Abstract

The chapter explores African epistemology by taking a historical approach to examining its nature and character. By doing so, it seeks to explain some distinctive features of African epistemology, such as the focus on cultural beliefs and practices in the attempt to describe the nature of African epistemology and the need to debate the question of method in African epistemology. To be sure, while the former is traced to attempts to respond to colonial subjugation of the African’s capacity for rational deliberation, the latter arises from the task of authentically construing what passes as ‘African’ in relation to epistemology. Aside from its explanatory engagement, the chapter elucidates pertinent future concerns for scholars of the discipline. Worthy of note is the task of construing African epistemology in the light of philosophy (and by extension, epistemology) as a normative discipline. The chapter, therefore, notes that epistemic normativity is a key challenge if African epistemology is to take its place in the global discourse of knowledge in epistemology.