Moreover, the centrality of the place of values in African culture as a heritage that is passed down from one generation to another, will be highlighted. This is why philosophical appraisal of African culture and values is not only apt and timely, but also appropriate. Axiology as a branch of philosophy deals with values embracing both ethics and aesthetics. A fuller study of values rightly belongs to the discipline of philosophy. Values here are to be understood as beliefs that are held about what is right and wrong and what is important in life. It also goes on to include a people's social norms, taboos and values.
These peculiar traits go on to include the people's language, dressing, music, work, arts, religion, dancing and so on. Culture, as it is usually understood, entails a totality of traits and characters that are peculiar to a people to the extent that it marks them out from other peoples or societies.
The full study of culture in all its vastness and dimensions belongs to the discipline known as anthropology, which studies human beings and takes time to examine their characteristics and their relationship to their environments. The culture of a people is what marks them out distinctively from other human societies in the family of humanity. Key concepts: Aesthetic African change culture economic moral political religious social values In this way, African culture and values can be revaluated, their relevance established and sustained in order to give credence to authentic African identity. In this paper, we try to show the relevance of African culture and values to the contemporary society but maintain that these values be critically assessed, and those found to be inimical to the well-being and holistic development of the society, be discarded. Rather, there are underlying similarities shared by many African societies which, when contrasted with other cultures, reveal a wide gap of difference. In discussing African culture and values, we are not presupposing that all African societies have the same explanation(s) for events, the same language, and same mode of dressing and so on. Since culture is often seen as the sum total of the peculiarities shared by a people, a people's values can be seen as part of their culture. Department of Philosophy, University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria main objective of this paper is to examine African culture and values.