Microsoft Word - PhD Thesis Final.pdf - University of Limpopo ...

all of the books of philosophy start with the Greeks as if the Greeks pre-
dated all other people when it came to discussion of concepts of beauty, art,
numbers, sculpture, medicine and social organisation. In fact, this dogma
occupies the principal position in the academies of the Western world,
including the universities and academies of Africa. In the view of this
dogma, other people and cultures may contribute thoughts, like the
Chinese, Confucius, but thoughts are not philosophy; only the Greeks can
contribute to philosophy. The African people may have religion and myths,
but not philosophy, according to this reasoning. Thus this notion privileges
the Greeks as the originators of philosophy, the highest of the sciences.
Even though the Eurocentrists painfully tried to marginalise other cultures
and civilisations, the presence and importance of other cultures and
civilisations cannot be wished away. In the face of such vigorous – but futile
– attempts to falsify and distort world history by Eurocentrists, Dr. Kwame
Nantambu emphasises the importance of African history to world history as
follows:
Life began in Afrika and it will end in Afrika. For the
first 110 000 years of human existence on this planet,
only Afrikan people existed. The fact of the matter is
that Afrikan history is vital part of world history, a very
old and very important division of the total study of
humankind. Students at all levels can now profit from
a better appreciation of the contributions of Afrikan
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