ABSTRACT
Knowledge is the relation between the subject and the object, but what constitutes this object of knowledge is not clear. Distinctions are often made between material objects and the formal objects of knowledge. Other authors think the object of knowledge is not just an external material object, but the concept of the knower about the known. African epistemology takes the middle ground about the object of knowledge, because it is taken that the object of knowledge is neither the known as material or formal objects, nor the concept of the knower about the known; rather, it is being. This paper investigates these views on the object of knowledge. The hypothesis is that the object of knowledge is more than material or formal objects and concept of things. The object of knowledge is ‘being’ itself. However, it is pertinent to state that being is understood differently in African social contexts, which are located in diverse political, geographical, and cultural spaces.
