Is There a Distinctively African Way of Knowing: Knowing and Theory of Knowledge in the African Experience

This work investigates knowledge systems intrinsic to African civilizations to ascertain ways in which those systems can help validate or invalidate the argument pertaining to the existence of an African epistemology. This approach calls for a paradigm shift in conceptualizing and researching African epistemology free from Eurocentric and Afrocentric biases. Humanity has come a long way, from identifying edible fruits and grains in the wild to genetically engineering crops; from worshipping the sun to landing on the moon; and from learning to mummify the dead to transplanting living hearts and decoding the human genome. This historic progress thus summed up stands as a testimony to humans' constant quest for an increasingly more systematic and more useful understanding of the world around them if they were to continually improve their living conditions and give meaning to their multidimensional existence.From that premise, the present work attempts to scrutinize the concept of knowledge and, using selected African knowledge systems as case studies, it investigates the notion of African epistemology and argues for a new paradigm for conceptualizing, researching and substantializing it.