33 Adebayo A.O. Amoye: Journal of African Philosophy & Studies Volume 1, Issue 2, June, 2013. Neo-Positivism, Contextualism and Justification in African Epistemology Adebayo Ogungbure Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan, Nigeria philosopher.bayo@yahoo.com Introduction The major objective of this paper is to attempt a critical assessment of the two emergent theories of justification that has been advocated as viable notions of justification in African epistemology, namely, contextualism and neo-positivism. The central claim of the neo-positivist position is that knowledge within the matrix of African (Yoruba) traditional thought is empirical and that sense experience is what validates our knowledge-claims. On the other hand, the contextualist notion of justification in African epistemology rests on the assumption that in so far as there are numerous languages across African societies, the linguistic practice within any socio-cultural framework should be what justifies knowledge claims. We shall attempt a critique of these two positions in this work, showing their inadequacies and limitations. We shall also argue that both positions amount to an externalist orientation in the discourse of African epistemology.