk sages.”

Oruka’s sages were often members of non-literate societies but he did not insist that they offer purely oral teachings. Some of his interview subjects, like Paul Mbuya Akoko, had published books.

He said that the interviewer “gives birth” to the sage’s ideas, and to accusations that the interviewer was posing leading questions responded that the questions were designed only to “provoke” the sage’s ideas.

For reading by and about Oruka see

H.O. Oruka, Sage Philosophy: Indigenous Thinkers and Modern Debate on African Philosophy (Leiden: 1990)

A. Graness and K. Kresse (eds), Sagacious Reasoning: Henry Odera Oruka in Memoriam (Nairobi: 1999).

and to find out more about Oruka and Sage Philosophy check out this episode of the History of Africana Philosophy podcast:

historyofphilosophy.net/sage-philosophy