Abstract

In the last four decades, there has been a lively debate regarding the nature and status of African philosophy. While some Western‐trained African philosophers maintained that African philosophy is just in the making, and that it can only emerge out of the current works of professional philosophers, others insisted that it has always been with us. This debate engaged the attention of philosophers for such a long time that it appeared there can be no substantive African philosophy beyond the debate on its nature. But there has been a change of focus in the last few years. My interest in what follows is to discuss the contemporary situation as revealed in research publications on substantive issues. I hope to show through a few snapshots of current research that despite the controversy, much has been done on substantive African philosophy.