Publisher's Synopsis
Some of the issues in "Yorùbá Ethno-Philosophy: An Ontological Synergy between the people and their Worldview", may, directly or indirectly, be seen as addressing include Henry Odera Oruka's submission that 'Philosophy is thinking and that thinking precedes writing'; Paulin J. Hountondji's 'Lamenta-tions' on the danger of allowing the Europeans to write African philosophy for Africans (as in the case of Fr. Placide Temples' Bantu Philosophy); Confucius' conviction that 'the faintest ink is better than the strongest memory'; Alex Haley's belief that 'when a griot dies, it is as if a library has burned to the ground...' (Roots, 7), to mention but a few.
Bold and courageous, confident and factual, the author is not unduly bothered by hair-splitting debate and romanticisation of African past, rather, he plunges straight into bringing out the panoramic worldview of Yorubas, past and present, and how they should serve as an integral part of studies in philosophy. The book does not aim at foreclosing continental, even global, comparative studies between and among continental philosophies, but the care must be taken to avoid 'diagonal com-parism' which is deliberately designed to see one philosophy as either superior or inferior to another. I commend the author for doing his Yorùbá people proud in highlighting the ontological synergy between the people and their worldview. Prof. J. O. FasoroDepartment of Philosophy
Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti.
