STORIES OF AFRICAN FOREFATHERS

This book therefore contains stories I heard from my grandparents while I was a child. It contains tales that attempted to explain reality in the same manner that the ancient Greek thinkers and philosophers did. This tales may appear to our sophisticated and modern minds as stupid, but when looked at critically, the embedded wisdom will be discerned. The ideas of Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes and other ancient western thinkers when analyzed using our present day mindset will be seen as nonsensical but these thinkers are still hailed as great thinkers today. This book is not arguing for the acceptance as true these ideas of ancient Africans but for their respect because of the wisdom there contain.We live in an age where almost everything African is detested even by Africans themselves. Our cultures, values, beliefs, religions et cetera are now being thrown overboard and the Western ones imbibed instead. This trend has led to the evolving of hybrid Africans who are neither truly Africans nor Western. While we are not advocating for a return to our crude past, we believe that we should not lost touch of our heritage.

Autorentext
Dr. Peter Bisong is a senior lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of Calabar, Nigeria.