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Abstract
This book offers philosophical interpretation and critical analysis of the African cultural experience in modern times. In their attempt to evolve ways of life appropriate to our modern world culture, African people and their society face a number of challenges; some stem from the values and practices of their traditions, while others rise from the legacy of European colonialism. Defending the cross-cultural applicability of philosophical concepts developed in Western culture, the book attempts to show the usefulness of such concepts in addressing a wide range of African problems. Among the issues are as follows: economic development, nation-building, evolution of viable and appropriate democratic political institutions, growth of appropriate and credible ideologies, political corruption, and crumbling of traditional moral standards in the wake of rapid social change. Throughout, the notion that modernity must be equated with Western values and institutions is challenged, arguing that modernity must be forged creatively within the furnace of Africa's multifaceted cultural experience.
... Philosophy deals with providing conceptual response to basic human problems arising in a society during a given epoch. This means that philosophers grapple at the conceptual level with problems and issues of their times (Gyekye, 1997). And this is what Emmanuel Onyechere Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe (1921-1998 did in his philosophical reflections by conceptually addressing some problems confronting Nigeria. ...
... This, however, is not a limitation for this fact does not mean that the relevance of his ideas, insights, arguments, and conclusions is to be tethered to his time. Rather, the relevance of his insights and arguments -or at least some of them -transcends the confines of his era and culture, and can be embraced by other cultures or societies or different generational epochs (Gyekye, 1997). In fact, the truth remains that the problems plaguing the Nigerian society in the pre-colonial, colonial and military days, which spurred his reflections, are still battling with contemporary Nigerian society. ...
... The convictions of these philosophers end up becoming 'isms,' 'neo-isms,' or philosophical traditions. For example, we have Platonism, Aristotelianism, Kantianism, Marxism; neo-Platonism, neo-Aristotelianism, neo-Thomism, neo-Kantianism, and neo-Hegelianism, the liberal tradition, the analytic tradition, the empiricist tradition, the pragmatist tradition of American Philosophy, and so on (Gyekye, 1997). What may be said about proponents of the various 'isms' regarding the philosophy they subscribe to is that they share the same group mind. ...
This work deals with the philosophical reflections of Emmanuel Onyechere Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe (1921-1988). He was a sage philosopher (a concept employed here in contradistinction to the term ‘professional philosopher’), whose philosophical reflections, apart from having metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical dimensions, address certain socio-political issues. An important idea in his corpus is subjected to critical interrogation in this paper. This is the idea of the group mind, a concept which is an embodiment of his reflections on how a group of people can develop institutions that can foster cooperative living. The idea further addresses how the individual can position himself for reorganisation of society by keying into social aspirations through adherence to norms, values and development of spirituality. The individual is to de-emphasise the self in relation to the others, and live the group’s vision. To achieve this, the individual is to through introspection, self-searching, self-analysis, self-awareness, and self-knowledge, gain access to their innate endowments and bring these to bear on group cohesion. In Nigeria’s case, lack of a sense of nationhood militates against patriotism and, in a democracy, denies the group a collective basis for holding politicians accountable for actions. There is, thus, the issue of distrust which makes consensus tough or nearly impossible. Anyiam-Osigwe’s notion of the group mind addresses this problem in Nigeria, if understood and applied.
... But I think there is another reason, which Gaonkar [2001] describes as the 'rage for modernity' and which Rofel [1999] captures, describing her fieldwork conversations: '''modernity'' was something that many people from all walks of life felt passionately moved to talk about and debate.' Similarly, Gyekye [1997] asserts that modernity 'has in fact assumed or rather gained a normative status, in that all societies in the world without exception aspire to become modern, to exhibit in their social, cultural and political lives features said to characterize modernity Á whatever this notion means or those features are.' But it is clear that such a comment is not meant to simply imply that the whole world is trying to become Europe; in fact, Gyekye similarly describes a number of writers in the Middle Ages: 'In characterizing themselves and their times as modern, both Arabic and Latin scholars were expressing their sense of cultural difference from the ancients ... But not only that: they must surely have considered their own times as advanced (or more advanced) in most, if not all, spheres of human endeavor.' ...
... 156Á157). Notice how the same certainty about the desirability of modernity that Gyekye (1997) attributes in Grossberg's quote to all societies 'without exception' is used here to silence and sideline a potentially different agenda. The transmutation of the inherent hybridity of cultures into barely veiled denials of differences is common and partakes of the strong tendency among scholars, commentators and policy makers (from Left and Right) to minimize or disregard the fact that the hasty unification of radical differences under the banner of modernity betrays the original aim of the critique of culture which was to foreground the problematic simultaneity of different ways of being (Fabian, 1983, p. 146) against the then dominant tendency to conceive these differences along an evolutionary and hierarchical matrix. ...
... It must be noted right from the outset that a substantial number of Sub-Saharan African languages do not have words that can be said to be direct equivalents of the word 'Ethics' or 'morality' (See Gyekye 1997). As such, I would begin with an inquiry into Ethiopian moral languages, in search specifically of the word for 'ethics' in the two local languages for this study, Oromiffa, Amharigna, and Guragigna. ...
... It is often argued that African morality is a humanistic morality, whose central focus is the concern for the welfare and interest of each member of the community, which would expectably be a social morality that is enjoined by social life itself (Gyekye, 1997). Such is the nature of Ethiopian morality too. ...
The present study, a result of exploratory qualitative field research roughly made
between 2018 and 2022 is concerned with critical remembering (revisiting or revis-
ing) of the past in the indigenous philosophical traditions of Ethics of the Oromo, Amhara, and Gurage peoples of Ethiopia. Consequently, using a critical hermeneutics interpretation of the notion of ‘remembering’ found to be depicted in two
Ethiopian aphorisms: kan darbe yaadatani, issa gara fuula dura itti yaaddu (in remembering the past, the future is remembered) and/or yȅhuwǝlaw kǝlele yȁlam yȁfitu (the future cannot exist without the past), as a normative analytical guide, the present study sought to achieve two major and highly interrelated objectives. The
first objective is to make a critical rediscovery, and/or remembering of the moral and humanistic foundations and features of Ethiopian indigenous ethics by taking anecdotes from the ethical thinking and moral languages of the Oromo, Amhara,
and the Gurage people. The second objective seeks to determine whether these
living Ethiopian indigenous philosophical traditions, if examined in terms of the
“remembered future,” could reveal some emancipatory ‘surplus meanings and/or
principles’ and might in turn provide answers to some of the essential questions
of inter-cultural dialogue, peacebuilding and democracy in Ethiopia. The study
found out that, the indigenous moral values in the study areas are complex and
largely connected to humanness (the strong quality of human beings), cooperation,
a healthy sense of community, generosity, and respect for others, which are highly
meaningful in the above regards, i.e., intercultural dialogue for peacebuilding in
the country.
Keywords Indigenous · Philosophy · Humanness · Inter-cultural · Dialogue ·
Peacebuilding
... 22 In other words, the "thick" view of rights according to which rights are prior to duties (e.g., Griffin, 2009) is not necessarily naturally the African view, as on the latter account, rights should not naturally trump cultural, moral and political grounds for action (Molefe, 2019, p. 147), but are rather related to human dignity in more complex causal relationships (ibid, p. 152). There is in fact a continuum of views on rights in African literature, with persons such as Ake (1987), claiming that there are no individual rights in African moral and political thought, only communal duties, on one side of the continuum, more moderate views such as Gyekye's (1997) in which rights and duties are not in a one-to-one correlative relationship, but are nevertheless on equal moral footing and in a mutually dependent relationship, to African scholars accepting individual rights into African political theories to varying degrees (e.g., Wiredu, 1997;Matolino (2018)). I will here briefly consider Gyekye's moderate communitarian approach 23 to this debate, with some reference to other views, such as Molefe's. ...
... 158-160). The maximalist conception of personhood is based on a social or relational ethics (ibid, p. 160), which is "an ethics motivated by the needs and interests of others" (ibid), and in this sense echoes Gyekye's (1997) insistence on an ethics of sensitivity or care towards others and their needs. "The basis of these other-regarding virtues is the spontaneous human capacity to recognise human needs" (Molefe, 2019, p. 160). ...
This open access book contributes to the discourse of Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) from an African perspective. It is a unique collection that brings together prominent AI scholars to discuss AI ethics from theoretical and practical African perspectives and makes a case for African values, interests, expectations and principles to underpin the design, development and deployment (DDD) of AI in Africa. The book is a first in that it pays attention to the socio-cultural contexts of Responsible AI that is sensitive to African cultures and societies. It makes an important contribution to the global AI ethics discourse that often neglects AI narratives from Africa despite growing evidence of DDD in many domains. Nine original contributions provide useful insights to advance the understanding and implementation of Responsible AI in Africa, including discussions on epistemic injustice of global AI ethics, opportunities and challenges, an examination of AI co-bots and chatbots in an African work space, gender and AI, a consideration of African philosophies such as Ubuntu in the application of AI, African AI policy, and a look towards a future of Responsible AI in Africa.
This is an open access book.
... 22 In other words, the "thick" view of rights according to which rights are prior to duties (e.g., Griffin, 2009) is not necessarily naturally the African view, as on the latter account, rights should not naturally trump cultural, moral and political grounds for action (Molefe, 2019, p. 147), but are rather related to human dignity in more complex causal relationships (ibid, p. 152). There is in fact a continuum of views on rights in African literature, with persons such as Ake (1987), claiming that there are no individual rights in African moral and political thought, only communal duties, on one side of the continuum, more moderate views such as Gyekye's (1997) in which rights and duties are not in a one-to-one correlative relationship, but are nevertheless on equal moral footing and in a mutually dependent relationship, to African scholars accepting individual rights into African political theories to varying degrees (e.g., Wiredu, 1997;Matolino (2018)). I will here briefly consider Gyekye's moderate communitarian approach 23 to this debate, with some reference to other views, such as Molefe's. ...
... 158-160). The maximalist conception of personhood is based on a social or relational ethics (ibid, p. 160), which is "an ethics motivated by the needs and interests of others" (ibid), and in this sense echoes Gyekye's (1997) insistence on an ethics of sensitivity or care towards others and their needs. "The basis of these other-regarding virtues is the spontaneous human capacity to recognise human needs" (Molefe, 2019, p. 160). ...
Robots are moving closer to human beings especially in work environments. The entry of co-bots into workspaces raises many questions. One of the key questions surrounds the likely relationship between the co-bots and their co-workers. Are co-bots to be considered as colleagues or are they tools? What ethical issues emerge from this consideration in the context of Kenyan workspaces? This chapter discusses these questions in the Kenyan context. Data for the chapter was collected using qualitative interviews with 20 data scientists selected through information-oriented purposive sampling. The chapter concludes that there are six ethical issues which can influence the perceptions of co-bots by data scientists in Kenya. These include the concept of work as a divine gift to humanity which cannot be shared with machines; the notion that treating co-bots as legal persons equates them to human beings which is viewed as demeaning to humanity; the fear that co-bots will dominate and eventually replace humans in ordinary workspaces thereby denying the latter not just an opportunity to work but to livelihood too; fear of unintended social consequences of “anthropomorphisation”; lack of trust for machines created by limited humans to offer unlimited services and companionship; and discomfort with exotic robots entering professional but also indigenous spaces. Until these ethical issues are addressed comprehensively, it is unlikely that information scientists would unreservedly welcome co-bots into their workspaces as colleagues.
... 22 In other words, the "thick" view of rights according to which rights are prior to duties (e.g., Griffin, 2009) is not necessarily naturally the African view, as on the latter account, rights should not naturally trump cultural, moral and political grounds for action (Molefe, 2019, p. 147), but are rather related to human dignity in more complex causal relationships (ibid, p. 152). There is in fact a continuum of views on rights in African literature, with persons such as Ake (1987), claiming that there are no individual rights in African moral and political thought, only communal duties, on one side of the continuum, more moderate views such as Gyekye's (1997) in which rights and duties are not in a one-to-one correlative relationship, but are nevertheless on equal moral footing and in a mutually dependent relationship, to African scholars accepting individual rights into African political theories to varying degrees (e.g., Wiredu, 1997;Matolino (2018)). I will here briefly consider Gyekye's moderate communitarian approach 23 to this debate, with some reference to other views, such as Molefe's. ...
... 158-160). The maximalist conception of personhood is based on a social or relational ethics (ibid, p. 160), which is "an ethics motivated by the needs and interests of others" (ibid), and in this sense echoes Gyekye's (1997) insistence on an ethics of sensitivity or care towards others and their needs. "The basis of these other-regarding virtues is the spontaneous human capacity to recognise human needs" (Molefe, 2019, p. 160). ...
In the current African society, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming more popular and seeking to cover all facets of human activity. The adoption and use of these modern technologies in the African context are currently low due to some emerging challenges. Consequently, these difficulties may have a direct influence on African economic development. In this paper, we highlight the challenges facing the adoption of AI technologies in Africa which include skills acquisition, lack of structured data ecosystem, ethics, government policies, insufficient infrastructure and network connectivity, uncertainty, and user attitude. Finally, various solutions to enhance AI adoption in Africa were then proposed.
... 22 In other words, the "thick" view of rights according to which rights are prior to duties (e.g., Griffin, 2009) is not necessarily naturally the African view, as on the latter account, rights should not naturally trump cultural, moral and political grounds for action (Molefe, 2019, p. 147), but are rather related to human dignity in more complex causal relationships (ibid, p. 152). There is in fact a continuum of views on rights in African literature, with persons such as Ake (1987), claiming that there are no individual rights in African moral and political thought, only communal duties, on one side of the continuum, more moderate views such as Gyekye's (1997) in which rights and duties are not in a one-to-one correlative relationship, but are nevertheless on equal moral footing and in a mutually dependent relationship, to African scholars accepting individual rights into African political theories to varying degrees (e.g., Wiredu, 1997;Matolino (2018)). I will here briefly consider Gyekye's moderate communitarian approach 23 to this debate, with some reference to other views, such as Molefe's. ...
... 158-160). The maximalist conception of personhood is based on a social or relational ethics (ibid, p. 160), which is "an ethics motivated by the needs and interests of others" (ibid), and in this sense echoes Gyekye's (1997) insistence on an ethics of sensitivity or care towards others and their needs. "The basis of these other-regarding virtues is the spontaneous human capacity to recognise human needs" (Molefe, 2019, p. 160). ...
This chapter provides an analysis into the factors that impact the effective adoption and successful implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in Africa. The study begins by defining the concept of “responsible AI” and what this means specifically for technologies developed and used within Africa. Further sections within the chapter present challenges including digital literacy, lack of local AI talent and governmental barriers that impede. The chapter also goes into an in-depth analysis of the AI startup and research landscape within the African continent, highlighting organisations of interest and concerning trends. ‘Challenges to effective AI adoption and Implementation in Africa’ concludes by envisioning what responsible AI could look like in the African context and provides actionable recommendations for making strides towards this goal.
... Apparently, corruption may be classified into three broad categories, namely; bureaucratic, economic and political corruption, but this analyze will discuss more on political corruption. Gyekye (1997) defines political corruption as the "illegal, unethical and unauthorized exploitation of one's political or official position for personal gain or advantage". Thus, this means that the most prominent victims of political corruption include the citizens of a political community and public interests in general. ...
After a long military rule that almost cripple the socioeconomic of the country, Nigerians launched a new democratic dispensation on May 29, 1999. Although, this was highly embraced by the citizens thinking that the new era will bring development to individuals and the country at large. But the political system seems to have internalized more the ethos of impunity rather than suavity and civility that will thrive and consolidate democracy in the country. Even elections that are considered to be the minimum requirement of any political system, if it is to be admitted into the exclusive club of democracies have been grossly manipulated by political elite such that their outcomes merely reflect the wishes of the people. It is in this context that this paper explains some major issues and obstacles hindering democratic consolidation in relation to electoral malpractices in Nigeria from 1999-2013. The paper also assesses the prospects of consolidating democracy under the prevailing political condition. Finally, the paper concluded that politicians, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and even the judiciary have not shown respect for democracy in Nigeria, and so the best way to restore people's confidence in the electoral system and democracy is by creating an enabling environment for free and fair elections.
... In fact, a literal interpretation of Madukaku principle of Igbo-Nigerians (i.e., human being is supreme to or more important than wealth; for further understanding see Bassey & Pimaro, 2019) elucidates Higgs and Smith's point. Appiah (1994) and Gyekye (1997) cautioned against misunderstanding African communalism as excluding individual liberalism which Appiah argues are imbedded in the communalist principles of cooperation, generosity, reciprocity, compassion, and solidarity. ...
Many moral and social problems affecting African people and development could be associated with (neo)colonial moral education problems in Africa: perpetuation of excessive materialism, individual competitiveness, and demonization of African traditional values. To solve African moral problems and realize Pan-African goals, we need a more contextualized approach to moral education in schools that takes into account moral values from African context. Hence, this paper proposed strengthening moral education in Africa through a decolonial educational approach that disrupts the conventional through anti-colonial curricular and pedagogical practices of moral education for social justice. It first conceptualized moral education and social justice and reviewed literature on moral education in Africa to illuminate its colonizing elements. The proposed decolonized moral education model, critiquing Kohlbergian moral development theory as ignoring the (neo)colonial struggles of colonized and Indigenous people, draws on Ubuntu philosophy, Afrocentricity, and postcolonial theories to develop five processes for the decolonization—(a) Indigenous knowledge, values, and practices’ consciousness raising, (b) moral diversity mapping and comparison, (c) critical evaluation of Indigenous moral disrupters, (d) prosocial anger toward historical/ongoing moral annihilation and complicity, and (e) Indigenous moral agency. The curriculum and practice implications of the Model are discussed.
... This means that the constant interdependence of people in their daily routines, the discursive practices, other people's opinions, and social representations become part of the inner speech of one another, and guide people's ways of knowing, thinking, feeling, and acting as social beings. In the world view of the Akan people of Ghana, personhood is a being (becoming) 1 , and it is earned in the ethical and social arena based on an individual's moral and social achievement in his or her community (Gyekye, 1997). Thus, one can be a human being without being (becoming) a person or attaining personhood. ...
Most international violence research that are firmly rooted in the ontology and cultural background of individualism make rash generalisations about violence and human nature by taking the examples of self and gender concepts in Western settings as the only reference point for their claims. Based on the understanding of self in Western cultures, many social psychological studies have over the years blamed interpersonal violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV), on perpetrators' self-image. For example, while some studies indicate that people with low self-esteem are more likely to turn violent in order to gain esteem, others have theorised that individuals with inflated (high) self-esteem are more susceptible to use violence, particularly when the inflated self is threatened in interpersonal relationships. A growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship also traces the aetiology of IPV and the propensity for men to commit violence against women to the internalisation, endorsement and enactment of culturally defined male gender role. Despite the valuable contributions of these studies, there are significant challenges inherent in research that make broad universal claims about self and violence at the expense of culture and context. One of the most important phenomena that seems underexplored, overlooked or neglected in the context of violence research is how culture-specific notions of personhood and masculinity shapes male-perpetrated IPV. In this article, I explore the centrality of context and culture-specificities of personhood and masculinity in understanding male-perpetrated IPV. I discuss how the dialogical relationship between men's psychological sense of who they are (personhood) and cultural notions of masculinity provides new insights for understanding violence research in context. I argue that, rather than a threat to a person's dispositional self, the social pain of unfavourable third-party communal evaluations of masculine inadequacy threatens a man's relational sense of personhood, and consequently provoke the use of violence towards the source of the threat in intimate relationships in Ghana.
... cattle, on the condition that they are put to good use (cf. Gyekye 1997;Masolo 2004). Article 14 (2) of the German constitution points out that property obliges the owner to use it for the common good, which can make nationalisation possible (Gesetze im Internet, 2019). ...
The Sustainable Development Report 2019 points out that the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDG ) might not be achieved, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (sic). This paper tries to investigate alternatives to the hegemonic “development” discourse and ideas of “development”: what would be the notion of “development” in Ubuntu? The paper proposes a contextual understanding of “development” rooted in tradition, religion and culture by using Michel Foucault and Ferdinand de Saussure as a theoretical basis. The heterogenous understanding of Ubuntu and its diverse understanding definition of “development” are an argument against universalising “development” ideas, but for tailor-made solutions. The paper follows the hypothesis that the SDG s rely on premises of epistemologies of the Global North which are (post)colonial. It also proposes that failing “development” strategies rely on epistemologies from the Global North which are excluding, imperial, Eurocentric and rely on abyssal – extractive and postcolonial – productions of knowledge (Sousa Santos 2018). The paper is a contribution to the decolonisation of knowledge in the Global North, to challenge hegemonic northern epistemologies and to bring them into contact with knowledge from epistemologies of the Global South.
... The classical examples of these instances are Ifeanyi Menkiti (1984) and Kwame Gyekye's (1997) contributions to this debate. ...
... Accordingly, Matolino has summarised the objective of this doctoral research as "a philosophical critique of African communitarianism and the resultant socialism" or an investigation of the "concept of person in African philosophy and how this concept is used in the construction of African socialism" (MATOLINO 2008, 1). After engaging Tempels, Matolino continues with the examination of African Communitarianism through the works of John Mbiti (1970), Ifeanyi Menkiti (1984) and Kwame Gyekye (1997). ...
... It is, however, argued that African philosophies are essentially human-centred, as they mainly focus on relations between humans (e.g. Gyekye, 1997). In general, Ubuntu derives its relationship to Earth from the human interrelationships and dependence on land, as well as from its relationship with future generations as part of the 'bantu' community and the ancestors who are identified within the Earth (Van Norren, 2017). ...
While it is widely acknowledged that 'development' is an inherently Eurocentric concept, wellbeing concepts from perspectives of the Global South, are less well known, let alone embraced. We explore to what extent 'inclusive development' can accommodate philosophies from the Global South and how the definition of inclusive development needs to be adjusted.
... Gyekye summarizes this as he argues that society is moral if individuals demonstrate concern for others' interests and needs. This deduction from the Afro-communitarian moral theory holds that "the community, through a harmonious relationship, must work for the fundamental human good of all and each individual must live in harmony and share in the fate of the other" [28]. A central good in the Afrocommunitarian dynamics is human interaction, without which the idea of such a mutualizing ideology might be lost. ...
Can Afro-communitarianism serve as a viable ideology for addressing the human interaction challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic? The ongoing pandemic poses many challenges to the normal functioning of societies around the world. For example, it has caused problems ranging from social, economic, and political disruption to various forms of hardship, including pain, suffering, and millions of deaths. One problem that is not attracting sufficient attention is a disruption to human interaction that leads to isolation, depression, mental health, and emotional crises. This paper will investigate whether Afro-communitarianism can function as an ideological option for addressing this challenge. This ideology, in our opinion, can foster social integration and the type of informal solidarity that engenders emotionally helpful interactions among humans. We will also argue that Afro-communitarian orientation can overturn the individualistic tendencies that hamper efforts aimed at curtailing the spread of the coronavirus.
... In the Akan-Ghanaian context, both Wiredu (1996) and Gyekye (1997) construes human dignity in terms of being a creation of God, who 11 is seen as the ultimate dignity personage. Deng (2004) same conclusion in the context of Dinka people, South Sudan. ...
This paper articulates, and defends, the concept of human dignity in Yoruba worldview. In defending the notion of dignity in Yoruba worldview as plausible, this paper provides a critical juxtaposition of this specific interpretation of dignity with some other articulated perspectives in Western and African ethical discourses. It argues that the most prevalent understanding of the word, 'dignity', in Yoruba worldview is not necessarily that which is intrinsic, inherent, and inalienable in human beings. While such conception is more entrenched in Western thought, the traditional Yorùbá reference to dignity is however not oblivious of this Western connotation. Essentially, the word 'wuyi' (value) or 'iwuyi' (valuable) depicts the Yoruba meaning of dignity as worth or value, be it in humans, animate or inanimate things, like plants. Dignity is construed among the Yorùbá as a constructed excellence of existence. With respect to humans, dignity is a quality having descriptive, normative, and performative connotations. Therefore, this paper establishes that the phrase, "dignity of the person", is more embedded in Yoruba worldview than 'human dignity'. Unlike in the latter that consists of an inalienable and imperceptible inherent value in humans, the former is an alienable attribute that allows difference in degree, and subject to impairment be it temporarily or permanently. In 'human dignity', dignity may exist outside of a person's frame of reference especially when the being in question seemed unaware. However, 'dignity of the person' in Yoruba culture, consists of qualitative compositions of personhood. It is about recognizing and respecting the value of personhood in a being, be it alive or dead.
... They argue that such misinterpretation of self and personhood beclouds the compatibility of Afro-communitarianism with individual rights. Gyekye (1997) leads the debate on the relationship between individual rights and duties. He developed an account called moderate communitarianism, which aims to establish the kind of relationship that should exist between rights and duties. ...
In this paper, I explore the relationship between individual rights and duties within the Afro-communitarian discourse in African political philosophy. The notion of individual rights is prominent in modern African political philosophy, which is usually used to refer to the tension between community and individual in Afro-communitarianism. In this paper, I specifically focus on this question: Can Afro-communitarianism ground a plausible conception of individual rights that will be of benefit to modern African societies? I will discuss two approaches within the Afro-communitarian discourse that have offered a response to this question. On the one hand, are the duty-based incompatibilists who defend the primacy of duties over individual rights and claim that Afro-communitarianism is incompatible with individual rights. On the other hand, are the rights-based compatibilists who claim that Afro-communitarianism is compatible with individual rights by according to rights and duties equal status in African political philosophy. In this paper, I will take issues with the latter. First, I argue that rights-based compatibilists have not been able to locate individual rights in Afro-communitarianism beyond selective rights granted to a few persons by the community. Second, I argue that some rights-based compatibilists ground their theory of rights on an idea of community that is not communitarian. With these arguments, I establish that rights-based compatibilism does not dislodge the claims of duty-based incompatibilism.
... Drawing on the SET, the extant literature shows that subsistence marketplaces are highly personal, social, and relational environments where people and relationships are given increased significance (De Soto, 1989;Godinho, Venugopal, Singh, & Russell, 2017;Gyekye, 1997;Hani, Akter, et al., 2021;Hill & Stamey, 1990;Moser, 1998;Viswanathan, 2007;Viswanathan et al., 2021;Viswanathan & Rosa, 2010). Therefore, B2B ventures are primarily driven by interpersonal relationships and social exchanges to make business decisions and reduce uncertainty in facilitating the survival and financial well-being of micro-entrepreneurs in subsistence settings (Greve & Salaff, 2003;Hani, Akter, et al., 2021;Iacobucci & Ostrom, 1996;Sridharan, Barrington, & Saunders, 2017). ...
Micro-entrepreneurs play a critical role in alleviating poverty in subsistence marketplaces through their business relationships with microfinance institutions. Despite the enormous importance of these relationships, a critical research question on the dimensions of business relationship quality and their overall effects on relationship outcomes remains unanswered. Thus, drawing on the relationship marketing, social exchange, and self-determination theories, this study answers the focal research question by conducting in-depth interviews (n = 30), thematic analysis, and a survey (n = 300) of micro-entrepreneurs in a subsistence marketplace. The findings show a third-order business relationship quality model with three second-order dimensions (i.e., business trust, business respect, and business reciprocity) and nine subdimensions. The findings confirm the impact of business relationship quality on business customer inspiration and business customer value examined in this marketplace. The findings also identify the mediating role of customer inspiration and both the moderating and quadratic roles of relationship quality on relationship outcomes. The predictive power of the business relationship quality model is validated through PLSpredict using a training sample (n = 270) and a holdout sample (n = 30).
... The communitarian view as enshrined in ubuntu ethos offers values such as cooperation, solidarity and social well-being to human development discourse. According to Gyekye (1997) communitarian views continue to shape Africans and are generally held to be of more importance than the values of individual rights. From such communitarian values should flow both a sense of responsibility of individuals to their community and obligations to society. ...
This article discusses the theoretical scheme of human development as proposed in the 1990s by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) by exploring the theoretical foundations of Amartya Sen's capability approach. Sen critiques traditional development thinking that considers Gross Domestic Product growth as a principal vehicle for progress and economic development. Human Development, grounded on the capability approach, focuses on the enhancement of people's real freedom to choose the kinds of lives they have reasons to value. This essay explores the strengths and weaknesses of the capability approach toward realizing holistic human development, an approach that focuses on human development as enhancement of individual freedom. For the capability approach to be an effective tool for evaluating human development, however, it is argued here that Ubuntu philosophy should be incorporated. Ubuntu philosophy envisions the human being as a communal being driven by the virtues of cooperation and solidarity.
... Findings in this study further illustrate how strong moral norms of reciprocity and ideas among smallholders of life being a zero-sum game (see also Ashforth, 2005;Austen, 1993) are increasingly being challenged by the more recently introduced economic and social orders of capitalism, entrepreneurship and privatisation that all focus on individual wealth creation (Ibrahima and Mattaini, 2019;Konik, 2015;McDonald, 2010;Mwipikeni, 2018), orders that have also underpinned the promotion of pigs in Uganda. In fact, a growing consensus holds that ethics and practices of Ubuntu are not compatible with capitalist relations (Hofmeyr, 2013;Moyo, 2021;Terreblanche, 2018), including the associated priority given to the individual over social relations and community expectations such as fulfilling the basic needs of the other (Gyekye, 1997). ...
Recent decades have seen a growing market for pork in Uganda. The government and donors have promoted pig rearing as a potential route out of poverty for poor smallholders. The idea is that upscaling and commercialisation of smallholder pig production can be a successful way out of poverty. Drawing on the concepts of trust and social traps, this article describes how pig production fails as a pathway out of poverty in post-conflict communities in northern Uganda due to tensions created by the focus on individual wealth creation. Results from ethnographic fieldwork reveal that there is a strong moral obligation in the studied communities for individuals who fare better to contribute to the community and share their wealth. Social tensions remaining from the period of conflict are stoked by the focus on individual wealth creation in pig production, resulting in acts of harming, stealing and killing other people's pigs. Locally these acts are said to be caused by “jealousy”, which for many smallholders is a more significant problem than disease in pig production. The findings suggest that poverty reduction measures would be more successful if they focused on distributed approaches aimed at raising the general level of welfare in communities and supporting the collective rather than the individual.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first took the world by storm, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a Solidarity Call to Action to realize equitable global access to COVID-19 health technologies through pooling of knowledge, intellectual property and data. At the dawn of 2022, 70% of rich countries’ populations were vaccinated but only 4.6% of poor countries (Our World In Data, Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccinations, 2022). Vaccine nationalism and rampant self-interest grew and our ineffective global response led to new variants of concern - like Omicron - emerging. Rather than abandon the idea of solidarity in global health, we believe that the international community must embrace it. Solidarity, with its emphasis on relationality and recognition of similarities, could offer fertile ground for building an ethical framework for an interconnected and interdependent world. Such a framework would be better than a framework that focuses principally on individual entitlements. To defend this view, we draw on African relational views of personhood and morality. When humans are conceived of as essentially relational beings, solidarity occupies a central role in moral behaviour. We argue that part of the reason appeals to solidarity have failed may be traced to an inadequate conceptualization of solidarity. For as long as solidarity remains a beautiful notion, practiced voluntarily by generous and kindhearted persons, in a transient manner to respond to specific challenges, it will never be able to offer an adequate framework for addressing inequities in global health in a systematic and permanent way. Drawing on this understanding of solidarity, we propose pathways to respond creatively to the risks we face to ensure equitable access to essential health for all.
Understanding socioeconomic status (SES) and social capital as predictors of life outcomes has remained central to humanitarian, health and social research. This current study explores how socioeconomic status and social capital (community solidarity, locus of control and generalised trust) predict happiness among a sample of South African adults. Possible gender differences were also considered. Cross-sectional data from (n = 1049) South Africans on SES, social capital, happiness and sociodemographic characteristics were collected using an online questionnaire between January 2021 and September 2021. A correlation matrix was calculated to explore bivariate associations between the variables. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to examine the predictive influence of SES and social capital indices on happiness and the gender differential in these relationships. SES and all social capital variables were significantly correlated with happiness. The model, including SES and social capital, accounted for 25% of the variance in happiness. Gender differences were found regarding the relationship between SES and all social capital variables (except locus of control) and happiness. The results confirm that efforts to facilitate individual social capital correspond to greater happiness among South Africans. Furthermore, it highlights the need for further empirical exploration of social predictors of life outcomes. The current analysis provides a framework for developing and implementing policies that promote happiness and other life outcomes.
This article examines Elias Mutani’s Human Poachers (2016) to assess how the body of child character with and without albinism is culturally assigned specific meanings by exploring how the author configures and reconfigures the agencies of a child character with albinism. I specifically examine how the children’s novella develops the motifs of philanthropic or benevolent figures to represent individual and child scout’s altruistic efforts that create the (im)possibility of an albino child character with agency. I further consider whether and how the narrative’s representation of charitable efforts proves that well-meant intervention successfully provides protection and empowerment that enable the character with albinism to achieve agency. I argue that Human Poachers represents philanthropy as a necessary intervention to protect, empower, stimulate and afford agency to the child character with albinism. However, the text has moments of representation where altruistic efforts by characters without albinism signal discourses of protection which bear ambivalent meanings for the agency, empowerment, and personhood of the character with albinism. Such depictions can potentially perpetuate the continued discrimination and the typecasting of people with albinism, representing them as less agentic.
In general, proponents of Afro-personhood theories claim that the theories capture a just and egalitarian society owing to its gender-neutral nature wherein men and women are treated equally. Moreover, the value of prizing persons in virtue of their ability to commune fosters individual difference and respect which can protect persons against heteronormativity and/or gendered expectations. As such, Afro-personhood theories offer an account of personhood that fosters welfare for all persons. However, it appears that Afro-personhood theories are gendered in pernicious ways that deny Blackwomxn moral value. That is, upon closer examination, it seems that Afro-personhood theories do not cover all persons in the theories owing to two textually subliminal gaps as heteropatriarchy and the subsumption of particularized lived experiences into broader categories such as race. These gaps continue to be an oppressive aspect of society. As such, I will critically illustrate that Afro-personhood theories do not help us to critique and/or begin to think about ways to alleviate these gaps. Rather, they conceal and bolster oppressive aspects of our society that violently affect marginalized groups, especially Blackwomxn. After all, if they are to act as normative guidelines capable of regulating people’s behavior, they ought to transcend the oppressive aspects of African societies so as to be an effective tool for social critique. Moreover, this article is a clarion call for African Philosophy to systematically address and engage the heteropatriarchal aspects of African society, which is its world, for which it is yet to directly do so.
Although the principle of “respect for personal autonomy” is largely conceptualized against the background of values of societies that espouse individual liberty, not all societies in the world place a high premium on the place of the individual person. This chapter examines the value of autonomy in bioethics and determines whether other values, such as “communal responsibility” dominant in African settings, are equally valuable in the context of healthcare and health research. It uses elderly care, as a case example, to explore the subtleties of personal autonomy and determine its valuableness in African contexts. In African settings, the care of elderly persons is binding on families and considered a responsibility of their communities. Elderly persons enjoy the privilege of being cared for, and families and communities are responsible for providing care. While some individual persons may choose not to provide the care and some elderly persons may reject care offered, the question remains whether the refusal is morally acceptable or if rejection removes the moral responsibility to provide similar care to others. This chapter will examine the value and place of autonomy in African socio-cultural contexts, barring its already presumed universal value in bioethics.
Purpose: Communalism, either in its unrestricted or restricted versions, is a social principle that involves the commitment of individuals in a community to shared goals, demanding of these individuals the obligation to promote communal values and other social practices. Communalism, on this score, appears to be incapable of providing credible development for Africa in the twenty-first century and so needs to be reconstructed. Methodology: The reconstructionist and critical methods of philosophy were employed to show that communalism, in its present forms, stifles Africa’s capacity for meaningful development. This is done by showing its ignoring of a very crucial element needed for development namely, the ontology of the individual. Findings: Communalism therefore in this present form seems to be committed to the idea of ‘undifferentiated holism’ involving an idea of collectivism that defines the African communal universe with an ontological primacy over individuals, presupposing that an African conception of reality is to be located in the community. Research Limitations: The present study, though discussed within the scope of Africa’s development can further be expanded to a discourse relating to a credible participation of Africa in the emerging world order. Practical Implications: This paper argues that the recognition of the condition of social differentiation, which describes an individual laced with a rationalist or critical attitude, provides a viable option for Africa toward a credible developmental strategy in the twenty-first century. This is the hallmark of a reconstructionist approach to communalism. Originality/Value: Existing studies on development in Africa have dwelt on its socio-political, economic and industrial dimensions with minimal attention paid to the ontology of the individuals whose summation constitutes the society.
Nicht-westliche Gemeinwohlkonzeptionen sind so vielfältig und heterogen, dass sie sich keinesfalls auf einen gemeinsamen Nenner bringen lassen. In manchen Fällen sind die Unterschiede zu westlichen Konzeptionen offensichtlich, andere Konzeptionen dagegen sind den westlichen durchaus ähnlich. Wichtig ist, dass eine ernsthafte Beschäftigung mit nicht-westlichen Gemeinwohlkonzeptionen nicht bei der Kenntnisnahme zusätzlicher Vielfalt stehenbleiben darf, sondern nach den Grunderfahrungen fragen muss, die sich in den verschiedenen Konzeptionen wiederfinden. Darin liegt die Chance, rückblickend auch auf jene Grunderfahrungen aufmerksam zu werden, die westlichen Gemeinwohlkonzeptionen zugrunde liegen.
Traditional building practices, which are typically regarded as repositories of heritage and material culture, are undergoing significant transitions in northern Ghana. This transition is evident in the use of building materials other than locally accessible traditional materials. These transitions are driving creativity and innovation as households strive for continuity of tradition, while at the same time ensuring the sustainability of their buildings. This article analyses the architectural traditions and building practices in northern Ghana using the building work and commentaries of the people of Gbabshe in peri-urban Tamale as a case study. The results show that building practices are transitioning because of environmental changes, migration, wealth accumulation and access to modern building materials and technology. As the peri-urban community becomes urbanised, the people encounter “modern” building styles which are appropriated into their traditional architecture, resulting in a hybridisation of architecture. The innovative tendencies and philosophical continuities of these builders, and the desire to achieve sustainable buildings and the hybridisation of architecture, has implications for the future of earth buildings’ relevance, resilience, sustainability, and sociocultural significance in people’s everyday lives.
The bifurcation between holism and individualism is essential to understand the contemporary debate in political theory. In this article I argued that both traditional and modern societies have elements of holism and individualism. I also argued that individualism is not radically opposed to holism because it is impossible to imagine a human society without authority, tradition, and taboos. Moreover, the pre-theoretical norms and values of holist societies have rational foundation within a certain context. Thus, it is possible to imagine an individualist society which is grounded in a holist social ontology. I argued that collectivist and tribal societies are not totally opposed to individual liberty since one of the morally relevant advantages of rationality is to foster cordial relations with others. I argued that Habermas’s intersubjective communicative scheme is appropriate to account for the pre-theoretical norms and values of holist societies
This paper explores discernible resonances of West-African thought traditions in the philosophical writings of Amo. We highlight a combination of religio-theological and philosophical motifs that point in the direction of an impregnation of Amo’s thinking by the encyclopaedia of his place of birth. Amo was neither decidedly a European nor an African philosopher, as controversies had it in the past. To a certain degree, he was both. From traces of this awareness of his origin in the coastal area of today’s Ghana, we argue for his place in African philosophy by pursuing the thesis that he should be appropriately appreciated as a self-confident West-African, educated in German philosophical traditions and critically engaged in enlightenment philosophy.
Hu ìwà síi bi Ènìyàn ẹléṛan ara (Act towards them as Human
beings with flesh): An Ethical Theory of Interaction in African
Traditional Medicine (ATM) is a book that can be described as a
trailblazer in developing the field of bioethics. The book clearly
reemphasizes the need to have discussion in the field of
bioethics, particularly for African contexts. The indigenous
African title of this book, Hu ìwà síi bi Ènìyàn ẹléṛ an ara ara:
An Ethical Theory of Interaction in African Traditional
Medicine (ATM), which has been translated as: ‘Act towards
them as Human beings with flesh’ shows a novel and conscious
return to African thoughts, this time not just for the sake of
returning to African thoughts, but to engage thinkers in ethics
and bioethics.
Situated within the topic of geographical contexts of knowledge production, this article interrogates the youth policies of Kenya, Ghana and Tanzania to understand how they articulate the concepts of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ in planning for youth development in their national socio-cultural settings. The focus is on each country’s approach to cultural transformation, in trying to divulge how the policymakers see the role of culture, both local and global, in young people’s lives, and articulate this notion in the policies to produce a politically desired alternative to Western modernity. The article goes on to discuss the extent to which ‘African modernity’ constructs are set out in these policy documents as attempts to ‘de-westernise’ the concept. It recognises Ghana’s approach as the most decolonial, for it distances the country’s cultural transformation process from the perceived universality of Western values. The article suggests that modernity, as an ‘imaginary pursuit’, becomes powerful only when one chooses to imagine it in the first place. Olga Bialostocka, Senior Research Specialist, Africa Institute of South Africa, Human Sciences Research Council. Email: Obialostocka@hsrc.ac.za
This paper explores the political thought of Guinea-Bissau, focusing on the endogenous notions of community and consensus. The analysis turns on discerning the principles underpinning political power and power relations in the organicist setting. The paper considers the indigenous polity and its underlying tenets, by unveiling the centrality of the past, land ( tchon ), and kinship ( djorson ) in conceptualizations of the political community. These determine a polity ruled by participatory politics and “brotherhood consensus” ( consenso di irmandade , in local creole). As this notion of “brotherhood” is tightly linked to the foundations of the political community, the Bissau-Guinean polity pins consensual politics to ontology. This ontological basis fosters commitment to engage in and reach consensus.
This analysis adds to studies on African political thought and theories of consensual democracy. Moreover, the insights offered, however spatial-specific, exemplify the potential of renewed analysis of notions of the political community in Africa and beyond, enriching the repertoire of political theory research.
As the fight against COVID-19 marked its second anniversary in March, collaboration gained attention as a tool for preparedness and response. Most collaborative models derive from industrialized countries, and coverage in outlets remains focused on the Global North. To complement existing studies, the article asks how collaboration looks like in a development setting. It analyzes the policies of Global South countries, focusing on Africa, where the pandemic is shifting. By exploring responses there and highlighting complexities that familiar governing paths struggle to resolve, it posits whether the pandemic could spur change. It concludes by discussing lessons and suggesting ways to improve collaboration.
This chapter explores the meaning of values in general. It addresses some foundational questions such as: What are values? Do values have any significance in the daily lives of individuals, communities, nations and continents? How/Are values related to identity? The chapter, therefore, provides an overview of the philosophical debates on values and locates the importance of values to human development. It pays particular attention to African values, reviewing the debate on the sources/derivation of African values and reflects on the impact of colonialism on African values. The chapter also discusses African values in relation to postcolonial African struggles, as well as the interface between African values and sustainable development. Overall, the chapter maintains that values are the bedrock of Africa’s development and proposes ways of enhancing values if the continent is to succeed in overcoming poverty (Sustainable Development Goal 1).
This research work is a reflection on Nyerere’s contribution to the development of an African platform for social and economic development. It takes as its purpose a reflection, from a local perspective, on values that characterize Africa’s social and economic development course. It recognizes, as a problem, the widespread pandemic state of governance, which enshrines legacies of poverty, that disable and obstruct people from achieving an adequate quality of well-being for themselves, despite the wealth they and their land possess. This study achieves its aims by looking into both the political and economic aspects of African people’s lives under the persistent social unrest. It uses a bibliographical method of data collection and a hermeneutical approach to interpretation. In terms of results, the study declines blindly following democratic models borrowed from abroad due to their unsustainability resulting from politicians’ lack of compliance with its demands. It was found that Africa is largely rich in cultures and traditions from which, despite the diversity, a common platform of moral and ethical values can be built; the idea of Ubuntu philosophy or ethics stands as a common ground founded on the African way of doing things.So, to make our case, the study reflects upon Ujamaa, a moral philosophy and form of African humanism that applies the traditional idea of family to the state (communitarianism) (Nyerere 1968). Persuaded by this philosophy and the need to adjust it to the western liberal values (which represent modernity), we conclude that a moderate communitarianism (a fusion of foreign and local knowledge) can outline the foundation of a sustainable political, economic social well-being, aspects that African leaders fail to realize and achieve. Ujamaa encompasses most of the African problems due to its inherent power to respect human dignity through the promotion of justice, peace, freedom, unity, and solidarity among people.KeywordsLocal knowledgeCommunitySustainabilityDevelopment
Nicht-westliche Gemeinwohlkonzeptionen sind so vielfältig und heterogen, dass sie sich keinesfalls auf einen gemeinsamen Nenner bringen lassen. In manchen Fällen sind die Unterschiede zu westlichen Konzeptionen offensichtlich, andere Konzeptionen dagegen sind den westlichen durchaus ähnlich. Wichtig ist, dass eine ernsthafte Beschäftigung mit nicht-westlichen Gemeinwohlkonzeptionen nicht bei der Kenntnisnahme zusätzlicher Vielfalt stehenbleiben darf, sondern nach den Grunderfahrungen fragen muss, die sich in den verschiedenen Konzeptionen wiederfinden. Darin liegt die Chance, rückblickend auch auf jene Grunderfahrungen aufmerksam zu werden, die westlichen Gemeinwohlkonzeptionen zugrunde liegen.
As the world marked the second anniversary of COVID-19 in March, “Build Back Better” had impacted the policy lexicon that played out in real people’s lives. But what does it take to implement such policy? In public administration education discourse, developing nations do not receive as much attention in mainstream outlets. The article extends the discourse by exploring and connecting public sector work force policy to public administration education and public service training in Ghana. After reviewing literature and analyzing MPA/MPP curricula there, it discusses learning outcomes and assesses the quality of competence, while extrapolating lessons learned. The article concludes by proposing a critical pedagogy-inspired curriculum that integrates social equity and blends unique domestic need with global concerns.
The idea of change seems to be a vital part of human life and culture. With the concept of change, people, communities, and cultural practices have significantly evolved. Change has transformed some communities, traditions, cultural values and practices, communication methods, education, art, and literature. Thus, in this paper, I focus on the idea of change, African cultural practices, and the African sense of community. I aim to show how the concept of change has meddled with African cultural practices and the African sense of community. I intend to achieve this by using the Ifá divination system, the idea of storytelling, and homosexuality or the LGBTIQA+ 1 people as examples. 1 LGBTIQA+ is an acronym that encompasses all people whose sexual orientation differ from heterosexual. LGBTIQA+ is the acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexuals, transgender, intersex, queer, asexual and questioning. Also, I would like to note that for the purpose of this paper I will use both homosexuals and LGBTIQA+ interchangeably.
Wetlands have gained tremendous importance since the 1970s, both in scientific discussion and in government policy discourse. The Ramsar Convention provided some clarity in definitions of wetlands and their natural and social significance. However, the current scientific understanding of wetlands was constructed in the centers of knowledge production in the West. One of the consequences has been that local knowledge of wetlands has been obscured or ignored altogether. This research uses methods of historical archaeology, ethnography, and archival work to explore the Anlo's local knowledge of wetlands in Ghana. Anlo local knowledge includes unique forms of wetland ownership arrangements, appropriate management approaches, and so-called atsidza are used as epistemic tools. Bryan Norton's conceptual framework of adaptive management gives an important role to local experimentation and is therefore seen as a key tool for sustainable management. Adaptive management is understood as anlo-style consensus-building management to appropriately incorporate local knowledge and western science into wetland management. The concept of adaptive management is modified accordingly to integrate postcolonial studies of knowledge production and thus can also contribute to the critical analysis of the integration of local knowledge, which has tended to be underestimated or even ignored in postcolonial theories.
This paper attempts to discuss Aristotle’s concept of justice as an ethical solution to political corruption. The goal of this paper is to present corruption as a form of injustice that deprives the majority of the common good. This paper is very important because it provides an ethical solution to grand corruption whereby unscrupulous individuals divert funds meant for the development of the entire society into private hands. Due to grand corruption, the poor masses are deprived of quality basic needs. The paper focuses on corruption as an immoral act through the lens of Aristotle’s ethical and political insights. The virtue of justice in Aristotle’s ethical and political works are spelled out. The methodology used in this paper is analytical and applied. It is analytical because it analyses Aristotle’s understanding of the virtue of justice in his moral theory especially in his book entitled Nicomachean Ethics and justice in his political theory. Finally, the paper makes subsequent applications of Aristotle’s virtue of justice in the realm
of ethical solutions to the problem of corruption.
We're all getting older from the moment we're born. Ageing is a fundamental and ubiquitous aspect of life. Yet in ethics, not much work is done on the questions surrounding ageing: how do diachronic features of ageing and the lifespan contribute to the overall value of life? How do time, change, and mortality impact on questions of morality and the good life? And how ought societies to respond to issues of social justice and the good, balancing the interests of generations and age cohorts? In this Cambridge Handbook, the first book-length attempt to stake this terrain, leading moral philosophers from a range of sub-fields and regions set out their approaches to the conceptual and ethical understanding of ageing. The volume makes an important contribution to significant debates about the implications of ageing for individual well-being, social policy and social justice.
Several international conferences in the year 2019 were organized around the broader theme of xenophobia. 2019 marked the 400 th remembrance of the arrival of black slaves in what is today's United States of America (USA). The remembrance evoked bitter memories about institutional slavery, as well as focused attention on the ongoing anti-black racism in American society. For researchers and friends of Africa, other incidents on the continent might have contributed to this resurgence of scholarly interest in the theme. 2019 witnessed a rise in violent xenophobic attacks on aliens, including nationals of other African countries in South Africa. At the domestic level, Fulani herdsmen employ terrorist tactics to coerce subservience to their hegemonic agenda. To the extent that these incidents represent attempts to forge solidarities among group members while seeking to create an "other" out of what looks different, each of these is a case of xenophobia in its own right. Xenophobia contributes to such ills as anti-Semitism, sexism, racism, and homophobia, among several others. Although xenophobia is a well-researched topic, most analyses have tended to focus, for the most part, on tragedies, the doctrine's associated ills have engendered-slavery, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and so forth. It will be the task of this inquiry to offer a philosophical reflection on the spectre of xenophobia, with a primary focus on its contradictions. If we grant Kwame Gyekye's thesis that philosophy needs to explain experience, we may better appreciate the present effort, and further appreciate this study's contention that philosophy needs to also assume a prophetic mission, in terms of confronting evil principles or ideologies, while promoting justice. NAJOP: Nasara Journal of Philosophy 138-154 139 NAJOP: Nasara Journal of Philosophy
This paper assesses technology and moral concerns from an African humanist standpoint. It conceptualizes the notion of technology and value to establish how technology raises a humanist concern. We articulate that a humanist preview examines technological innovation from the backdrop of artefacts, skills, processes, as well as the social system of use. Then, we argue that a moral concern arises in technology when its design and use affect humanity positively or negatively, and that technology serves a utilitarian cause when it improves (a) human well-being and (b) community good. The paper also contends that traditional Yoruba worldview is pertinent in dealing with negative concerns that technology may occasion, as we suggest an adoption of the virtues of omoluwabi (well-behaved person) and collective spirit (emi isokan) in the use of technology, if technological goals are to have meaning in Africa.
This chapter focuses on explicating African Communitarianism to the Western reader who may be unfamiliar with it. The normative conception of personhood says that the focus of morality ought to be on developing one’s character. This is accomplished by exercising other-regarding virtues in the context of the community. Relational accounts hold that morality is primarily about fostering harmonious and friendly relationships within the community. Life force approaches claim that everything, both animate and inanimate objects, are imbued with an imperceptible energy. Morality is primarily about protecting and promoting one’s life force which is accomplished in the context of community. All three of these interpretations of African communitarianism, and indigenous African worldviews more generally, say that procreation is almost always all-things considered permissible. Indeed, marriage and having children is much closer to an obligation than it is optional, with individuals who remain single and childless well into adulthood being viewed with suspicion.
The social, cultural and economic history of Africa informs the various political narratives on the continent. Among these narratives birthing various intellectual discourses are the questions of personhood and communitarianism, socialism, independence, decolonisation and ubuntu. Implicit in these discourses, yet less theorised, is an African political philosophy of needs. By an African political philosophy of needs, I refer to a political philosophy that theorises about the social, economic and political realities in Africa, especially as they pertain to the needs that these realities engender. This article seeks to formulate a compelling, positive African political philosophy of needs. It does this by engaging Gyekye’s “moderate communitarianism”. It explores the various African political philosophical conceptions, thereby showing the need to theorise an African philosophy of needs adequately. The significance of this article is to address how various conditions, namely weak states (as a result of colonialism and postcolonial corruption), the complex history of leaders and massive underdevelopment of countries’ manufacturing capabilities in Africa are unable to respond to people’s needs, and how African political preoccupations, although important, have had deleterious effects on the political philosophy of needs. I shall argue on the capacity of African states to respond adequately to, and become responsible for, their citizens’ needs.
This article presents a theory of corruption which unifies the moral, political, economic and social causes and patterns of corruption in one theoretical framework. The theory is constructed from the scattered insights about the @'corruption of the body politic,@' building in particular upon the work of five theorists--Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli and Rousseau. Corruption is defined as the moral incapacity of citizens to make reasonably disinterested commitments to actions, symbols and institutions which benefit the substantive common welfare. This extensive demise of loyalty to the commonwealth comes from the interaction of human nature with systematic inequality of wealth, power and status. The corruption of the polity results in certain identifiable patterns of political conflict and competition. The central feature of these patterns is the emergence of quasi-governmental factions and an increasingly polarized class system. The politics of the factions leads to an undermining of the efficacy of the basic political structures of the society and the emergence of systematic corruption in all aspects of political life. The theory advanced in this article identifies several crucial prescriptions to stave off the tendency towards corruption. Among these are an extension of maximum substantive participation by all citizens in all aspects of political life and a stringent control over all sources of great or permanent inequality in the polity.
A better understanding of the present situation in sub-Saharan Africa may be gained by comparison with analogous developments
in Europe. The role of absolutism in nation-building is paralleled by the Colonial period, the European nation-state by the
emergent nations of the post-Colonial period. Three types of nationalism can be distinguished in European history: (a) demotic
nationalism which aims at homogenizing culturally heterogeneous populations included arbitrarily into political units according
to democratic principles, (b) ethnic nationalism aiming at the inclusion of each major ethnic society into one state of its
own, and (c) restorative nationalism which advocates the autonomy and ultimately independence of formerly independent political
units now submerged into larger political structures. Demotic tendencies in African nationalism may be recognized among leaders
bent upon the building of a new nation within the given boundaries of Colonial administrative units according to the Western
democratic model. Pan-Africanism on the other hand appears to be a type of ethnic nationalism while restorative tendencies
find their expression in tribalism. On the basis of this comparison and past experiences in European nation-building seven
hypotheses are presented regarding the relevance of the ethnic factor in nationalist ideologies and policies.
Prof. Lodge explores the use of ideology as a concept to understand ethical issues. He observes an ideological transition occurring in the United States, one that has been under way for some 80 years from what he refers to as Individualism to Communitarianism. Many ethical questions depend for an answer on which ideology is dominant or which is appropriate.
A quarter-century after its inception, the diversity within ‘African socialism’ remains astonishing. This category now includes development strategies which range from traditional capitalism with limited sectoral planning to collective forms of national autarky. Although it is generally agreed that none of the forms of African socialism incorporates an ‘orthodox’ type of Marxism, the tremendous intellectual impact which Marx and Lenin have had on all aspects of social, economic, and political thought means that it is impossible to construct a theory of socialism which is totally outside their shadows. In effect, Marxist orthodoxy inevitably serves as a tool for the evaluation of socialist theory.
ABSTRACT In this paper I argue that the economistic conception of development which has all along been touted by development ‘experts’and which has been made the monolithic framework for understanding and tackling the problem of development, is lopsided and terribly inadequate. That conception, it seems to me, fails to come to grips with the complex nature of human society and culture. That complexity, I argue, calls for a comprehensive, not segmented, approach to the development of human society. I therefore argue also that development must be perceived in terms of adequate responses to the entire existential conditions in which human beings function, conditions which encompass the economic, political, social, moral, cultural, intellectual and others. It is pointed out that these conditions are greatly helped by a congenial political climate and a viable ethical and cultural framework.