Philosophy and Artistic Creativity in Africa

Abstract

This chapter explores the conceptual issues of art, creativity, and philosophy through an examination of African visual and verbal art. Adepoju concludes that some of the greatest African philosophical expression is demonstrated by its verbal arts and in the relationships between its verbal and visual art. Within this context, the chapter attempts to demonstrate the ultimate unity of classical African thought through examples of its verbal and visual creativity, projecting the continuities between the classical and the post-classical achievement. Adepoju also critically explores conceptions of the nature, interrelationships, origin, and direction of humanity, the terrestrial world, and the cosmos in relation to a broad span of classical and post-classical African expressive forms, from the Ifa/Afa/Fa/Afan to Owusu Ankomah’s development of an original cosmic vision.