In the past African philosophy did not really form part of the phiosophical scene in South Africa. It had no place on the programmes of South African Philosophical Society and no articles on it were published in South African Journal of Philosophy. However, it became clear to Prof Prinsloo and the members of his Department of Philosophy at Unisa that this situation was untenable. The department accepted it as a departmental research project to find out about African philosophy. This ultimately led to the establishment of Research Unit for African Philosophy.