Today, you have given me strength to put to a finish this project on African ... the trends in doing African philosophy, major themes in ... The sense of wonder which is found in every human being ...... place. A man with strong will power can always rely on the ...... They persistently made serious attempts at rediscovering their ...
AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Terfa Kahaga Anjov Ph.D
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DEDICATION Late Anshi, Martin Wang Ph.D
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS God you are worthy to be praised for your goodness and mercy. Today, you have given me strength to put to a finish this project on African Philosophy in the 21st Century. Though this work has taken so much time, I am glad that by your kindness and wisdom, it has come to an end. In a special way I write to appreciate all those who have contributed to the completion of this book. My prayer to God is that He should increase your spirit of generosity a hundred-fold. Special thanks to my students and members of Faculty in the Department of Religion and Philosophy, Benue State University, Makurdi. My gratitude to Terzungwe Kwaghaondo of the Department of English Language for setting aside special time to read the manuscript and make necessary corrections and suggestions that have actually brought this book to the standard in your hands. My appreciation also goes to Mr. Mike Tsav who also read through the manuscript and made special comments that have improved the quality of this book for easy reading and assimilation. I am indebted to the Head of Department of Religion and Philosophy, Benue State University, Makurdi, Professor Daniel S. Shishima Ph.D for given me the opportunity to complete this project. I am grateful to the Vice-Chancellor of Benue State University, Makurdi, Professor Charity Angya for her encouragement and assistance during the course of my writing this book. I wish to use this space to acknowledge the entire Internet materials used without due acknowledgement, but have actually improved the quality of this book. My prayer to God Almighty is that each person and institution that has contributed to this volume be blessed a hundredfold in Jesus‘ Name.
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INTRODUCTION We are not Africans because we are born in Africa, we are Africans because Africa is born in us. Chester Higgins, Jr. The twentieth century witnessed a debate regarding the place of Africa in the intellectual world. Nearly a century ago, there are still people who have not come to terms with the fact that Africans are intellectually blessed like any other humans across the universe. The challenge of Africans having a unique field of study called African philosophy is a perennial one that must be faced squarely. With the introduction and teaching of philosophy in many universities across Africa, the debate is gradually dying off. There are many ways of doing philosophy that truly bring out its nature, factors, functions, branches and the relationship it has with other disciplines. With the ebbing out of the debate on African philosophy, there is an increasing need for a comprehensive book on African Philosophy. In response to this need, this book African Philosophy in the 21st Century seems most appropriate, timely and handy. The approach used in this book is to run through the early debate concerning the reality of African Philosophy as upheld by both indigenous and external philosophers. In fact, throughout Black Africa, scholars for more than five decades running have ventured into a radical search for African identity. Artists and intellectuals who embarked on this project had a great desire to regain the lost dignity of the African peoples and they were determined to prove to the world that the African, if given the right opportunity can compete favourably with anyone in any part of the world. The search for identity, equality and recognition by Africans has actually triggered the African intellectuals to work very hard in
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order to bring out their natural talents as a way of contributing to the growth and progress of the entire continent. There are different reasons for insisting on calling philosophy done in Africa, by Africans, or other people African philosophy. It does not mean that African philosophy is inferior to any philosophy found in any other part of the world. There is a general understanding that philosophy is universal in nature. In the 21st century, the question of whether there exists a subject of inquiry like African philosophy is no longer relevant. The relevance of the arguments to us in recent times is historical. Today, African scholars and artists are no longer spending time and energy to defend the reality of African philosophy. We are aware of the existence of African philosophy as a formidable field of study. The reader of this book should not expect the author to teach him how to philosophize as an African philosopher. The book is primarily meant to initiate the process of reasoning in the reader. In this wise, efforts are being made to analyze the various schools of thought with reference to African philosophy. We would critically look at what is philosophy, what is African philosophy, the debate on African philosophy, the trends in doing African philosophy, major themes in African philosophy and the seminal contributions of African philosophy towards the efficient understanding of Tiv culture and the effective development of Africa.
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CHAPTER ONE THE QUESTION OF PHILOSOPHY Etymology of Philosophy What then is philosophy? The term Philosophy is derived from two Greek words; Philos and Sophia. Philos means love, while Sophia means wisdom. A literal combination of both words would give us love of wisdom. The word philosophy is believed to have been introduced by Pythagoras and coined by Aristotle. What makes this term very complex is the fact that philosophy is understood differently by different scholars. The sociologist, anthropologist, economist, scientist, technologist, artist, religionist, psychologist among other fields of study understands and attempts to define philosophy in a very peculiar way. These diverse ways of understanding and defining philosophy do not isolate any group of persons as authentic philosophers and others as non-philosophers. It is based on such a clear understanding that scholars in recent times make bold to say ―every human being is a potential philosopher‖. Everyone seeks wisdom. Philosophy is inherent in every human being. This is true because every human being seeks to put meaning into life. The early Greek philosophers understood philosophy naturally as the work of individuals and a product of the city through the various experiences we encounter in life. The philosopher takes his time to carefully analyze the basic concepts of human language, in order to elucidate the fundamental ideas which form the crux of our existence. The first thing a student of philosophy comes to know is the fact that philosophy is the work of pure reason. If philosophy is conceived in this way, then the arrogance of saying white, European, Chinese and not black or African simply removes it from its universal nature to a relativity of flux opinion. A quick look at philosophy from the view point of
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Aristotle shows that philosophy begins with wonder. To wonder which is the hallmark of a philosopher agrees with the notion that philosophy is from pure reason. If we consider it from the root of the word as wisdom, then no single group of people can claim to have wisdom better than the others. Human wisdom is universal. Indeed, African ancestors had their own wisdom. Hence, they had their own philosophy. Indeed, philosophy has no special origin apart from it springing up from the way of life of a given people in their cultural milieu. The sense of wonder which is found in every human being propels in an individual to reflect on issues, events and activities as they affect his existence. It is this same sense of wonder that had set ancient philosophers to task. They wanted to know the cause of existence. They sought to know if there was meaning in human existence. Here lies the basis for William James‘ saying, ―Philosophical question is meaningless if it makes no difference on our experience, either past or future‖. The philosopher needs to know the original source of the universe. No doubt philosophy like any other science always begins with wonder. The early philosophers were stimulated in this sense of wonder to provide concrete answers to basic philosophical questions concerning the universe. Students of philosophy are often told that in doing philosophy, the most important thing is the question and not the answer to the question. Can you identify the question, ―What is the original source of reality?‖ as philosophical in nature? Can such a question attempt to provide man with knowledge of the world around him? The African is known for answering questions with asking further questions. No wonder the map of African continent remains a question mark. This makes an African truly a philosopher per excellence. The history of philosophy informs us that the first philosopher to attempt an answer to the question of the source of reality was Thales. The answer Thales gave was not philosophical, rather it was factual. He identified the source of reality with an element in the universe which is water. In the
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question ―What is the original source of reality?‖ is philosophical because it embraces being qua being. It is in this sense that we say the question is philosophical (because it is all embracing), it has universal applicability, but the answer is not, it is reduced towards biology which is an aspect of science (a part of a whole). Every science student knows this secret. When molecules of hydrogen combine with those of oxygen, water is produced. The idea of philosophy we are trying to bring up here is that of ―curiosity and unending questions about man and his world, about the universe and the ultimate existing reality‖.1 This is the reason why the philosopher is different from the lay person. A philosopher sees ordinary things in an extraordinary way. This is the point where philosophy is traced to wisdom. Sophie Bosede Oluwole succinctly explains the difference between the wisdom of a philosopher and that of any other person as thus; ―wisdom … consists in the ability to draw meaning from experience, to judge experience wisely; to see beyond what merely meets the eye‖2. Nature and Definition of Philosophy The broad nature of philosophy might lead to the study of philosophy to be problematic, but it cannot be rejected outrightly as a result of this challenge. It is only when the scope of philosophy is examined in relation to other disciplines like biology, economics, political science, medicine; and so on that one would realize that philosophy and indeed the philosopher are involved in other disciplines. Commenting on this point, Oluwole Bosede Sophie further explains that: ―In those days, philosophy included all knowledge not because philosophy meant science, but because wisdom needed knowledge as basis of operation‖.3 This makes philosophy relevant to other disciplines and to every human being. Thus, making philosophical studies an undifferentiated search for knowledge. Peter Bodunrin advises a new mind that wishes to know the definition of philosophy ―to wait for one as he would settle for one later or achieve this for himself with time in the course
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of his training in philosophy‖.4 It is commonly attributed to Immanuel Kant that he once said to his students: ―You will not learn from me philosophy, but how to philosophize; not truths to repeat, but how to think. Think for yourselves and stand on your own feet‖. This simply means that there is no universally accepted definition of philosophy. At the same time it does not mean there is no definition of philosophy at all. A simple glean around shows that scholars define philosophy in different ways. Few of these definitions shall be considered in this book. For Ogungbemi, ―philosophy is a body of knowledge or discipline which permeates every field of human endeavor with special focus on analysis and construction of arguments‖5 The philosopher is a seer, prophet and beacon of morals, of knowledge and development. This fundamental element distinguishes philosophy from other disciplines. Philosophy becomes the king and queen of other disciplines. This is the basis for awarding every academic field of study with the terminal degree called doctor of philosophy (Ph.D). Louis Pojman has asserted to this position when he declares: It is the contemplation or study of the most important questions in existence with the end of promoting illumination and understanding, a vision of the whole. It uses reason, sense of perception, the imagination, and intuition in its activities of clarifying concepts and analyzing and constructing arguments and theories as possible answers to these perennial questions.6 This is the reason why many people seek to indulge in the art of philosophizing. It is a field of study that does not leave its students in the dark. Young and old philosophers have attested to this fact over the centuries. Reacting to what philosophy is, Lawrence Ugwuanyi wrote: Philosophy studies the generality of existence from its most profound essence. It considers the basis, the ground, the fundamental and indeed the foundations of reality. But in doing this, its ambition is primarily to disclose the first cause of
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these things in relation to the first cause of reality as a whole as is possible to know, with natural reason. It seeks to connect or reconnect reality in its casual connections and by so doing ensure that existence is operating in line with its end.7 One would think that every activity in life is philosophical, but this is not the case. To start with, it is interesting to know that in philosophy the most important thing is to search for specific meaning and this is achieved when the appropriate methods are adopted. This illumination clearly brings out the fact that not every belief system is philosophical. For instance, when a person says this is not my ―philosophy of life‖. In simple terms, such a person is telling you that this and that way of doing this or that is not part of his life style. Here, the mind has not asked a deeper question concerning human life. Before we go into serious philosophical questions as philosophers, it is interesting to warn that the description of philosophy offered in this book is not strictly scientific or systematic. It is done in a loose sense in order to assist students develop a liking for philosophy. It is not out of place to say that philosophy is ―the ability to question the validity or credibility of an action, event and an argument‖. The art of doing philosophy is based on critical examination of life in its totality. Any individual who is involved in this exercise looks forward to the attainment of self knowledge and the improvement of things around him. The philosopher is fundamentally concerned with the whole world as the material object of philosophy. This is very important because the world is the only reality that is and can be known to man. Meanwhile the formal object of doing philosophy is identified in the fact that the philosopher studies everything. This is the point that made Karl Jasper to define philosophy as: A process of thinking as an inner action which the thinker comes to an authentic awareness of himself and reality by pressing beyond or transcending everything objective.8
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Hence, the philosopher indulges in a critical examination and re-examination of the facts of life and of the world in general. This is to achieve a deeper and truer understanding of an enquiry that searches for the ultimate nature and causes of things, as well as attempt in the words of Ugwuanyi ―to understand possibly all things, by trying to examine the basis of all things‖.9 He goes further to give us some fundamental philosophical questions. According to him: The mind starts philosophizing when it begins to ask deep questions as: what is life? What are we doing in this world? What is the truth about this life? What is the essence of existence? Is there a unity among the plurality of existence? Why something rather than nothing?10 It is only a person with wisdom that can appreciate the reason for the way things happen in this world. It is only philosophers who can devise on means of explaining events in this world to those who are victims of circumstances. The philosopher has the ability to rationally explain facts and activities/events without any form of racial discrimination. The philosopher is not to be called ―busy-body‖ simply because men find them ―meddling‖ with other people‘s disciplines.‖11 According to C.S. Momoh: Philosophy is the base and the apex, the foundation, the ceiling and the roof of any civilization, any religion, and any science. Indeed, any discipline … it is the queen and king of all the disciplines, where philosophy is present, there is light, where it is absent there is darkness.12 Having traced the root of philosophy to this point, it is appropriate to state that in considering the study of philosophy, efforts should not be wasted on segregating its subject and object from its cultural elements. When the cultural elements are removed from the objective understanding of philosophy, the definition and meaning of it changes automatically. For instance, life is life and death is death to every human being. Indeed, the main task of the philosopher is to discover truth about life and human
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existence through deeper self-searching questions. Joseph Omoregbe argues in support of this understanding that: ―Philosophy is a reflective activity on human experience in search of answers to some fundamental questions‖.13 Philosophy no doubt is a necessary force that propels the movement of particular fields of study. In other words, philosophy gives man a sense of direction in life. It attempts to give value to human activities. Most important, philosophy does not end with discovering human values, it is also able to catapult the ingenuity of man beyond empirical evidence. This is what Godwin Ehi Azenabor describes as ―helping to determine societal values, development and progress‖.14 Later on in the same work he opines that: Philosophy re-directs the thinking and value of man, by asking and tackling the question of the meaning of life. What is the meaning of human existence? What is the purpose of life and living? What is the place of man in the world? Why is there something instead of nothing? Why am I here? What is life? These questions are metaphysical in nature. The clear understanding of the issues at stake helps man in his attempt to create the desired atmosphere for his sustainability.15 It is hoped that the young student of African philosophy would not drop this book for it has not provided him/her with the goals of doing African philosophy. If you are thinking this way, then hold your breath and be challenged to read on because it is only in doing philosophy that you will be challenged ―to learn how the truth of things stand‖. We have to return to the old question, ―What sort of activity is philosophy?‖ This brings us to the task of gleaning through several definitions of philosophy in order to facilitate the discovery of its distinctiveness from other disciplines. It is after this activity that we would return our full discussion on African philosophy. Generally, philosophy is, ―An inquiry into all things with a view of reality, and the significance of life in general‖. This
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definition of philosophy cannot be stated without laying it on the thinking of Socrates who is famously quoted to have said, ―An unexamined life is not worth living‖. To examine one‘s life is to seek to gain higher interpretation of the world around us. No doubt Karl Jasper prefers to define philosophy as: A process of thinking as inner action which the thinkers come to an authentic awareness of himself and reality by pressing beyond or transcending everything objective.16 At least with these definitions we are no longer in doubt of what we were saying that genuine philosophical discussions have direct bearing on human life. Little wonder Epicurus sees philosophy as, ―An activity which secures the happiness of man by means of discussion and argument‖. Kwame Gyegye perceives philosophy as, ―a rational, critical and systematic inquiry into the fundamental ideas underlying human thought experience and conduct‖.17 In the next section the discussion will be focused on the need for an African philosophy.
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CHAPTER TWO THE UNIQUENESS OF AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY The Need for African Philosophy For several decades, there has been a raging wave among intellectuals, academics and artists as to whether there exists an African philosophy or not. In fact, it was not just about African philosophy; this search for African identity was wide spread. It fact of African literature, history and architecture were strongly denied. Africans cannot philosophize, Africans had no religion, Africans cannot conceive any work of art, Africans do not have a history, and Africans have no literature. Thus, the African continent was tagged Dark Continent. After some years of argument on the possibility of Africa philosophizing and theologizing by a good number of scholars around the globe, some came to agree that human beings are the same everywhere. The question we may ask at this moment is, what do I mean when I say am philosophizing? You might quickly offer to say ―to philosophize is to engage in an intellectual activity‖. This answer is very myopic. It is myopic in the sense that whenever we do science, geography, biology, history, economics, you name it, you are also engaged in an intellectual activity. Most of these subjects demand for factual explanations of events and activities. Thus, not every intellectual activity is philosophical. These disciplines enumerated above deal with merely factual questions to which factual answers are expected to be given. Even when we provide justification, ground or base for an action we are not close to what is authentically called an art of philosophizing. We are simply identifying the justifying reasons for such an action. Thus, to philosophize is to reach the level where we make an appeal to the court of reason itself in justifying our action. The action is performed by a human being; any form of justification must be based on its compatibility of man as a human being. It is only in an
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attempt to establish this justification that truly brings out the philosophical level of argument. It is important to note that all philosophical discussions have their origin and roots in life itself. So, if there is no problem to solve that has bearing on life, then such an activity cannot be termed philosophical. We should be clear on at this point that no group of people has monopoly of knowledge. This means that African philosophy truly exists. Africans can also conceive the reality of God and so on. Though some of the scholars agree that such realities actually exist in Africa, it is not possible for Africans to practice them without relying on Europe. This implies that African philosophy cannot stand at par with European philosophy or British, American, Chinese, Japanese and Indian philosophy. Just as I said, the touch on these arguments is to give the reader the basis for doing African philosophy. The study of African philosophy is relevant to students in the sense that philosophical investigations have strong influence on the culture of an individual or group. It is in the light of this significance that Bertrand Russell is attributed to have said to his students, ―To understand an age or a nation we must understand its philosophy, and to understand its philosophy we must in some sense be ourselves philosophers‖. Four African philosophers agree that African philosophy truly exists. They are; Kwasi Wiredu, Paulin Hountondji, Oruka Odera and Peter Bodunrin who are of the view that African philosophy is the philosophy done by African philosophers whether such a person is dealing with a particular subject matter that is African or alien to Africa. What this description intends to say is that African philosophy is predominantly meta-philosophy with special emphasis on the question of ―what is philosophy‖ and its corollary, ―what is African philosophy?‖ But it is important to deal with the issue of ascribing African to philosophy. There is every reason for the philosophically militant in Africa to proffer rational answers to the question of ―Why ‗African‘ philosophy?‖ It is a fundamental question people who are interested in doing African philosophy will be faced with
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any time anywhere. To start with, we are aware that philosophy has evolved in Africa in two strands. The first phase was deeply involved with the search for identity by Africans and their philosophy. The second phase basically concerns itself with some of the major philosophical problems in Africa. In both strands, the use of the prefix African distinguishes it from what happens in other continents. This is succinctly captured by Arthur in his article, African Philosophers and African Philosophy. According to him the word African is used: Either to unearth an African philosophy that antedates any contact with the West … or construct a philosophy which being uniquely African reveals Africa‘s philosophical contribution to human learning and to human civilization.18 This clearly shows that what defines philosophy as African is the presence of cultural underpinnings. This is about the uniqueness of philosophy in Africa and to the African. It is a call for the philosopher in Africa to relate philosophy to African traditional culture in an attempt at solving the challenges Africans face in African society. In a nutshell, every philosophy deals with self-conscious effort of any group to understand and act correctly in the world in which we live in. Africans and African scholarship should be interested in standardizing African philosophy. What is African philosophy? This is a corollary question to the earlier question of what is philosophy. There are four renowned African philosophers namely; Kwasi Wiredu, Paulin Hountondji, Oruka Odera and Peter Bodunrin who are of the view that African philosophy is the philosophy done by African philosophers whether such a person is dealing with a particular subject matter that is African or alien to Africa. What this description intends to say is that African philosophy is predominantly meta-philosophy. K. Anthony Appiah insists that: African philosophy should include both material on some oral cultures and rather more on the
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philosophical work that has been done in literate traditions on the African continent, including those that have developed since the introduction of Western philosophical training there.19 When perceptions of time, personhood, mind, etc., are handled philosophically, for the improvement of the condition of human life of Africans, those who are involved in it are African philosophers and their work can rightly be referred to as African philosophy. Most of the works in African philosophy in the twentieth century were carried out by Africans intellectuals who were trained outside the shores of Africa. It also implies that Africans who do philosophy, people of African descent or others who engaged themselves in the realm of African philosophy are African philosophers. Kwasi Wiredu an African philosopher, who spent so much time and energy to present African philosophy in perfect light, defined African philosophy as: Folk thought preserved in oral traditions. He strongly holds that African philosophy is critical, individual reflection, using modern logical and conceptual techniques.20 This is not to say that we should equate African philosophy with African folk thought. He argued that African folk thoughts are traditional narrations that are uncritical, not analytic and unconstructive. These folk-thoughts cannot enable anyone get to the significance of their meaning in the context of African society. For professional African philosophers, there are two ways of looking at philosophy; the attempt to fulfill their professional calling and the need to adapt to social and material needs of society. Thus, Joseph Omoregbe is of the view that: African philosophy encompasses the traditional African thought such as myths, wise sayings, folklores and the contemporary works of African philosophers trained in Western philosophical tradition which deals with evaluation and analysis of contemporary issues agitating the African mind such as African socio-political philosophy.21
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Our confusion was only cleared with Oladipo Olusegun‘s explanation when he said: ―they do not enable us to see how these conceptions hang together or to determine their ―explanatory fruitfulness‖ within the context of their traditional forms of life‖.22 To accept these folk thoughts would theoretically prevent Africans the opportunity to engage ―fruitfully in the activity of modern philosophizing‖.23 The presence of these maladies made Wiredu to call for the rejection of the illusion of African folk for African philosophy. The consequence of accepting it could bring about devastating effect on the understanding of Africans. Hear him: Its acceptance would deny Africans the selfunderstanding they require in order to be able to cope with the exigencies of the cultural transition that is taking place in contemporary Africa‖.24 The attitude of Kwasi Wiredu when considered from the African perspective may be seen as erroneous. It is true that Africans must go out of their cultural cocoon, but the task cannot be carried out in a vacuum. The philosopher who is involved in African philosophy must have to an extent, the ability to rationalize about the happenings in his society. The knowledge must be reasonable. The knowledge should be of elements that are culturally bound. Two things are involved in carrying out this task; one is the fact that methods of scientific oriented thinking be encouraged and any form of interpretation should take into cognizance the traditional background of the philosophical thought. Simply put philosophy has universal objective, the cultural touch cannot be removed from it. It is through this means that he would be able to have control of nature. The procedures that would lead to the attainment of the knowledge of society and its ways and to have control of nature must be logical, mathematical and analytical. This is the reason why philosophy is referred to as a science. To disassociate philosophy from the field of sciences is indirectly throwing away the benefits of theoretical and practical knowledge. Sogolo opines that: ―the issue of whether
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or not there is African philosophy gives the uncomfortable impression that the question itself is what African philosophy is‖.25 To get to the heart of proper articulation of African philosophy the philosopher must be sensitive to the specifics of the African situation in whatever he does. The major task in African philosophy has to do with the methodology of carrying out African philosophy. African philosophy must as a matter of necessity, comprise a set of cultural heritage and at the same time serve a strong need for recreating societal values. It is in this way that African philosophy can become dynamic in content as the existential imports of Africans are always changing from time to time. An African Philosopher Just as it is not easy to define African philosophy, it is difficult to come out with the best description of who is an African philosopher. We might say that the answer to the question, ―who is an African philosopher?‖ is no longer important. This is because research has established the reality of African philosophy and African philosophers. If there is no African philosophy, there would be no African philosopher. This concensus is reached because African philosophy actually exists. It is no longer debatable by anyone who has followed the history of philosophy in Africa. This fact does not imply that everyone who is doing philosophy in Africa is an African philosopher. So who is precisely an African philosopher? Let us turn to Kwasi Wiredu a Ghanaian philosopher who strongly insisted that: Not everybody needs to become a professional philosopher, but to a certain degree, everybody is a philosopher, in truth, no one has a choice whether to have some philosophy or none at all. In this connection we may recall the words of Jesus Christ: ―man‖, he said, ―shall not live by bread alone, but the word of God. But if man shall not live without the word of God even less shall he live without a philosophy: for how, otherwise, shall he attain the very conception of God? How shall he attain a
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conception of value of what to live for? How, in short, shall he attain a general and integrated outlook upon the world in which he lives? Clearly, the choice is not between having or not having a philosophy but rather between having one that is not consciously fashioned or an inherited and largely unexamined one.26 An African philosopher is one who has the ability to carry out philosophical reflection. This capacity is attained through the process of training of the intellect in order to dig out truths at philosophical depths. From the foregoing, what actually characterizes an African philosopher? Is it the nationality of the person? Is it based on discipline? Is it based on the content of a philosopher‘s work? For Makinde: ―Only African writers on African philosophy can be called African philosophers‖. The nationality and the content of his work are critical to the characterization of an African philosopher. In this way, Wiredu and Bodunrin called African philosophers not because of the content of their work but due to their nationality (by birth) rather than by choice (that is content of their work). There is no single characteristic that can determine who is an African. The name ―The people of Africa‖ is more than a name, it is linked to indigenous rights and issues of sovereignty. Africans are the natural people of Africa: the hair, the skin, is all specific adaptations to living in the African landscape. The motherland of these adaptations and the people‘s history is Africa; hence the relevance of the name. African refers to the historical, cultural people of Africa and their descendents in the Diaspora. The colour (blackness fails at every level in both historical and political context). In plain language, no one is an African unless they are also considered a Black person, but not every Black person is an African. The ancestral or geographical factors cannot settle the question of who is an African. According to Makinde, only African scholars who write on African philosophy in an African language (especially language of the scholar) can be called a real African
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philosopher. In contrast to Makinde‘s assertion, Joseph Omoregbe gives a broad definition of a philosopher as: One who devotes a good deal of his time reflecting on fundamental questions about life or the physical universe and who frequently and habitually does this.27 For him, whether articulated and documented philosophy exists or not, the reality of a philosophical tradition cannot be denied. This is strongly built on the fact that even if there were no known African philosophers, there was African philosophy. This manner of thinking is supported by Kwasi Wiredu who has written so much on African philosophy. According to Kwasi Wiredu, ―African philosophy is the philosophical thought embedded or articulated in the oral and written traditions of Africa‖.28 This period is equated to the Iliad and other Greek cultures. Going by this argument, it is not wrong to conclude that there existed in Africa a form of natural philosophy since the very ancient times.
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CHAPTER THREE THE EXISTENCE OF AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY Arguments against African Philosophy For several decades, there has been a raging wave among intellectuals, academicians and artists as to whether there exists an African philosophy or not. In fact, it was not just about African philosophy; this search for African identity was wide spread. It was the fact of African literature; history and architecture were strongly denied. Africans cannot philosophize, Africans had no religion, Africans cannot conceive any work of art, Africans do not have a history, and Africans have no literature. Thus, the African continent was tagged Dark Continent. There are some written comments by foreigners that actually triggered the debate on the possibility of African philosophy and worship. As if the wounds were not deep enough to destroy Africa, African scholars themselves who had studied in the Western universities joined these crops of European scholars to deny the reality of philosophy in Africa. Today, scholars who are associated with this field of study have not truly agreed on what should be included in this sphere of study. This ambiguity is unapologetically evident in most of the works on African philosophy. The raging debate as to whether there is something called African philosophy or not has been on for almost over six decades. For instance, if you ask G.W. Hegel, Levy-Bruhl, Sir Samuel Baker and Immanuel Kant whether there exists anything like African philosophy, they would respond in the negative. In his writing on the character of the African, Hegel‘s opinion was very harsh and dehumanizing. According to him: The peculiarly African character is difficult to comprehend, for the very reason that in reference to it, we must quite give up the principle which naturally accompanies all our ideas – the category
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of Universality. In Negro life, the characteristic point is the fact that consciousness has not yet attained to the realization of any substantial objective existence as for example, God or law in which the interest of man‘s volition is involved and in which he realized his own being. Thus distinction between himself as an individual and the universality of his essential being, the African in the uniform, undeveloped oneness of his existence has not yet attained; so that the knowledge of an absolute Being, an Other and a Higher than his individual self is entirely wanting.29 A closer look at the quotation shows that Hegel dismisses the possibility of an African, in his natural endowment to have the capacity to comprehend the reality of a Being which is outside of his human nature. It is in the same vein that LevyBruhl vehemently denied the ability of an African to conceive God without the assistance of Western education. According to him: How can an untutored African know God? Contributing to the negative picture of the white on Africa in their reportage Sir Samuel Baker made this nasty comment on Africa: Without any exception they are without a belief in a Supreme Being, neither have they any form of worship or idolatry, not it the darkness of their minds enlighten by even a ray of superstition. The mind is as stagnant as the morass which forms its puny world.30 This was the kind of picture some foreigners painted of Africa. It was the same picture that triggered Placide Tempels to write on Bantu philosophy. But his work was viewed in a different light by Paulin Hountondji who was the first recorded African scholar to deny the reality of African philosophy. He argued that philosophy cannot be derived from African thought system because it is absolutely impermeable to the rules of elementary logic and reasoned discourse. From this point of view, Hountondji seems to be saying that if what
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Africans do is to be called philosophy in its strict sense, then, it must be analytic and specifically dialectical in nature. This calls for a clear presentation of issues in order to let the listener know truly what he is invited to listen to by such an argument, this will enable him to accept or reject it. If it is a theory that is being presented, then it should be presented in a way that it has the ability to solve a problem a man faces than any other rival theories that could also be applied in such a situation. This is the best way dialectic method applies to philosophy. We are not refusing in totality the arguments of Paulin Hountondji regarding the characteristics of philosophy, but over dependence on dialectics are in a way, to throw out all the activities of Africans. The way an African may decide to present his understanding of life may not be logical and systematic, but it is not enough to conclude that his way of thinking has to do with his life and the life of members of his society. Nevertheless, we cannot deny that Africans too express their deepest feelings about life both analytically and reflectively. He vehemently argued that philosophy cannot be a collective thinking of a group which is expressed in the culture of the people and as such common clichés that people in a community accept as their philosophy cannot be true philosophy. But Paulin Hountondji is not alone. Another prominent detractor to the growth of African philosophy is P.O. Bodunrin who is of the view that: ―Philosophical systems are built up by systematic examination of specific features of the world out of the relationships that are perceived to obtain between them‖.31 Here he strongly argues that there is no such thing as an African philosophy since African traditional forms do not subject themselves to the critical analysis that is at the very heart of genuine philosophy. That is to say that: Criticism and argument are the hallmarks of philosophy and anybody of thought that cannot withstand the sledge-hammer of criticism and argument is not worth its salt‖.32
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On the weight of critical analysis, it is proper to suggest that a philosopher in Africa or philosopher in general is ――one who loves the truth in its deepest meaning‖.33 The critical approach created by philosophy brings man to ―the point of acquiring the right sense in the market of value and the right attitude to things‖.34 The implication here is that philosophy does not come from the blues. It is cultivated by members of a community for the good of the society. The philosopher is a gold fish that cannot be hidden. This is the same thing David Hume had in mind when he wrote: ―Though a philosopher may live remote from business the genius of philosophy if cultivated by several must gradually diffuse itself throughout the whole society‖.35 These crops of philosophers have in all their works attempted to define Africa with respect to Europe. The philosophers of African origin who are in this school of thought are those who were trained according to Western philosophical rules. So it is easy to hear them attempt to find nothing good in African life style which forms the basis for African philosophy. It is not enough to see what the African philosopher is doing as mere waste of time and energy. It is instructive for such scholars to throw away the regalia of the colonialist and embrace African philosophical trend in order to liberate themselves first and then attempt to address the real issues affecting Africans in contemporary times. This indeed is the life blood of philosophy. Philosophy in a strict sense is scientific, theoretical and an individual discipline. It cannot be replaced by popular belief, traditional practices and a collective and unconscious behavior. Philosophy arises out of opposition of preceding traditions of mythical, dogmatic and conservative worldviews. Philosophy is constitutionally opposed to myth. Myth is defined as ―unreal representation of the empirical world‖. According to G.O. Ozumba: they issue from imaginations, fancies and framedup imageries which try to present a world that though appears real, is the counterfeit of the real,
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or often, the wish of the person making up the myth.36 Most stories of creation throughout the world are myths (fictitious). In his analysis, it is possible for African philosophy to be both a myth and reality. The possibility of African philosophy being a myth comes up when it fails to articulate its self-conscious framework that is autonomously African. Here, the philosopher makes use of western concepts to give meaning to reality as it affects the African. Again, he strongly agrees that African philosophy truly exists. Hountondji links the reality of African philosophy to the presence of literature on the subject matter. The challenge a young scholar of African philosophy may have at this juncture is ―what actually qualifies for African philosophy?‖ a better part of this argument is done in the section that deals with the question of what is African philosophy. For now, it suffices to state that most of the philosophers who came to Africa and who are Africans by birth did not jettison other philosophical traditions in order to discover the origin of African philosophy. It is clear that a philosopher whose hands are full with other thought systems can hardly make new discoveries as he would be constantly blinded by the perceptions of the other philosophical strands. This can be seen in the person of Placide Tempels whose primary role in African was not to philosophize. As a missionary with Western spectacles, it was not possible for him to imbibe the African traits within a very short time that would enable him philosophize as an African. We are no longer in doubt concerning the philosophers in this school of thought; they were and are still directly or indirectly confused by an earlier controversy concerning the rational state of the African person. For them the African cannot rationally think for himself. Argument for African Philosophy It is interesting to know from scholars in African philosophy who are indigenous to Africa that, ―the debate or controversy on whether or not there exists an African philosophy started with initiative of the German philosopher,
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William Amo and with the cooperation of other African philosophers like Dubois, Garren, Nkrumah, Azikiwe, Awolowo and Joseph Tarka they made bold to show that, ―Africans have the capacity for critical thinking and the capacity to take their intellectual destinies into their hands‖.37 With the wide range of literature on African philosophy the debate is ―dead and buried‖.38 The person who dug the grave and buried this controversy in Africa was a foreign priest Placide Tempels in 1945. He presented his work as part of his mission to rehabilitate the black man, his culture and redeem him from the contempt into which he has fallen. This might sound fantastic and encouraging to Africans, most especially the early intellectuals who necessarily had to study in European universities, but the truth of the matter is that African philosophy truly exists. Even though it is not fully expressed in writing we are very sure that it can stand on its own feet and can confidently compete with European philosophy, British philosophy, American philosophy, and so on. In order to defend the existence of African philosophy, Black Africans went into serious research for more than five decades, gleaning for materials to show for the reality of African identity. In the first place the intention was not to defend the reality of African philosophy, but the unique identity of the African. They were also anxious to prove to the whole world that if given the right opportunity like their other counterparts around the globe, they too can do whatever the others are doing even much better. We can have come to recognize that there are some essential ingredients about what philosophy is. Whatever we consider as philosophical has a lot to do with human reflection on the experience of a society, group or an individual. This reflection is necessitated what we earlier referred to as wonders about compelling problems of life and existence. Such reflection must be critical and logical. As long as anybody or group meets these requirements such a person or group can be said to engage in what is called philosophy. The implication is that whenever our activities conform to the requirements stipulated above, such an activity performed
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by Africans or those lovers of Africa is called African philosophy. Hence, we submit that what African philosophy is, involves the application of the above categories of conceptual analysis, logic, criticism and synthesis to the reflections on issues that are of paramount importance to the African needs and ways of life. African in this context is not based exclusively on geographical congruity, but also on certain shared values among Africans. The search for identity, equality and recognition by Africans has actually gingered the peoples to bring out their talents to the growth and progress of the land. But it was after some decades of argument on the possibility of Africa philosophizing and theologizing by a good number of scholars around the globe, that some came to agree that human beings are the same everywhere. Going by this: African philosophy is an attempt by philosophers to make the folklores, myth, sooth sayings, religion, education, socio political organizations and other aspects of the African culture relevant to African needs not through any dogmatic attachment to standards used in evaluating the African culture or African culture itself, but through creative critical examination and logical methodologies which are not peculiar to the Western culture.39 This search when traced to the twentieth century gives us the understanding that philosophy is universal in nature. But, Bruce B. Janz insists that, ―African philosophy‘s development in the twentieth century is both relatively recent, traceable to some seminal texts, and ancient, drawing on cultural form that stretch back in time and space‖.40 This clearly shows that philosophy has a cultural underpinning. In the 21st century, the question of whether there exists a subject of inquiry like African philosophy is no longer relevant. Africans and African scholarship should be interested in standardizing African philosophy.
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We are aware of the existence of African philosophy as a field of study. What actually qualifies for an African in terms of philosophy is the content of the philosophy or the identities of the philosophers. This book has already discussed these qualities earlier on. What is left for us to do is to identify the task African philosophy has put on the philosopher in Africa in the 21st century. Therefore, our effort is not just to defend the existence of African philosophy but more so to integrate the younger scholar in African philosophy to African traditional culture. This is to bring out to the limelight the expectations of African society on those who claim to be African philosophers. We should be clarified at this point that no group of people has monopoly of knowledge. This means that African philosophy truly exists. Africans can also conceive the reality of God and so on. In fact, the knowledge of God is inherent in the people of Africa. A child in Africa does not need catechism to believe in the existence of God. The child in Africa does not need catechizing to know the goodness of God. Thus, it is completely erroneous to have some of the scholars agree that such realities actually exist in Africa, but it is not possible for Africans to express them or even practice them without relying on European acquired knowledge. We have already stated earlier that there is no need for any defense concerning the reality of African philosophy. What we need at this juncture is to encourage the reader in order to bring out the best in him/her in this area.
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CHAPTER FOUR TRENDS IN AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY African philosophy is treated in different strands depending on who is putting forward an argument for or against the existence of African philosophy. This chapter is an additional support to the discussion on the nature of African philosophy and whether it is in fact in existence. There are four trends in the doing of African philosophy initiated by a Kenyan philosopher, Henry Odera Oruka. He distinguished African philosophy in the following trends; ethnophilosophy, philosophical sagacity, Nationalistic-Ideological philosophy, and professional philosophy. Later on Oruka added two more categories; literary and artistic philosophy. Recently, A.F. Uduigwomen categorize african philosophy in three trends; Universalist, Particularist and Eclectic school. Meanwhile, Francis Njoku and a host of others have preferred to include hermeneutic philosophy. We cannot claim to treat all the trends in this book, but it is our hope to give brief definition of these trends and their proponents and main arguments. Ethnophilosophy The term ethnophilosophy was first coined and used by Paul Hountondji41 to describe the works of anthropologists, sociologists, ethnographers and philosophers who present collective philosophies of life of African peoples. Ethnophilosophy is a school of thought whose members accept and record the beliefs in African cultures as contain philosophical elements. These philosophical elements are in themselves a set of shared beliefs, values, categories and assumptions that are implicit in the language and practices of a given people. It is the task of the ethnophilosopher to identify the elements in the totality of existing customs and common beliefs of a people culture of the philosopher. In fact, the art of philosophizing cannot be divorced from the culture
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of the people. They do this by carefully describing a world outlook of a particular African community. This tradition represents what Paulin Hountondji calls collective philosophy. Isaac Abeku Blankson defines ethnophilosophy as: ―is a system of thought that deals with collective worldviews of diverse African peoples as a unified form of knowledge‖.42 There are a number of philosophers who can be referred to ethnophilosophers based on their works. They are; Leopold Sedar Senghor of Sengal, Placide Tempels and Alexis Kagame of Rwanda, Odera Oruka of Kenya, John Mbiti, Kagame Onyewenenyi of Nsukka and Joseph Omoregbe of Lagos. These proponents on the possibility of having African philosophy are of the view that African thought forms lead to a genuine philosophy and to refute the reality of an African philosophy is the same thing as saying there is no Greek or European philosophy. For them the suffix Chinese, Indian, Western or European are not true to these localities if in anyway there is denial of African philosophy QED. Another strong reason for their argument is the fact that the early Greek philosophers who are today referred to did not leave philosophical writings of their own. For example, Socrates did not leave any form of writing, but his oral teachings were later articulated by his students and preserved for others. You will note that the term philosophical reflections were omitted and oral teachings used instead. This book treats Placide Tempels as an ethnophilosopher whose seminal work faced so many challenges surrounding its acceptability. Placide Tempels The appearance of the book entitled: La Philosophie Bantoue caused a shock to many scholars. A strong sense of curiosity arose among the west. The Africans whom were being defended through the work were themselves perplexed to know that there exists something like philosophy in their land. With the appearance of this seminal work, Placide Tempels became the first author to make a bold claim that Black Africa has an inherent traditional philosophy. In his
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work, Tempels argued in favour of Bantu Philosophy insisting that the metaphysical categories of the Bantu people are reflected in their linguistic categories. He concluded his work by stating clearly that African philosophy can best be understood as springing from the fundamental assumptions about reality reflected in the languages of Africa. He was from the Francophone axis. He devoted much of his time writing on Bantu Philosophy. He devoted much of his time writing on Bantu Philosophy. He builds this philosophy on the concept of life among the Bantu people which is centered on one unique value called vital-force. Placide Tempels was quick to compare being with vital force. This idea of the vital-force gave him room to make a comparison between African and the West. Being as understood by the West is static and power, while the Bantu understand vital-force as dynamic, but not equivalent to power. With this understanding of both cultures that Tempels decided to define being as ―force… but for the Bantu, force is not an accident, it is even much more than a necessary accident, it is the very essence of being in itself‖. The implication of the citation made by Tempels shows that what the people call vital-force is being in itself, as it is in its total reality, actually realized and actually capable of a more intense realization. With this understanding of the place of vital-force among the Bantu people, it is not out of place that the author went ahead to insist that: Being is force, force is being. The notion of being for the West is ―what is‖, but for the Bantu it is force and is simply defined as ―which is‖. Tempels made us understand that when the West use the concept of Being, the Bantu use the concept of force. Where the West sees concrete beings, the Bantu see concrete forces. When the west attempt to make a distinction between different beings based on their nature and essence, the Bantus would prefer to say it is the forces that differ by their nature or essence. In categorizing force, they agree that force comprises of all beings from God which is the highest force to the minerals which are
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the least forces. This for Placide Tempels is the interaction of forces based on the principle of degree of validity. In this way, every force is capable of decreasing and increasing. With this understanding Placide Tempels concluded that: Africans have a coherent ontological system which is the ultimate foundation of their entire social practice. This is a clear case of monism in African philosophy. Everything is one and one is everything. Having followed the outline of Placide Tempels understanding of what is philosophy of the Bantus, it is appropriate for us to say here that ―there appears to be an interaction of forces‖. This knowledge of the interactions and influences of one force on another and vice-versa that truly constitute philosophy for the Bantus. A common analogy of the way the forces work in life is the use of spider making a web. To pull a line would involve the whole network. This brings us to the idea of communalism. Even though the people prefer an egalitarian society, it does not mean there is no hierarchy in the land. In the case of forces, there exists a hierarchy of forces ranging from God on top, the arch-patriarchs, founders of clans, the dead of the tribe according to their order of primogeniture and the living who are also arranged in hierarchy not according to juridical criteria, but according to their being itself. That is to say vital force is based on the organic degree of life. Below the human forces, it is also believed that the forces of animals, vegetables and minerals are. Each of these classes has its own hierarchy according to the vital-force, rank or primogeniture. The Bantus also recognize that the present generation of men on earth is the centre of all humanity which includes the dead. The dead have retained their forces and apply their acquired knowledge of vital-forces for the benefit of the living. Indeed, the lower classes of animals and plants are meant to serve man and his vital-force. The socio-political structure of the Bantus is also built on their notion of vital-force. It was based on the above knowledge of the Bantu people, that the author categorically states that the Bantu philosophy of forces is their unique conception of the world. In his concluding
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remark, Tempels says: ―Among the Bantus, every knowledge, every experimental knowledge, coincides with their conception of forces, and is bound up with their general laws of the increase and interdependence of forces‖. It is necessary for beginners of philosophy, particularly young African philosophers to spend some times to examine this work and the work of other authors with a mind set of understanding what truly African philosophy is. Criticism of Placide Tempels’ work When Placide Tempel published in 1945, it was greeted with a lot of animosity especially from Africans. For F. Ebuoussi Boulaga criticized the work not so much that it was not a great piece of work, but he saw it as a claim of superiority complex foreigners attempt to display when discussing Africa. He wondered how a foreigner would claim to penetrate the thought of people he has not intermingled with for a long time, but be able to understand everything about them, including their own principles. He disputed the claim of Placide Tempels that there exist sub-conscious philosophical systems among the Bantu who in themselves, lack the ability to adequately articulate it. Paulin Hountondji a scholar and philosopher of international repute denied what Placide Tempels called Bantu Philosophy. He was very critical of Tempels‘ work. This criticism is captured in his book African Philosophy: Myth and Reality. He based his criticism on two pillars; political and theoretical. The political argument, Hountondji recalled the contributions made by Aime Casaire who felt that Placide Tempels‘ work was a diversionary tactic by the foreigner to turn the attention of the Bantus away from colonial exploitation of the natives that have placed them in a situation of political instability. The people were gradually realizing that they were cheated grievously so to cushion their anger, Placide Tempels used the strategy of identifying in them something of great value; the Bantu philosophy. The criticisms of Paul Hountondji are more incisive, famous and penetrating. He acknowledged that Placide
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Tempels work was motivated by the desire to redress the negative image of Black Africa. Remember the things said about Africa by people like Levy-Bruhl, Immanuel Kant, and so on. The intention of writing on Bantu Philosophy as conceived by Hountondji was that Placide Tempels, Marcel Griaule, Alexis Kagame and John Mbiti in all their works wanted to prove that philosophy is located within traditional communal wisdom. Thus, Africans just like Europeans had their own system of thought, thus their own philosophy. He understood this as a noble project, but his challenge about the work was the fact that it was addressed to Europeans and more specific to the colonial officers and missionaries who felt it was their mandate and duty to civilize the primitive people of Africa. He is very critical of the work of Placide Tempels. He criticized Tempels using two fronts; political and theoretical. He strongly felt that the whole work was ideologically motivated with the aim of satisfying the ends of imperialism. He questioned the rationale for not addressing the African directly and wherever the African is spoken of, it is done as a means to an end not as an end in itself. It is at this juncture that Paulin Hountondji questioned the validity of the assumption that there actually exists a collective philosophy common to all the Bantu which is hidden in the sub-conscious of the people, yet expressed in their culture. But from the presentation made by Placide Tempels, Paulin Hountondji denied the existence of such a philosophical system and wondered why African philosophers are spending a lot of time and resources in pursuing a mirage of this nature. He insists that the whole idea of discovering an African philosophy is not African intended, but a European project. The aim of doing this was and to a large extent is to make clear demarcation between African civilization and Western civilization. For him, ―African civilization has been ‗fixed and mummified‘ in the traditions of the past. In this sense, the European ethno-philosophers have tried to kill the African‘s creative power to produce philosophical ideas and debates.
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The African philosophers were expected to be archivists of their cultural traditions, rather than original thinkers. The understanding Paul Hountondji is presenting to us is that the proposal to have an African philosophy is to play Africans into the hands of the colonialists and racialists who have consistently divided the African from European. Thus, any reference to Africa automatically makes us define Africa with respect to Europe. He is quoted to have lamented about the situation Africa is passing through: Africans are, as usual, excluded from the discussion, and Bantu philosophy is a mere pretext for learned disquisitions among the Europeans, the black man remains a topic, a voiceless face under private investigation, an object to be defined and not the subject of a possible discourse. 43 Philosophy is not culturally bound. In a strict sense, philosophy must be scientific, theoretical and an individual discipline like algebra, physics, or linguistics. To replace philosophy with popular belief systems as Placide Tempels did in the case of Bantu peoples‘ belief thought, and their traditional practices that serve them in their collective and unconscious behavior was totally un-philosophical and wrong. Paul Hountondji was confident that wherever philosophy arose, it did so as an opposition to the preceding traditions of mythical, dogmatic and conservative worldviews. Hence, philosophy does not grow out of the myth and a fortiori cannot be identified with the myth; it is constitutionally opposed to it. This is not to say that the creation of an African philosophy cannot be made ex nihilo. African philosophy must necessarily comprise of a whole cultural heritage and consists most of the time of nothing, but a recreation. In all that Paul Hountondji wrote against Placide Tempels, he was out to criticize fundamentally ethnophilosophy which restricts itself exclusively to a backward look into the past. He thinks on the basis of this past tradition, there must be a creative confrontation of individual thoughts in the present and for the future.
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Alexis Kagame Alexis Kagame like Placide Tempels in his work La Philosophie – Ruandaise de L‟Etre makes us believe in the presence of philosophy among Africans. Unlike Placide Tempels, Kagame restricts his claims to a smaller cultural area (Rwanda) and by abandoning the idea of force to explain the underlying causal principle. Instead of the vital-force, Kagame uses the relation of language to philosophy. For him, when the language of a people is critically analyzed, the philosophy of the people can be deduced. Alexis Kagame postulates that ―by analyzing the structure of the Ruandese language, the Ruandese philosophy of being can be deduced‖. The methodology adopted for this task makes him close to Placide Tempels. Both of them using logical steps are able to systematize the philosophical notions and Bantu institutions in the light of European philosophical principles as yardstick for determining what philosophy of being is. Both authors have two meeting points; the conception of man as a compound of body and soul and that humanity is at the centre of Bantu thought. What they failed to do was to bring out the worldview of the Bantu people that is peculiar to them. They ended up by ontologising the Ruandese grammar which is an indirect way of undermining the dynamic nature of every philosophical worldview. This is typical of Placide Tempels. Alexis Kagame went further to assert that formal logic is universal in all cultures and that there is no specificity as far as concept, judgment and reasoning are concerned. He posits that the western mode of thought has its merits and demerits. He never denied the possibility of every culture having the capacity to assimilate. In essence, it is a systematic application of Aristotle‘s philosophy to the Ruandese grammar. The paradigm is used in order to establish a direct correspondence between them. The arguments Paul Hountondji makes against Placide Tempels can be conveniently used against Alexis Kagame. According to Ozumba:
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The presence of disparity in the interpretation of the Bantu philosophy by Tempels and Kagame goes to show that there is nothing like preexisting philosophical material that is uniquely African. There are always many perspectival insights as there are philosophers.44 He insists that ethnophilosophy is a myth and should be definitively destroyed if Africans want real philosophy to take root in Africa. John S. Mbiti The two scholars who have presented us with the reality of African philosophy were both using French language to write their works. It is imperative to take a look at the scholar who has made use of English language to discuss the reality of African philosophy. This takes us to the work African Religions and Philosophy written by John S. Mbiti. The author did not adopt the same element as Placide Tempels, nor Alexis Kagame who used the general idea of the culture of Bantu people and the analysis of the language of the Ruandese, rather made his declaration of African philosophy from considering the African idea of time. John S. Mbiti in his work regards African concept of time as the key to an understanding of the basic religious and philosophical concepts in Africa. The explanation of African belief systems, the attitude and practices are all centered on what the African understand time to be. He does not link this reality to those in the rural (traditional) areas, but insists that the people in urban centers also make use of this concept of time. Time for the traditional African is of two dimensions. Time can be seen as relating to the long past and the present. The African time does not include the future. It is basically cyclical in nature. John S. Mbiti in another book entitled: New Testament Eschatology in an African Background, he argues that the Western linear concept of time is foreign to African thinking. He attempts to make a classical comparison between
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African and European understanding of time. His argument can be summarized in six points. Africans have two-dimensional concept of time; an indefinite past and an intensely active present. When there appears to be a futuristic dimension of time, it does not go beyond a few years. He arrives at these conclusions based on the analysis of African myths and the verb tenses of the languages. Since there is no indefinite future, there is also no concept of the end of the world. For Africans, history moves backwards and, therefore cannot head towards a unified goal, a climax and a termination. African eschatological concepts are not ―eschatological‖ in the strict sense since they are directed towards the end in the opposite direction. They lack a telos, they are eschatological, but not teleological. The reference to a future dimension of time in Africa has come about as a result of the advent of Christianity. The western-type of education has actually introduced individualism and planning for or thinking about the future. Critique on John S. Mbiti’s Concept of Time The description of time provided by John Mbiti is slightly confusing. From his presentation, it is clear that he does not know when time is supposed to be used in different contexts; psychological, social, mythologico-theological, scientific and philosophical. The accuracy of his observations and their exclusive validity for Africa are not beyond doubt. But most significant of all, the mere conception of time would hardly constitute a valid criterion for marking off a philosophy and certainly, of itself, does not constitute a philosophy. We have come to the conclusion that the search for African philosophy has yielded no positive result. This does not imply that African philosophers would do something else. Another scholar who fits in the ethnophilosophical school is E.J. Algoa he strongly argues for the existence of African philosophy. You will recall that Omoregbe Joseph I. opines that even if there is no articulated or documented philosophy, it is hard to deny the existence of a philosophical tradition.
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This is the basis for which Algoa contemplates in his article, ―An African Philosophy of History in the Oral Tradition‖. In that article, he strongly argues that in African philosophy age is seen as an important factor in gaining wisdom and interpreting the past. He uses proverbs in Africa to represent his arguments. Some of these proverbs are, ―what an old man sees seated, a youth does not see standing‖, ―Truth is seen as eternal and unchanging (Truth never rots), ―even a four-legged horse stumbles and falls‖ this is literally translated to mean people are subject to error. From these statements, the author attempts to show to the world that the past is not and should not be seen as fundamentally different from the present, all history is contemporary history. The Universalist School The name speaks for implies that philosophy is a universal enterprise. The Universalist or professional philosopher is one who is paid to teach, and meditate on philosophy. This is a school of thought that says philosophy is universal in nature and methodology. Thus philosophy is the same everywhere and is characterized by the following procedures; critical, mathematics, logical, and analytical. Describing the characteristics of the professional philosophy school of thought G.O. Ozumba had this to say: Philosophy must have the same meaning in all cultures although the subjects that receive priority and perhaps the method of dealing with them may be dictated by cultural biases and the existential situation in the society within which the philosophers operate.45 The philosophers in this school are Paul Hountondji of the Republic of Benin and Kwasi Wiredu of Ghana. These philosophers hold the view that philosophy in general deals with abstract questions which are general in nature and have special focus on problems affecting human life. They understand that philosophical questions must necessarily go beyond cultural and geographical boundaries. It is important to point out at this point that the Universalist
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school strongly denies the existence of African philosophy. One should not be confused to read that the Universalist or professional philosophical school denies the existence of African philosophy. Indirectly, they are of the view that African philosophy is philosophy done by African philosophers. This could be in specific subjects like ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, social political philosophy, logic and so forth. For them what makes African philosophy African is the African mind-set. The philosopher thinks like an African because the situation in which he lives in provides the necessary ingredients for his reflection. More on categorization would be done under the topic what is African philosophy. For now it suffices to that those who are in this school, see nothing special about naming a philosophy African, European, Chinese and so forth. It makes one to wonder how these philosophers can deny the possibility of African philosophy as coming out from the wise sayings of an African, but the same person would attribute philosophy to the activities of Plato from Athens. The creation of African philosophy cannot be done ex nihilo. Critique on the Universalist Most traditional societies that had no formal way of preserving information by way of writing used the story telling method to keep vital information for generations yet unborn. In Africa, information was transmitted through religious teachings and practices, folklores, proverbs, mythologies, wise-sayings, songs, story-telling and so on and so forth. The religious teachings and practices, stories, songs among other vital information have become part and parcel of African cultural heritage. The issue for scholars in Africa is not so much about denying the existence of African philosophy, but to take to the task of gleaning around the various cultures to identify those philosophical materials and presenting them as such to the world. This is the point at which we can make a positive impact on ourselves for others to see and appreciate. The suggestion made by A.F. Uduigwomen is totally
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acceptable. According to him the task of gleaning for philosophical materials for what is African philosophy would: Inculcate in Africans the habit of critical reflection on issues of everyday life, thus putting them on their guard against dubious assumptions and superstitions.46 Without wasting so much time on discussing the reality of African philosophy, A. F. Uduigwomen joined the particularistic school to proclaim the existence of African philosophy and show to anyone in doubt that it is ―a collective worldview of the African peoples, the philosophical reflections of gifted individual African thinkers (in Tiv is the philosophical thoughts of Botwev) who could be regarded as African philosophers of the past, and the ideological formulations of African nationalists‖.47 Italicized words are mine. This is also the view of Joseph Omoregbe who sarcastically argues the absence of collective philosophy ―since whatever thought one can call collective is ultimately the thought of an individual, since the collectivity as such does not think‖.48 The position of the Universalist School and the Particularistic School are on both extremes. To follow each of them would definitely deprive us of attaining our lofty goal in African philosophy. What would members of this school say when a foreigner comes to live in Africa for a long time, gets himself nationalized and begins to work on African thought system? This is a clear case of extremism. So it is advisable to take the middle course. This middle course will give us the real meaning in doing genuine African philosophy. This clarion call leads us to the Eclectic School. The Eclectic School This is a middle course position in doing African philosophy. It is different from the Universalist or Professional School and the Particularistic or Ethno-philosophical School. The proponents of eclectic school are; In order to discover authentic African philosophy, efforts must be made to bring together arguments based on Universalists approaches and ethno-philosophical approaches. The argument of those in
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this school of thought is that both sides have what would contribute to the understanding of African philosophy. On the one hand, the Universalist school would supply the analytic and possibly the conceptual framework. On the other hand, the ethno-philosopher would provide the raw materials for analysis and conceptualization of African philosophy. In this way, ―there will be a fruitful exchange of categories and concepts‖49 for a clear understanding of African philosophy. Going by the need for compromise, the eclectic school holds that those who are involved in the Universalist and Particularistic schools are doing African philosophy. It is based on this new position that A.F. Uduigwomen insisted that: The totality of what they are doing constitutes the real African philosophy. Therefore, it would be sheer intellectual arrogance for any group of trained African philosophers to disqualify the works of other trained African philosophers.50 Another school of thought worth discussing here is the philosophical sagacity. The proponents of this school hold that philosophy is found in the chest of individuals. These individuals are known and acknowledged as the wise men and women who have clearer idea of the customs and folklore and natural wisdom which members of the community hold in high esteem. With someone like Botwev in Ushongo, the idea of literacy being the necessary condition for philosophical reflection has been buried a million years. The presence of philosophical sagacious individual in Africa shows that there are many thinkers who can make use of their critical mind to think, judge and act rationally. Outside the shores of Nigeria, the example of Marcel Griaule‘s conversation with Ogotommeli which is published in an introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas is very helpful. In the book, Ogotommeli who is an indigenous african is seen displaying great philosophical wisdom through exposition of the secret doctrines of his community. It would be a mistake to think that these approaches have actually exhausted the question of the reality of African philosophy.
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Other approaches would be handled in subsequent sections. It is important for us to make a brief distinction between ethnophilosophy and philosophical sagacity. The difference between ethno-philosophy and philosophical sagacity is that while the former is holistic, the latter is particularistic. This does not mean that there is no similarity between both of them. Whether it is the ethnophilosophical school or the philosophical sagacity school of thought, both of them are interested in establishing the truth for the whole world to know that African philosophy truly exists. This way of thinking is summarized in these words: Philosophical sagacity provides the raw materials with which ethno-philosophy builds. The ethnophilosophy possibly synthesizes, aggregate and uniformize African worldviews by sifting the different outlooks with a view to setting with the less amorphous configuration of the different ideas.51 To think in this way is to commit a great blunder. This comes on the wings that there is another way or approach to which African philosophy can be done. This approach is known as hermeneutic. The Hermeneutic School This is an important approach to be considered by scholars in African philosophy. The approach focuses on interpretation of cultural symbols based on individual understanding of a particular culture. Some of the proponents of this school of thought are Theophilus Okere, Tsenay Serequeberhan, Marcien Towa and Okolo. This school of thought teaches that an individual understanding of his culture is determined by factors like ―birth, parentage, physical and intellectual ambience, his education, socio-political and cultural identity, religion, language, history etc.‖52 For instance, the role religion plays in the life of an African is overwhelming. In whatever the African is doing, it cannot be adequately done without the influence of religion. This influence is succinctly captured by John S. Mbiti
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in his famous quoted saying: ―Africans are notoriously religious‖.53 In another place, he explains: Wherever the African is there is religion. He carries it to the fields where he is sowing the seeds or harvesting a new crop, he takes it with him to the beer parlour or to attend a funeral ceremony and if he is educated, he takes religion with him to the examination room at school or in the University; if he is a politician he takes it to the house of parliament.54 To the African, religion is the only thing that actually permeates the entire life of man. Whatever action he wants to perform, it is weighed by the use of religious scale. How does this affect me, the members of the community, the supernatural being, the ancestors and those who are yet unborn? S. N. Ezeanya sums up this cyclical feeling as he writes: ―For the African, life is religion and religion is life‖55 (324). Speaking to Father Shagbaor Francis Wegh he categorically states that: ―it is the man who is the centre of both religious ethics and democratic ethics or principles. It then means that these two somehow are to go together and be integrated into each other‖.56 This affirms the opinion of Sodipo who insists that by the very concept of African philosophy implies paying attention to that ―aspect of philosophy which arises from a special problem and the unique experience of African people‖.57 The point of insistence by the adherents of this school of thought is to encourage the philosopher in Africa to have a rethink about the presence of basic variables that cannot easily be discarded because one has received formal education in another environment. The point of relevance to them is that the culture of a people is very necessary to their philosophy and their art of philosophizing. Does this imply that philosophy especially African philosophy is synonymous with African culture? In his treatment of ―Philosophy and the place of African Philosophy‖ A.F. Uduigwomen had this to say: It simply means that African philosophy has its roots or ramifications in culture. Again, it does not
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mean that we have to carve out some portion of reality and label it ―African‖, but that like any other cultural philosophy (e.g. Indian philosophy), African philosophy is adapted to explain reality from an African perspective.58 It is clear from the engagement of these scholars that the motive for the search for African philosophy though built on their good intentions, they followed made facile assumptions. In other words, the search for an African philosophy was and is still pursued along false routes by scholars. In order to return to the right path, Serequeberhan suggest two worlds; the colonial obliterated past and the gains of African heritage. The colonial masters came into Africa and destroyed everything that was African that they did not like. The valuable items which they admired they charted away secretly. They have inculcated in African the negative mentality which is in itself very destructive. This is identified in the class of political leaders in Africa. Lamenting on the prevailing situation, Serequeberhan wrote: For the naïve mid-century (of the twentieth century) euphoria of ‗liberation‘ and ‗freedom‘ has come to naught. It has been callously dashed on the historically languid violence of neocolonialism. These very terms, ‗liberation‘ and ‗freedom‘ – the proud, clear, and popular slogans of yesterday‘s anti-colonial struggle are today‘s opaque, obscure, and ambiguous enigma. In the midst of famine, political terror, Western or Eastern (‗democratic‘ or ‗socialist‘ as the case may be) military intervention, ‗liberation‘ and ‗freedom‘ have become the words with which Occidental power imperiously proclaims its military might and political pre-eminence.59 As beginners in the field of African philosophy, Serequeberhan would advise that we should be ready to reevaluate the use of concepts like freedom and liberation which are already subverted in the cause of the struggle in itself. The way forward is linguistic psycho-analysis which
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would enable the African to decipher and explore the misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the situation Africans are in. it is important to identify who an African philosopher is and the task he has to perform in African society. Hear him: For it is only by challenging and contesting this situation at its source that Africa can put behind it the subordinate status imposed on it by European colonialism and perpetuated by neocolonialism.60 We have deduced in his work that the concern of the African philosopher is in bringing out the best interpretations of the socio-political crisis of the land. It is in this sphere of life that African philosophical wonders are situated. Building on this foundation is Okonda Okolo who sees African philosophy in its tradition. He goes on to say that: African tradition is the text of our reading. He understands text not in the context of just the written works, but to include all verbal concatenations and all that offers itself to be read…61
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CHAPTER FIVE NATIONALISTS-IDEOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY Kwame Nkrumah He was born in 1909 at Nkroful in Ghana. The first African leader to attract International fame and represents for the black world ―a symbol of unity- thanks to his Pan-Africanism. The Organization of African Unity now African Union is his brainchild‖.62 In his efforts to establish an African political tradition, Nkrumah became very radical and enthusiastic regarding issues of freedom. He believes that for any nation to be free, the attainment of independence must not be conditional. Nkrumah‘s doctrine of liberation has four fundamental emphases which are succinctly summarized by Nwoko I Matthew: 1. The monopoly and control of capital by the imperialists against their dependent colonies inspires and accelerates revolt of the colonized intelligentsia. And the more stringent the control of capital against them, the more the revolt hastens towards liberation; 2. As capital is continuously pumped into the colonies, exploitation of the colonies heightens and capitalism grows into a world system with its financial enslavement and oppression of the world‘s majority; 3. The economic domination of the colonies by the capitalist countries leads to unequal development of the capitalist countries, and originates struggles between the rich and poor countries. The struggle is resolved in war, which in turn creates alliance between the struggling forces weakening imperialism, bringing the workers of the capitalist countries and the colonial suffering masses together to achieve liberation.63 From the foregoing, one is not wrong to say that to a large extent Kwame Nkrumah was influenced by the historical
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materialism of Karl Marx, but it differs in the way of bringing succour to the people. Rather than embarking on revolutionary methods in order to achieve liberation, Kwame Nkrumah advocates the following ways; masses education of the population through the establishment of media centre. This will be used in creating political consciousness of the electorate, an established political freedom that is guaranteed by law, the people must not be cajoled into accepting any individual as a messiah, but due process must be applied in any political election and most important, the people must be free from any form of manipulation by the influence of money in politics. Each African leader we have so far treated has an ideology most peculiar to him by which he stood as a key to bringing about the desired development of Africa. Their choice of an ideology is dependent on the experience they had with the colonial administrators in different countries. In order to remove the stigma attached to the African continent, all those who are professing the knowledge of philosophy must allow it have practical effect on their way of thinking and acting. We need to create a philosophy that can motivate members of our community to think of developing the human and natural resources of our dear land. For Kwame Nkrumah, it is the development of Philosophical Consciencism, which is explained as: the map in intellectual terms of the disposition of forces which will enable African society to digest the Western and the Islamic and the Euro-Christian elements in Africa, and develop them in such a way that they fit into the African personality..., that philosophical standpoint which taking its start from the present content of the African conscience, indicates the way in which progress is forged out of the conflict in that conscience. Its basis is in materialism.64 Philosophical Consciencism is built on materialism in the same way Karl Marx used the concept of dialectic but with a different meaning attached to it from that of his master
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(Hegel). Nkrumah sees matter as the primary reality. Matter is everything. It has an independent existence with the capacity to initiate any motion. Nothing causes matter to change into a new thing. If matter changes such a change occurs because in itself, there exists a compelling force to bring about a change. The ubiquitous nature of matter is the compelling reason for Nkrumah‘s conception. According to him: If spiritual phenomena are in fact the outcome of material phenomena, then it is hardly surprising that environment, which is but a disposition of matter, can enhance, intensify, even develop the consciousness.65 Nkrumah does not see matter as distinct from spirit. His Philosophical Consciencism permits matter to undergo qualitative changes (dialectical evolution) in such a way that the entire society is affected. It creates in man moral codes and social relations that are not individualistic. The aim of this ideology is to create an enabling environment for the actualization of a political theory and social practices that have moral values. Philosophical Consciencism advocates for an egalitarian society. To be responsible in society: Man must consider his fellow brother or sister as one. It is the basic unity of matter, despite its varying manifestations which gives rise to egalitarianism. Basically, man is one, for all men have the same basis and arise from the same evolution according to materialism. This is the objective ground of egalitarianism.66 Kenneth David Kaunda He was born on April 28, 1924 to the family of Reverened David Kaunda a missionary and teacher of the Church of Scotland. The young Kaunda who was youngest of eight children grew to become a teacher at the Upper Primary School and Boarding Master at Lubwa and then Headmaster at Lubwa from 1943 to 1945. He worked at the Salisbury (currently Harare) and Bindura Mine. He became a teacher in Mufulira in the early part of 1948 for the United Missions to
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Copperbelt. He was an assistant at an African Welfare Centre and a Boarding Master of a Mine School in Mufulira. In this period, he was leading a Pathfinder Scout Group and was Choirmaster at a Church of Central Africa Congregation. He was also for a time Vice-Secretary of the Nchanga Branch of Congress. In April 1949, Kaunda returned to Lubwa to become a part-time teacher, but resigned in 1951. In that year he became Organising Secretary of the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress for Northern Province, which included at that time Luapula Province. On 11 November, 1953 he was moved to Lusaka to take up the post of Secretary General of the ANC, under the presidency of Harry Nkumbula. The combined efforts of Kaunda and Nkumbula failed to mobilize the indigenous African people against the Whitedominated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In 1955, Kaunda and Nkumbula were imprisoned for two months with hard labour for distributing ―subversive‖ literature. Such imprisonment and other forms of harassment were normal rites of passage for African nationalist leaders. The experience of imprisonment had a radicalizing impact on Kaunda. The two leaders drifted apart as Nkumbula became increasingly influenced by white liberals and was seen as being willing to compromise on the issue of Black majority rule, waiting till the majority was ‗ready‘ before extending the franchise. This was, however, to be determined by existing property and literacy qualifications, dropping race altogether. Nkumbula‘s allegedly autocratic leadership of the ANC eventually resulted in a split. Kaunda broke from the ANC and formed the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC) in October 1958. ZANC was banned in March 1959. In June, Kaunda was sentenced to nine months‘ in prison, which he spent first in Lusaka, then in Salisbury. While Kaunda was in prison, Mainza Chona and other nationalists broke away from the ANC and, in October 1959, Chona became the first president of the United National Independence Party (UNIP), the successor to ZANC. However, Chona did not see himself as the party‘s main founder. When
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Kaunda was released from prison in January 1960, he was elected President of UNIP. In July 1961, Kaunda organized a civil disobedience campaign in Northern Province, the so called Cha-cha-cha campaign, which consisted of burning schools and blocking roads. Kaunda ran as a UNIP candidate during the 1962 elections. This resulted in a UNIP–ANC Coalition Government, with Kaunda as Minister of Local Government and Social Welfare. In January 1964, UNIP won the General Election under the new Constitution beating the ANC under Nkumbula. Kaunda was appointed Prime Minister. On 24 October 1964, he became the first President of independent Zambia. Julius Nyerere Julius Nyerere who grew up to be famously called the Father of the Nation did not insist to be President for life like others of his era in Africa. He was born to Chief Burito Nyerere of the Zanaki (a small ethnic group in northern Tanganyika) and his fifth (out of 22) wife Mgaya Wanyang‘ombe in 1922. He was the youngest of eight children. Nyerere attended a local primary mission school at Musoma, transferring in 1937 to Tabora Secondary School, a Roman Catholic mission and one of the few secondary schools open to Africans at that time. Later, he completed secondary school at High School, Makerere College (Uganda).He was baptized a Catholic on 23 December 1943, and took the baptismal name Julius. He attended Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda for a teaching certificate. This was the time in which he discovered the love for politics. He was enjoying the thought of being a full fledged politician, so in 1945 Julius Nyerere formed Tanganyika‘s first student group which was an off-shoot of the African Association (AA). He returned home to take a teaching appointment with St. Mary School, Tabora. While teaching in the school, he opened a branch of AA and began the task of converting the AA from its Pan-Africanism idealism to the pursuit of Tanganyikan independence. In 1948, the home based arm of AA was transformed to Tanganyika African Association (TAA).
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In 1949, he proceeded to University of Edinburgh, Scotland for a master degree in Economics and History. He became the first African from Tanganyika to attend a Bristish University. With his graduation in 1952, Julius Nyerere was the first person from Tanganyika to bag a degree. During his studies at Edinburgh University, he was involved with the Fabian Colonial Bureau (a non-Marxist, anti-colonial socialist movement based in London). The activities of this movement widened his horizon in the area of politics. This improvement was very useful on his return home. The personality of Julius Nyerere was revealed at the moment of his birth which subsequently led to his native name Kambarage in Kizanaki which means ―the spirit which gives rain‖.67 The rain that came with the birth of Julius Nyerere would sustain the Tanganyikans for eternity. On ascension to the seat of the president of TAA in April 1953, he used the knowledge he got in school to ginger the members of the association to accept the conversion of TAA into Tanganyika‘s first political party called the Tanganyikan African National Union (TANU). The distinguishing mark of the activities of his party from those of his neighboring countries was the rejection of violence in the course of struggles for self-governance. He based his manifesto on the principle of non-violence, multi-ethnicity and the promotion of social and political harmony. In 1954, Julius Nyerere was appointed to Tanganyika‘s Legislative Council (the Legco). A position he resigned in 1957 due to the slow pace of independence of his country. Julius Nyerere was made Prime Minister in May 1961 and on December 9,1961, Tanganyika got independence. The most impressive thing about Julius Nyerere was the approach he took to the office of the president. The African nature was fully at work. He brought the African traditional style of decision making to everything he wanted to do. He gave every member of the community an opportunity to contribute a quota in the expected decision making. The strategy Julius Nyerere adopted to stimulate growth, development and unity of the nation was to make Kiswahili a
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national language not just for business and political communications, rather it was the only language for education and instruction. The only singular act which has made Tanganyika as one of the few African countries with an indigenous official national language. Julius Nyerere did not buy the idea of multiple party system practice in Europe. He feared that multiparty politics would lead to ethnic conflicts in Tanganyika. He established one-party state until July 1, 1992. His dream was to merge Zanzibar and Tanganyika as a nation. This was realized on April 26, 1964 and was renamed the Republic of Tanzania on October 29, 1964. The Arusha Declaration contained elements that were clearly socialist structures. The Arusha Declaration was incorporated in TANU‘s constitution. An excerpt of the constitution reads: It is particularly important that we should now understand the connection between freedom, development, and discipline, because our national policy of creating socialist villages throughout the rural areas depends upon it. For we have known for a very long time that development had to go on in the rural areas, and that this required co-operative activities by the people. When we tried to promote rural development in the past, we sometimes spent huge sums of money on establishing a Settlement, and supplying it with modern equipment, and social services, as well as often providing it with a management hierarchy.… All too often, we persuaded people to go into new settlements by promising them that they could quickly grow rich there, or that Government would give them services and equipment which they could not hope to receive either in the towns or in their traditional farming places. In very few cases was any ideology involved; we thought and talked in
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terms of greatly increased output, and of things being provided for the settlers. What we were doing, in fact, was thinking of development in terms of things, and not of people … As a result, there have been very many cases where heavy capital investment has resulted in no increase in output where the investment has been wasted. And in most of the officially sponsored or supported schemes, the majority of people who went to settle lost their enthusiasm, and either left the scheme altogether, or failed to carry out the orders of the outsiders who were put in charge — and who were not themselves involved in the success or failure of the project.68 It is important, therefore, to realize that the policy of ujamaa Vijijini is not intended to be merely a revival of the old settlement schemes under another name. The Ujamaa village is a new conception, based on the post Arusha Declaration understanding that what we need to develop is people, not things, and that people can only develop themselves. Ujamaa villages are intended to be socialist organizations created by the people, and governed by those who live and work in them. They cannot be created from outside, or governed from outside. No one can be forced into an Ujamaa village, and no official — at any level — can go and tell the members of an Ujamaa village what they should do together, and what they should continue to do as individual farmers.… It is important that these things should be thoroughly understood. It is also important that the people should not be persuaded to start an Ujamaa village by promises of the things which will be given to them if they do so. A group of people must decide to start an Ujamaa village because they have understood that only through this method can they live and develop in dignity and freedom, receiving the full benefits of their co-operative endeavour. Unless the purpose and socialist ideology of an Ujamaa village is understood by the members from the beginning-at
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least to some extent it will not survive the early difficulties. For no-one can guarantee that there will not be a crop failure in the first or second year — there might be drought or floods. And the greater self-discipline which is necessary when working in a community will only be forthcoming if the people understand what they are doing and why. It was upon this aggressive African Socialism that Nyerere‘s political philosophy found its basis. Tanzania is a country often referred to as ―The Cradle of Mankind‖. He did everything in his power to eradicate the exploitation of Tanzania by colonialists. Njoku writes: ―The long age of slavery, hunger, economic exploitation and social degradation were realities he contemplated most of the time‖.69 He was a leader ―Who governed and worked for the Tanzania people with the highest level of ethical standards and unquestionable integrity‖. Julius Nyerere is recognized to have adopted the policy of socialism (African socialism or Ujamaa or familyhood). Nyerere introduced repressive African socialism, or Ujamaa. This philosophy of life made the people of Tanzania to believe in the idea that traditional values and responsibilities around the kinship can be extended around the whole society. People were encouraged to live very simple life styles. There was strong opposition to conspicuous consumption and large private wealth. Such socialism was ―people-centered‖. The most important thing was the welfare of the human being. Everyone was to be involved in the socialism that was put in place. For him: There is no such thing as socialism without work. A society which fails to give its individuals the means to work, or, having given them the means to work, prevents them from getting a fair share of the products of their sweat and toil, needs putting right. Similarly, an individual who can work and is provided by society with the means to work, but does not do so is equally wrong. He has no right to expect anything from society because he contributes nothing to society.70
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Reading from such presentation, one can easily discover that the policy of the president was geared against capitalism which is bent on accumulation of wealth for a few members of society. He abhorred capitalism due to its exploitative tendencies and its ability to divide the society into the rich and the poor. While the rich are getting richer, the poor are increasingly getting poorer by the day. He lived what he preached by living a very simple life style of not amassing wealth for himself. He did not exploit the masses for his personal benefits. Little efforts were made toward wealth creation and productivity. In keeping with the policy of aggressive African socialism, many people who were living in urban centres without good jobs to sustain them were forced to return to the villages. The government felt that everyone who is physically able to work should do so in order to receive a just wage. Those who were handicapped could live on others. Other category of people who were accepted to be dependent on others were children and the aged, the crippled and people the state cannot provide the right opportunity to work for a living. When the government insisted that people in urban centres should withdraw to the villages, some resisted and some houses were burned down and inhabitants were forced to relocate onto collective farms. This policy in itself greatly disrupted agricultural efficiency and output. Tanzania turned from a nation of sustenance of farmers into a nation of starving collective farmers‖.71 The political philosophy of African Socialism left the country as one of the poorest and the least developed in Africa. It is important to evaluate the contribution of a legend like Julius Nyerere. He was a selfless leader who did not think of gratifying himself. The tendency to unite his people is highly appreciated. He promoted the cultural values of his people by propagating the message of Ujamaa. He did not want the habit of over dependence on foreigners. These were good aspects of his public and private life. It is also significant to state that the insistence on oneparty state clearly shows dictatorial tendencies. It is erroneous
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to hold that the government of Julius Nyerere was socialist. This is because the essentials of the government were not in the total control of the peasant and workers themselves. True socialism ought to grow side by side with democracy. Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) Aime Cesaire is a Martinican poet, playwright, and politician was born in Basse-Pointe, Martinique, in the French Caribbean to the family of Fernand Elphège, and Eléonore, Césaire‘s mother, who was a seamstress. He grew up to be one of the most influential authors from the French-speaking Caribbean. He brought his wisdom to bear on the formulation of the concept and movement of négritude in the company of Léopold Senghor and Léon Gontian Damas. Negritude means ―affirmation that one is black and proud of it‖. He did this with his work titled: Cahier d‟un retour au pays natal which is translated as Return to My Native Land, a mixture of poetry and poetic prose. The work was meant to celebrate the ancestral homelands of Africa and the Caribbean. Though fully written in 1939 it saw but not published in full form until 1947. An excerpt of his work reads: My negritude is not a stone nor a deafness flung against the clamor of the day My negritude is not a white speck of dead water on the dead eye of the earth My negritude is neither tower nor cathedral It plunges into the red flesh of the soil It plunges into the blaxing flesh of the sky My negritude riddles with holes The dense affliction of its worthy patience. As a child he faced a lot of challenges. In another piece of work Cahier Césaire described his childhood in a harsh light: And the bed of planks from which my race has risen, all my race from this bed of planks on its feet of kerosene cases, as if the old bed had elephantiasis, covered with a goat skin, and its dried banana leaves and its rags, the ghost of a mattress that is my grandmother‘s bed (above the
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bed in a pot full of oil a candle-end whose flame looks like a fat turnip, and on the side of the pot, in letters of gold: MERCI). This was a clear case of young child growing up in abject poverty. Even in this situation his parents still invested in the education of their children. To facilitate the studies of their talented son, they moved Basse Pointe to Fort-de-France, the capital. Among Césaire‘s classmate at the Lycee Schoelcher in Fort-de-France was Léon Damas, who later contributed to négritude. Césaire was a precarious child. He won a scholarship to study in Paris. While in Paris he enrolled in the Lycée Louis-le Grand, the École Normale Supérieure, and ultimately the Sorbonne, where he studied Latin, Greek, and French literature. During his years in Paris, Césaire met other Caribbean, West African and African American students, but the most important acquaintance was Léopold Senghor, a poet and later the first president of independent Senegal. Senghor‘s Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache (1948) became an important landmark of modern black writing in French. Since the end of the war Césaire divided his time between Paris and Martinique. He became a member of the Communist Party, through which he was able to participate in political action and supported the decolonization of the French colonies of Africa. In 1945, Césaire was elected mayor of Fortde-France and he was one of the island‘s deputies in the French National Assembly. Césaire resigned from the Communist Party in 1956 and depicted this decision in Lettre à Maurice Thorez (1956, Letter to Maurize Thorez). In 1958, he founded the Martinican Progressive Party. Disappointed with the government‘s promises of socioeconomic improvements in Martinique, Césaire ceased to speak after 1950s in parliament and did not publish poetry for several years. However, he was active in international fora for the liberation of the Third World. The weapon of attack was the poetry and poems which were generally concerned with issues of slavery, freedom, and paradise and language. He was
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opposed to French government. Challenging the colonial government he wrote in the Discourse on Colonialism: ―I am talking of millions of men who have been skillfully injected with fear, inferiority complexes, trepidation, servility, despair, abasement.‖ He also uses the same book to criticize European civilization and colonial racism in (1955) influenced deeply Frantz Fanon‘s revolutionary manifesto Black Skin, White Masks (1967), an examination of psychic, cultural and social damages inflicted by colonialism. Césaire parallels the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized with the relationship between Nazis and their victims. ―People are astounded, they are angry. They say: ―How strange that is. But then it is only Nazism, it won‘t last.‖ And they wait, and they hope; and they hide the truth from themselves: It is savagery, the supreme savagery, it crowns, it epitomizes the day-to-day savageries; yes, it is Nazism, but before they became its victims, they were its accomplices; that Nazism they tolerated before they succumbed to it, they exonerated it, they closed their eyes to it, they legitimized it because until then it had been employed only against non-European peoples; that Nazism they encouraged, they were responsible for it, and it drips, it seeps, it wells from every crack in western Christian civilization until it engulfs that civilization in a bloody sea.‖ Et les chiens se taisaient (1956, And the Dogs Kept Quiet), a story about the blacks and their humiliation, marked Césaire‘s transition from poetry to drama. La tragédie du roi Christophe, the first part of his trilogy, was about an early19th-century Haitian ruler, Henri Christophe, who faced the task of building a state after independence. In Une saison au Congo (1966, A Season in the Congo), the second part of the trilogy, Césaire dealt with the tragedy of Patrice Lumumba and his assassination. In the play Lumumba is a poet-leader who inflames the African conscience, but fails to unify his own country. The trilogy was finished by Une Tempète (1968), a radical rewriting of Shakespeare‘s play The Tempest. Césaire portrayed Prospero, the white man, as a decadent colonizer;
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Caliban, the man of instinct, has a black cultural heritage, he rebels for his freedom, but fails and accuses Prospero: ―Prospero, you are the master of illusion. / Lying is your trademark.‖ Ariel, a mulatto slave, is pressed between these opposite forces of Caliban and Prospero. Une Tempète was first published in the journal Présence africaine in 1968. Caliban‘s first word is ―Uhuru‖, which is Swahili for ―freedom‖. ―Call me X‖, says Caliban in the 1969 text, echoing the radical voice of Malcolm X. In 1993 Césaire retired from politics, but he remained a fervent anticolonialist, and in 2005 he refused to meet with Nicolas Sarkozy, the minister of the interior at that time. Césaire died on April 17, 2008, in Fort-de-France. Leopold Sedar Senghor The Senegalese poet as well as statesman was born on October 9, 1906 in Joal-la-Portugaise, a small fishing village about seventy miles south of Dakar, Senegal. His father was a wealthy merchant of noble descent. The mother was a Peul, a pastoral and nomadic people. Senghor Sedar Leopold first seven years were spent around mother and maternal uncles and aunts in Djilor. He entered the Catholic mission School at Ngazobil when he was twelve years old. The young Senghor was admitted into the Libermann seminary for the priestly training, but left when he was told that he lacked a religious vocation. He completed his secondary school at Lycee Van Vollenhoven in 1928. He was awarded state scholarship which enabled him to enter the Lycee Louis-le-grand and graduated in 1931. During his university days, he was motivated by the work of Harlem Renaissance. He was conscripted into the French Army as a citizen of France during World War II in 1939. He was taken captive by German soldiers the following year. Two years after taken as Prisoner of War, he was released. He began to visualize his thoughts concerning the values and political ideals in Africa. On September 5, 1960 he was ―elected to the French National Assembly as a socialist deputy for Senegal‖72
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Like other African Nationalist, Senghor‘s main problem took a universal nature. What does it mean to be independent? For him, ―True independence is that of the spirit‖. That implies that a copy of any political system of another country like America, Britain or France is not independence. He argued: It is now a matter of selecting, among European methods, the most effective ones for an exact analysis of our situation. It is a question of borrowing those of its institutions, values, and the techniques that are most likely to fecundate our traditional civilization.73 The political emphasis of Senghor as early stated was not tied to his home country alone. He believed that Africans are one. They have the same value system, a common heritage and common dream which are to become united as a single people. These ideals constitute what he calls African nationhood. The formation of an African state is not automatic; it has to take a gradual process. The formation of a single nation will develop to a college of states using the Federal system of operation. He preferred Federalism to Unitary forms of governance. A better institution of such a state will create the atmosphere conducive to effective development of every member of the family. He has an extended concept of the family. He described the family in Africa as: ―It is not the household but ‗the sum of all persons‘ living and dead, who acknowledge a common ancestor.‘ As we know, the ancestral lineage continues back to God‖.74 This contradicts the picture of family as perceived by Europeans. Whatever a person does, it ought to be done in union with the African understanding of family. Our actions must be guided by African family values. Some of these family values are truthfulness, faithfulness, consultation75, accountability, equality etc. The best ideology for a successful development of Africa is socialism. His idea of socialism is contrary to that of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as it was not atheistic. It did not reject religion and God. This is a political philosophy which is
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built on Negro-African Cultural values which are summarized in the name of Negritude whose formulation is attributed to the collaborative efforts of the trio Aimé Césaire, Léopold Senghor and Léon Gontian Damas. Negritude is defined by them as ―affirmation that one is black and proud of it‖. In a poetic writing Senghor presented his view of the notion: We could assimilate mathematics or the French language, but we could never strip off our black skins or root out black souls; and so we set out on a fervent quest for the ‗holy grail‘ our collective soul and we came upon it.76 The appreciation of our Africanness makes it a unique tool for the expression of who we are. It is a call for the actualization of ―communal symbiosis and mutual embrace‖.77 What actually makes his work philosophical in nature? We must understand the mindset of Leopold Sedar Senghor concerning negritude. He does not claim that the intention of coining the term negritude was to fight racism, far from it. It was an attempt at resolving the crisis of personal identity which was central to the people of Africa. Negritude is ―the sum total of the cultural values of the black world; that is, a certain active presence in the world, or better, in the universe‖.78 From this given perspective, negritude can be taken to be a philosophy of being. A philosophy that is different from the Western concept of philosophy. Senghor categorically understands one as based on reason while the other is strictly built on emotion. He writes: ―Reason is Greek, Emotion is African‖. This is a common mentality among Africans especially those that are trained in European universities. There is no hard fact that reason belongs to the Greek as if no other race has the ability to reason or reflect on events in life. It is as if the Greeks do not mourn the dead, as if the Greeks do not laugh or cry. It is as if the Greeks do not feel sympathetic when someone is befallen with pain and suffering. Emotional feelings are attributed to African alone. This kind of thought was refuted by Franklin in his essay, Presence Africaine in the following words: ―We know that
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reason is not any more Greek than emotion is Negro...reason and emotion are at the same time Negro, Greek, Yellow and Red; that is to say, they belong to all humanity.‖79 On the political sphere Leopold Sedar Senghor advocated for Democratic Socialism which has inherent spiritual orientations. In order to contribute to the development of Africa, he strongly advocated the return to the gift of our cultural background. Democratic Socialism is discussed in connection with ―Negritude‖ as it deals with ―the whole complexity of ―civilized values; cultural, economic, social, political which characterizes the black peoples, or more precisely, the Negro-African world‖.80 The idea of the whole complex of civilized values goes beyond making Africa a united people, but it has a universal dimension. For Senghor: The essential elements of Negritude are directed not only to the interest of the Negro-African world, but also to the entire humanity. The elements of the Negro values must flow towards the meeting point of all humanity; they must be our contribution to the civilization of the Universal.81 This means man is man no matter where he is found. This brings out the argument that Negritude is all about defense of skin or a color. The world is filled with ―cosmiccomplementary‖. We are one in totality. According to Senghor: Man is therefore a composition of mobile life forces which interlock a world of solidarities that seek to knit themselves together. Because he exists, he is at once end and being: end of the three orders of the mineral, the vegetative and the animal, the beginning of the human order.82 This understanding brings out the centrality of man in African perspective. The spider-web shows the place of man in the world. Just like the spider sits at the middle of the web controlling every activity, the man is at the centre of every activity on earth and takes control of the happening in the universe. Man finds himself in the making of the world. Hear him:
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It is by bringing the complementing life forces together in this way that man reinforces himself, that is, he passes from existing to being. He cannot reach the highest form of being, for in fact, only God has this quality; and He has it all the more fully as a creator; all that exist fulfill themselves and express themselves in Him.83 Senghor‘s humanism finds full expression in the being of God. Nnamdi Azikiwe Nnamdi Azikiwe was born November 16, 1904 in Zungeru, Northern Nigeria. His return to Nigeria after studies in London brought him into the politics of opposition against the British colonial rule. He was known as the ―defender of the rights of Nigerians‖, ―Zik of Africa‖, ―and the professor of political science‖. In fact, he won the title ―Zik of Africa‖ because of his zeal to defend the African continent against any act of oppression and injustice, imagined or real. The echoing words of Azikiwe Nnamdi are very clear. According to him: In preaching black consciousness, in opposing the excesses of colonial officialdom, and in calling for a new order of African freedom, he was full of courage and effusive of witty sarcasm and provocative language. This was the source of his fame and power.84 In considering the personality of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe it is very important to state at the beginning that he preferred ―eclecticism‖ as the most workable political ideology for Nigerian. How did he get to this position? Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe began his teaching on ideology by critically examining the credibility and workability of the three well known sociopolitical systems; capitalism, socialism, and welfarism. From the treatment of the first two ideologies, this section will only concern itself with the third (welfarism). To do this, there is need for us to allow the anchor man to lead us on the way to eclecticism. He understands Capitalism as a socio-economic system which is essentially based on the following; Private
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ownership of capital goods or means of production and most importantly it is profit oriented and profit motivated. Those who control the means of production and other productive forces are private individuals and industries at least in principle, not the state. Such a system provides a diffusion of socio-economic power and avoids the kind of monopoly that is evident when the state is in control of means of production. When people know that the products of any production is to their advantage, they are encourage to put in more in order to get better yield. This in another way encourages specialization and ample opportunity for healthy competition among those who are involved in production, distribution and exchange of means of production. For these reasons, people tend to succumb to the ideology especially when it is backed by democratic principles. This is the more reason why Nigerians are finding it very difficult to relinquish the implicit practice of capitalism, despite the disadvantages that go with its practice. The most common disadvantages of capitalism are; the poor reward in terms of wages to the labourers, the inherent attitude of crushing out small competitors in businesses. Socialism in his view is essentially characterized by public ownership (state controlled) of the means of productions, distribution and exchange. Its primary objectives are; to organize the state as a fraternal, co-operative commonwealth, with fair and equal distribution of wealth; to create a classless society where class division and a laissez-faire philosophy would be abolished. Wherever socialism exists its major goal is to reform the capitalist society. In some states, the practice of capitalism is sandwiched with that of socialism. This is evident in a number of ways namely; the municipalisation of transport, a common ownership of public utilities, the nationalization of the capital means of production and outstanding natural resources; a cooperative production and distribution, and the commonownership of basic industries. But when socialism begins to take the shape of totalitarianism then something is going wrong. With these lapses, he abhorred both capitalism and
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socialism. The solution to the situation these ideologies is the institutionalization of welfarism. What then is Welfarism? According to Azikiwe, it is ―a social system where the State assumes the primary responsibility for the individual and social welfare of its citizens. It is the complex of policies, attitudes and beliefs, which animate the State to provide its inhabitants with minimum standards in education, health, housing, pensions, etc., where individual means are inadequate (Azikiwe Ideology 6). Like other ideologies, welfarism also has its merits and demerits. It is based on the supremacy of these merits over the demerits that he went on to proffer the need for the adoption of Neo-welfarism as the most workable ideology for Nigeria. On this decision he cautioned that: The possibility of making good out of the best of these three systems to forge a new system for Nigeria. This he calls it Neo-Welfarism. This does not mean that Nigeria has no ideology as to warrant a search for a new one. Actually, ―no human society can thrive without an ideology of its own rooted in its past‖.85 The problem with Nigeria is not the absence of an existing ideology, but the need for an ideological re-orientation. It does not also mean an imposition of a new ideology, the adoption of an ideology that is truly Nigerian and clearly manifests Nigerian qualities, such as the concept of Ya na angbian which is a strong democratic principle of equality, welfarist in her economical background, altruistic in sociological life and religiously animistic. These should characterize the essential elements of a truly Nigerian ideology. Thus, the pragmatic method and system would be the neo-welfarism. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe defines neo-welfarism as: An economic system which blends the essential elements of capitalism, socialism and welfarism in a socio-economic matrix, influenced by indigenous Nigerian, moreso, to enable the State and the private sector to own and control the means of production, distribution and exchange,
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whilst simultaneously enabling the State to assume responsibility for the social services, in order to benefit the citizens according to their needs and officially specified minimum standards, without prejudice to participation in any aspect of the social services by voluntary agencies.86 To adequately provide for a suitable socio-economic system in Nigeria Neo-welfarism must be based on eclecticism and empiricism. Its eclectic foundation springs from the fact that, ―It incorporates in its system … the most utilitarian and practicable elements in capitalism, socialism and welfarism that can be adapted to the Nigerian situation and experience‖ (xi). Nigerian can, through the eclectic methods, which are equally welfarist, adopt the best elements of these known ideologies to re-orientate its primordial ideology. It aims essentially at the utility of doctrines. Though the term NeoWelfarism is associated with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the founding fathers of welfarism were considered to be two French philosophers Victor Cousin (1792-1867), who was also an educator and Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715-1771), together with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, also known as Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz (1646-1716) a German philosopher, mathematician, and statesman, who was regarded as one of the supreme intellects of the 17th century. The other basic system for neo-welfarism is pragmatism- a philosophical theory dealing with things which are real… against intellectual speculation… Its historical development has been influenced by four factors; psychological, logical, ethical and religious. Neo-welfarism which is founded on both eclecticism and pragmatism should be able to sift and synchronize into a social matrix the best elements from capitalism, socialism and welfarism. It should create an enabling environment for private enterprises, but it must not fail to give an invitation card to the state to participate and collaborate in their management, control and sponsorship in order to achieve the best welfare for the people. Such an
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arrangement will produce a planned, mixed and indigenously nationalized economy. The main objective of neo-welfarism is to restore democracy in Nigeria with political freedom, economic security and social equality. In concrete terms, it involves the reform and renewal of instruments of power according to the Nigerian political experience. The insistence on the Rule of Law. The total restoration and reinforcement of the Fundamental Rights of all citizens according to the Constitution. The dedication to the universally accepted principles of the separation of powers between the Executive, Legislature, and the Judiciary. The renewal of confidence in the integrity of government. The good organization and administration of public utilities, welfare services, education, agriculture, recreational, facilities and entertainments; The open door policy according to a reasonable scale.87 Chief Obafemi Awolowo One of the nationalist leaders that contributed greatly to the war against colonialism was Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was popularly addressed as Awo. He was born in 1909. He is an indigene of Ikenne, Ijebu Remo in Western Nigeria in contemporary Ogun State. He got admission at the University of London to read commerce and after a successful completion continued to study law. In 1946, the Honorable Society of the Inner Temple called him to Bar in London. Barely after three years of his return to Nigeria, he established a daily newspaper called ―Nigerian Tribune‖ in 1949 as his contribution to active journalism. It was this paper that later served him and his political party the Action Group in propagating their ideals. He was well known for his continuous advocacy for socialism, but exhibited strong love for democracy.
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A close study of the man Awo was made into a socialist because of the kind of education he got and the different places he had worked in as a journalist, lawyer, and politician. His understanding of man was an influence by Aristotle who conceived man on earth as a ―social and political being‖. Man is not self-sufficient, he needs other members of the society to enable him satisfy his goals in life. Man is perpetually challenged by the basic necessities of life such as food, shelter, and clothing. It is as a result of these lacks and the need to fulfill them that men decided to come together to form a state. Nwoko I. Matthew cites the way Awolowo understands man in the following words: His first loyalty is to his economic interests and his secondary loyalty will be given to any organization or institution which serves to promote these interests..., he is not loyal to a community or state for its own sake and he serves God mainly because he believes that his economic problems may, by religious devotion, be more easily and more quickly solved....all the three organs of State - the legislature, the executive and the judiciary as well as social institutions are designed by him to ensure a congenial atmosphere for his economic advancement and prosperity and to regulate economic regulation...88 The determination to meet man‘s ultimate demand has many phases, but each of these phases is built on two fundamental ideologies in the world; ―Capitalism and Socialism‖.89 Awolowo understands capitalism as an ideology which upholds economic freedom, and profit making. The driving force for capitalism is greed or insatiable avarice. Capitalism as an ideology came with Industrial Revolution and is characterized by private property, choice, equality and egoistic altruism. It came to advocate for free trade among nations in order to create an enabling environment for the industrialized nations to extend their search for raw materials for their industries among the poor countries of the world and
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at the same time use them as market outlets for their manufactured goods. The market forces during such interaction are determined by those nations that are economically advanced without due consideration of the less developed nations. The resultant effect is that those who are richer grow even richer and the poor get poorer. It was based on these basic principles of capitalism that Awolowo came up with the view that: Man in capitalism is a victim of many woes as a worker. Capitalism is an incurably exploitative and corruptive system. It is an incorrigibly plan less system as everybody is after his personal interest. Capitalism, in its policies and actions based on its egoistic altruism, is activated by selfish motives, and it is bound to impoverish the helpless masses to enrich a few.90 For Chief Obafemi Awolowo the capitalist arguments are fallacious and cannot contribute to any progress. It should be noted here that Awolowo did not totally condemn capitalism. At least he asserted that capitalism contributed funds for the development of science and technology. According to him: Capitalism came to its own with the advent of the so-called industrial revolution … it has given unparalled impetus to science, technology and art. It has built new cities and beautiful old ones. It has modernized the tools of production as well as means of locomotion. In the process it has internationalized industry and commerce.91 Chief Awolowo preferred socialism to capitalism because it is geared towards social justice and equity. It encourages the equal sharing of natural resources and wages are paid to workers based on their abilities. Citizens are provided with respectable standard of living, while efforts are made to abolish unemployment and at the same time government ensures that social amenities like education facilities, health facilities etc are made available to all and sundry. The unity of every member of the society is enhanced, the ownership and
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means of production is not appropriated by a few people, rather it is in the hands of all. The philosophy of socialism is ―service according to ability and reward according to deeds‖. Clearly indicate an acknowledgement of difference in the talents of each individual. Socialism does not claim any false equality among members of a community. In its efforts to make human beings live a happy life, it has not compelled people to consider ―everyone equal in all respects‖.92 He is of the view that ―socialism seeks to wean every citizen from the evils of greed and self-interests‖. In another place Chief Awolowo writes: The adoption of capitalism can only perpetuate, albeit in subtle disguises, the dehumanization, heartless exploitation and division into antagonistic camps, which Africans had suffered during the periods of slavery and colonization.93 According to him the problem of Africa can be divided into four major areas; the problem of under-development, of individual freedom and sovereignty, of constitution making and of African Unity. The way out of these monstrous problems is to ―generate and adopt a new social, political and economic orientation ideology that can successfully curb the difficulties‖. Hence, the most suitable ideology for Africa is socialism. He is confident that with the institution of socialism as an operating political ideology, issues of ignorance, lack of health facilities, basic human needs like water, shelter, and clothing will be solved. To effect this changes, socialism will provide free education for all at every level of studies, agriculture will be given serious attention and the problem of individual freedom will also be resolved when each person is given the liberty to make his/her own choice both in who rules and what kind of policies the government is pursuing. Finally, the making of practicable constitution will bring to an end the quest for ethnic clashes as every ethnic group will have a place in the new constitution during the time of preparation and the days of implementation.
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CHAPTER SIX THE PLACE OF LANGUAGE IN AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY The seriousness concerning the debate on whether there exists anything with the name of African philosophy is gradually dying a natural death. Scholars have over the world proved the existence of African philosophy. The fundamental question for any philosopher in Africa today, is what language are Africans using for the purpose of philosophizing? The question is beyond the existence of African philosophy, it is beyond any cultural boundaries, and the place of African philosophy. The language of a person or group of persons in a given society reveals so much about the person‘s identity. ―Language is generally a veritable tool or instrument of communication‖.94 Man‘s thoughts and ideas are carefully passed to others members through the use language. Speaking on the significance of language to society Nzunga P.K. as categorically states that: The most significant characteristics of an ethnic community were its language and culture. Although the new foreign masters did not always clearly perceive or appreciate these social elements, the diversity and the wealth of these entities were enormous in the African continent. The greatest injustice the colonial masters committed was, undoubtedly, the imposition of their language and culture on the colonized minority groups.95 Majority of Africans have come to realized that the use of foreign language in their daily interactions as a means of communication is greatly hindering the progress of the African continent. Enlightened Africans are clamouring for a return to the use of mother tongue in everything we do and say. It is a fact of life which has received scientific approval that ―When a person or community loses cultural or linguistic identity, and
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before acquiring the identity of the dominating culture or language, there is a period characterized by mental and social crisis‖.96 This has necessitated African language militants to suggest the teaching of African languages in schools at all levels. But the task of replacing English and French with traditional languages in African is not a small one though not an impossible task for those who are willing to achieve a vital goal in life. Who do we blame for the replacement of African traditional language with the any of the foreign languages? Nzunga puts the blame on the youth. Using his study of the Kenyan youth as captured by the population census, he had this to say: The Kenyan census of 1969 provided very disturbing data in this respect. In this country, the smallest ethnic communities (Rendille, Elmolo, Omotik, Burji, and Ajurani) are surrounded by a larger ethnic group. The elderly members of these minority groups (over 50 years) are still very attached to the linguistic and cultural values of their community. They younger members of the communities (under 50 years) are not. In fact, they use the language of the large community around their at all times and strive to acquire the cultural values of the dominating ethnic group. Even when their elders speak to them in mother tongue, the answer back in the language of the larger group.97 Anyone who has been to our so-called disciplined schools would not totally agree with the blame placed on the youth. Experience in most secondary schools shows that the senior students are free to speak vernacular among themselves and to the junior students, but the junior students are prevented from speaking vernacular in school. This has become a revered tradition among schools in developing countries in Africa. The child who is in such a school returns home happily for two reasons; he is praised by members of the family for
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speaking good English fluently and for making his/her parents happy among their peers. Indeed, the temptation to speak foreign language instead of the mother tongue is a big challenge to all Africans (literate and non-literate) today. It is because when we speak in a particular language the dialect enables the speakers and listeners conform to the conventions of those who are involved in the communication. If this position is accepted then indigenous languages must be given top priority. We must reverse to them in order to achieve the true meaning of words when particular sounds are being made. In recent times, emphasis is placed on the use of local language. Those who are proponents of this school of thought are of the view that pupils in schools that use vernacular in teaching children create a better atmosphere for a quick grasp and absorption of the subject faster than pupils who are made to learn with the use of the second language. The socio-cultural crises caused by the loss of ethnic identity implicitly affect the cognitive development in children. When we come to a country like Nigeria, one would ask which of the languages can Nigerians agree to pick as the national language? Is it Igbo, or Yoruba, or Hausa? Can we bring Tiv language from the middle Belt to be the language to serve as the lingua franca in Nigeria? The refusal of Africans to come together and adopt a native language as a medium of communication in Africa at large and in particular countries has a colossal effect on these countries. Africans are gradually losing some of the traditional values associated with certain languages in some of these countries. Apart from the values, there is a new mentality that is coming up with the upsurge of foreign languages. This trend has drastically slowed down development in the third world countries. For instance, when Europeans were colonized by the Greeks and the Greek language was imposed on them, it actually impeded their progress. This trait was captured by Nzunga P.K. who confessed that: They were said to be unable to express modernity effectively. They had to get out of the
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Greek umbrella of domination, to develop to what they are to-day. Sociolinguists maintain that such development is only possible under the appropriate political, economic, cultural and eco-linguistic conditions.98 Have we Africans understood that our road to integral development is closed as long as we continue to depend on the use of English as a means of communication with one another? Which of the African languages that is o others using English language. Is any African language mature enough to take the place of any of the foreign languages in our land? The answer could be yes for a few and no for many. For those who say no, the answer they would advance would be that in Nigeria alone, there are about 400 indigenous languages. Most of them do not have any written forms. In his study of indigenous Nigerian languages Harrison Adeniyi Rachael Bello makes a three-fold categorization of languages. According to her: The first consist of those three languages, which are national in outlook. These are Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. These major languages perform recognized linguistic functions in the country. The second are those that are regional in outlook. They are about twelve. Some of these are Ijaw, Nupe, Edo, Efik, Fulani, and Itsekiri among others. The regions in which they are located allocate each of these languages specific linguistic roles to play. The third constitute those that are limited to the locality in which they are spoken, with very little or no role given to them by the society. They are consequently recognized, if at all, only by members to which they are first languages.99 We have seen the relevance of indigenous languages in the quest of presenting to the entire world a distinct people with an identifiable philosophy or ideology. The art of using foreign language for communication is due to lack of self, cultural pride and identity. Among youths in Africa, it has become competitive grounds where debates are conducted for
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speakers to prove who can speak with the best foreign accent. A phenomenon known in Ghanaian popular culture as LAFA (locally Acquired foreign Accent). It is such mentality that would trigger African militants to suggest that philosophy is African if and only if it is done in African language. Even African scholars who should be promoting the use of African languages for philosophy turn to insist that much of what we have today as African philosophy is not truly Africa because it is undertaken by the use of foreign languages. African philosophy in most institutions is thought in foreign languages such as English, French, German, Italy, etc. those who are championing this methodology are failing to realize that: The language of development is the mother tongue or a language (s) rooted in the people‘s culture and tradition, a language in which the generality of the nation‘s populace have unimpeded and unconscious facility in all forms of communication.100 It is not enough to say, we cannot pick on African language out of so much languages as a lingua franca, we cannot even procrastinate about it. To refuse or procrastinate about will definitely lead one day to cultucide that is the extermination of cultures and their languages. Renowned scholars Mazrui and Mazrui have insisted: … No country has ascended a first rank technologically and economic power by excessive dependence on foreign languages. Japan rose to dazzling industrial heights by scientificating the Japanese language and making it the medium of its own industrialization … Can Africa ever takeoff technologically if it remains so overwhelmingly dependent on European languages for discourse on advance learning. Can Africa look to the future if it is not adequately sensitive to the cultural past?101 The stimulating phrase in the above quotation is ―if it (Africa) remains so overwhelmingly dependent on European
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languages for discourse‖ in our case the discourse on African philosophy. We are quick to accept that it is very difficult to have one language shared by all Africans, but at the level of countries, there should be the choice of a common language which all can proudly call our national language. Reflecting on this point Francis Njoku speaks: In the midst of confusion of languages, it was easy for the colonialists to think that it was their Godgiven duty to control the use of indigenous languages, raise up the African salvage to a better linguistic tool and sound thinking. They felt justified in the way they treated the people they colonized…102 The imposition of European languages on Africans was not in any way for the good of the African people, rather it was meant to achieve the mission of the colonial masters. Spitulnik argued that English and French are the only languages that are ―ethnically neutral‖ and thus, non-native to the indigenous ethnic groups. For him, the choice of these languages as lingua franca was in order to resolve competition among linguistic groups. With these arguments, the colonial masters successfully discourage Africans and are still discouraging African scholars in the art of using indigenous languages for philosophy or anything in Africa. The colonialists have come and have ―gone‖, but the psychological elements that were associated with their languages are still with us affecting everything that we do in Africa. Our youth are expressing the way of thinking that is foreign to them, but we are so ignorant to think that our children are simply getting way ward. The meaning one gets from the spoken word brings out the existing relationship between language, society and culture. Language is a mirror of our culture. The values of life are clearly made known to people in a given community. Truth is expressed by the use of language. The importance of language cannot be overemphasized. This is captured by Joseph Ki-Zerbo and cited by Njoku Francis:
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Language is like a bank or museum in which, over the centuries, each ethnic group has deposited all it has built up and accumulated in the way of mental and material tools, memories and resources of the imagination. By means of an indepth and wide-ranging study of the language (both infra and supra-linguistic), through religious documents, fable and legal customs, medical and educational prescriptions, instruction in craft and technical skills, it is possible to uncover the entire grid pattern underlying a culture or civilization: how they behave… their conceptions of … love, the hereafter, human dignity, and so on.103 It is not totally correct to refer to Language as a memory bank of a culture. If language is considered as a memory bank, Paul Hountondji‘s argument will hold true at all times. Those who understand and speak the same language would have the same memory. But this is not so. Thus, African philosophy still has a linguistic challenge that goes beyond culture rhetoric. We can categorically state at this point that the use of African native languages will go a long way in developing and sustaining African philosophy. This is possible if and only if African scholars would find time to examine the illusion that the multilingual character of African societies does not serve the art of philosophizing. This is a clarion call for deliberate and planned effort to promote the use of African native languages over Euroimperial languages in philosophy. This is already in used in most Western and Asian countries of the world. These people have relied strongly on their own languages for philosophy. It is very unfortunate that in sub-Sahara Africa countries overwhelmingly rely on Euro-imperial languages like English and French to philosophize. Still disheartening is the fact that majority of the population of Africans cannot comprehend these languages. It is this over dependence that still calls for discussion of the language of African philosophy. The use of African native language as a medium for passing on of African philosophy should be taken serious into
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consideration by scholars in Africa and in diaspora. A return to the use of native languages in philosophy will increase public participation. The advantage of using African languages for philosophy is the ability of African philosophers to preserve local culture, where civil society of experts and intellectuals seemed to have failed. Thus, for African philosophy to be useful to the majority of Africans and for the development of an African identity, the language and culture policy question must be seriously addressed. Any African philosopher worth her salt cannot continue to rely overwhelmingly on Euroimperial languages for their discourse if they hope to engage the majority of the people. This final position can be clearly seen when we turn to the treatment of African nationalist who are also considered to be African philosophers.
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CHAPTER SEVEN MAJOR PHILOSOPHICAL THEMES IN AFRICA The Concept of God in Africa The concept of God in Africa like in other nations is based on the principle of universal causation. We are very far from the point of deciding to let go of what God is for Africans in philosophical studies on the pretext that the notion of God is unAfrican. We cannot even shy away from the task of analyzing African understanding of God philosophically. In an attempt to do analyze God philosophically, this chapter shall clearly differentiate between African belief in God and African philosophizing about the idea of God. This book puts so much effort in the refusal to put on paper recording of the beliefs found in African cultures. There is no way African scholars can make anyone accept that belief about God can be shared by all Africans. It is not even possible to treat issues in every African society as an item of communality. This is because, in as much as there are similarities in the practices, there are bound to be differences in them as well. As a follow up with the above understanding, this book shows the significance of the supernatural God as being central to all aspects of life in Africa. Diversity of study would be done, but emphasis would be placed on the activities of individual African tribes and their notion of God. Some selected African cultures shall be chosen for this analysis. This is to avoid over simplification and generalization of the concept of God in Africa as there are well over 500 million people of vastly different races and cultures in Africa alone. Despite this volume of cultures, it is necessary to provide a justification for the reality called God as any of the attributes ascribed to God by any of the African cultures streams from their own understanding of the Supreme Being. The existence of God is not in doubt in any African culture due to the fact that God is the principle of universal causation. If there is no
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understanding of God, the question of who created the universe would appear unanswerable. The world is a concrete existence and from common sense, one would ask, what is the cause of the world? This is the principle of cause and effect. The principle states that ―every event has a cause‖. This is expressed in Fanti‘s proverb ―Se biribi annkeka mpapa a, nkye mpapa annye kredede‖ (If nothing had touched the palm branch, the palm branch would not have emitted a sound.) the implication for the people is captured in this question form, ―If every event has a cause the world also must have a cause‖. The cause of this world cannot be a man. It must be something that is beyond a human being. The supreme reality is one. This might be in contrast to the worldview of most African cultures that tend to dualistic about God. In most African cultures, God is never conceived as a man, but God is not spoken of without the employment of anthropomorphic concepts. God is discussed as a being the African has seen and known. In the conceptualization of God, the African is aided by the use languages and images. John S. Mbiti‘s treatment of the Concept of God in Africa104 is an outstanding work in which over 300 cultures were critically researched. He discusses God in Africa with the help of the following attributes; God as Father, God as Mother, God as Grandfather and Elder, people as children of God, God as Friend. Bewaji A. I. John took time to explain the concept of God in Yoruba. The name Olodumare in Yoruba is the same as ―the Christian God, Muslim Allah‖. Meanwhile, the Ganda people speak of God as ―the Great Eye‖. In African communities where God is conceived as Father, it is so categorized due to the kind of relationship members of the society enter into. The meaning of kinship relationship is meant to touch not just the nuclear family members, but by extension, the extended family members. It is on this basis that the social background upon which the terms of kinship is built in reference to God. The fact of a kinship reawakens the consciousness of the living about a universal creator and provider.
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God is the Creator of the earth. This is affirmed by the Akamba people in a riddle game, ―What are the two equalsized bowls of the Father?‖ the inevitable question is, ―They are heaven and earth‖. The shock of calling God ‗God‘ by the people makes them see him as a father with two testicles for the production of sperms during fertilization of the egg of the woman. God is not called God, but father. He is the one person that has fathered both heaven and earth and has the capacity and ability to protect and support it. Cognate to the Akamba people are the Lunda tribe who speak of God as ―The Father Creator who created all countries‖. Other people in the same region conceive God as the Father Creator who creates and uncreates‖. God is known as ―a universal Father‖105 by the Bemba nation, while the people of God are referred to as ―Children of God‖. Attributes of God This God is without a father, yet generation upon generation exists because of him. This is the understanding the Herero people have of God. As a caution, the Herero people warn in the following words: ―He has no father, he is not a man‖.106 The traditional society of the Akan people holds the view that, ―God is truly Father, and men, in all things, are his children, because he created them‖.107 The same God is the father of the lesser divinities. This is the kind of understanding the Ganda people also have of God. The Banyoro on their part regard God as ―the Creator and Father of mankind‖. The same belief is reported among the BurjiKonso. In the Ndebele and Shona triads, God is thought of as ―The Father, the Mother, and the Son‖.‘ We have two examples where the name for God contains the concept of father. These are the Chawai who call him Bawai (derived from ―Father‖ and ―sun‖); and the Teso who call him Apap (meaning ―Father‖).‖ These references convey the fatherhood of God in relation to creation. The concept of God as Father, also comes out in prayers, indicating that people think of him not only as the universal creator-father, but also as the personal Father with whom
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they communicate and to whom they may turn in time of need. In critical moments, the Azande address God in prayer as ―Father‖. When praying, the Bambuti speak to God as ―Father‖, ―Great Father‖, or ―Grand-father‖. They tell that originally they had no name for the Creator, referring to him only as ―Father‖ or ―Grandfather‖. They have retained these titles, since they still have ―no exact name for their conception of God‖.‖ Some of the Tswana peoples address God as ―Father of my fathers‖.‖ Similarly, in prayer the Nuer speak with God as ―our Father‖, whom they regard as ―a living Person‖, although their anthropomorphic conceptions of God are said to be very weak. For the Nuer, God is first and foremost spirit.‖ The Urhobo and Nuba pray to him as ―our Father‖.‖ At their communal prayers, the Sonjo open their invocations with the phrase ―Father God‖,‖ The Gikuyu sigh to God as ―my Father‖; and when the Rabai pray during drought, they address him as ―Father‖.‖ God as Mother In Africa, the concept of God as mother is not very pronounced. This is not to say that it is not in used in any part of Africa. The use of God as Mother is common with the Southern Nuba who practice matrilineal system of descent. They refer to God as ―the Great Mother‖. For instance, in a prayer of farewell to a deceased, the people are heard saying: ―Our God, who has brought us [to this world], May she take you…‖ when the people are faced with famine and drought, they cry to God for rain in the following words, ―Great Mother‖ …‖ there are two meanings attached to the use of ―Great Mother‖ by this people. On one hand, it implies that God is the one that mothered which means created or gave birth to the world and to mankind. Secondly, God cares for, nurses, and helps his (her) children in the hour of need (death, drought, etc.) In connection with man‘s origin, the Ovambo say, ―The Mother of pots is a hole in the ground; the Mother of people is God.‖ The Ovambo are also matrilineal; but they speak of God
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figuratively as male, though they do not regard him as either Father or Mother as such. God as Grandfather and Elder In traditional societies, the person of the ―grandfather‖ and the ―elder‖ is respected for his age, experience, and wisdom. Grand-children are in an intimate and very friendly relationship with him. We find these two titles used of God, with approximately the same meaning as ―Father‖. The Ashanti say that ―of the wide, wide earth, the Supreme Being is the Elder‖, in the sense that God is superior since he is the Creator of the earth and all things, and is above all things.‖ The Akan honour him with the titles ―Grandfather ‗Nyame‘ who alone is the Great one‖, and ―the Grand Ancestor‖.‖ These are terms of respect. The Bavenda regard God as the grandfather of their chiefs, and when there is thunder, the chiefs enter their houses and pray, addressing him as ―Grandfather‖.‖ Before starting on their hunting expeditions, the Bambuti invoke him as ―Grandfather‖ and ―Father‖, titles by which God is known to them. People as Children of God The Bachwa, who believe that they were the first people on earth, consider themselves as ―the Children of God‖. ―When in danger, the Bambuti appeal to God saying, ―Father, thy children are afraid . . .‖ The Bavenda considers their chiefs to be the grand-children of God, a position which entitles them to an intimate relationship with him, since the chiefs are the representatives of the people before God. The Bemba, who think that God is the universal father, call themselves ―the children of God‖. It is reported of them, that ―one hears natives calling each other, ‗the sons of God‘ ― The Lugbara look upon their elders as the ―children of God‖, when they function at the shrines at night. They refer to the diviners by the same title, and most of these are women. Those who observe the rainmaking cult among the Ndebele are referred to as the ―children of God‖ or ―people of God‖.‖ The Shilluk hold their kingship to be divine, and honour their
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king with titles like ―the first-born of God‖, ―child of God‖, ―reflection of the ancestors‖, ―master of the world‖, ―last-born of God‖. According to their thinking, the first- and last-born, respectively, opens and closes the way for a generation.‖ The Nuer refer to twins as the ―children of God‖, and to two of their clans as ―God‘s people‖. When praying, they refer to themselves before God as ―thy children‖. ― Among the Tonga, twins are considered a curse and a misfortune, and people refer to them as ―God‘s children‖. In time of danger, such as thunder and lightning, people in a village say to a twin, ―Help us! You are a child of God . . .‖ The child goes out and prays to God, and when the danger is over, the people thank the child. ― This concept of people as the children of God is not expressed widely. Even if people do not speak verbally about it, they make prayers, offerings, and sacrifices in an attitude of ―children-father‖ relationship. Although friendship is something highly valued in African societies, it is surprising that we do not have many examples where God is spoken of as ―Friend‖. As a sign of an intimate feeling towards God, the Nuer addresses him as ―Friend‖. Zulu traditional doctors invoke him as ―Thou greatest of friends‖, when dealing with thunderstorms and lightning.‖ Body and Bodily Parts One report from the Shilluk says that God ―is from one side spirit, and from the other side spirit, but from front and back he is body‖. The Aushi imagine him as a person, ―to be small—about two feet in height—black and hard like stone‖.‖‗ The Lugbara say that, in his immanent aspect, God may take on a human form in which he is very tall, with the body split in the middle. A number of peoples attribute eyes to God. The Ganda speak of him as ―the Great Eye‖. But the others take one or more natural objects as the eyes of God. In a nutshell, Africans may present the reality of many gods, but there is no doubt that all Africans hold strong to the truth that there is a single supreme God who is the Creator of the universe. This monotheistic God is directly involved in the activities of human beings. Thus, the concept of God in Africa can be
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summarized in the following attributes: ―God is the creator of all things, sustainer of creation, provider and protector of creation, ruler over the universe, omnipotent, omniscient, is seen as a parent, just God, but human beings cannot directly know God‖. The philosophical elements found in the various conception of God in all the tribes so far studied are drawn from the effects such understandings propel every human being to act in a given society. The way of life of the people is determined by these religious beliefs. These behavioral pattern ranges from the way the people eat, the things they eat and cannot eat. For instance, the Tiv people of Benue State strongly abhor the eating of dog, but eat pork every well, while the Birom of Plateau State enjoy eating dog and have made it a special delicacy. Reflections about the reality of God contribute to the way a community people farm and the kind of implement they use for farming. These philosophical reflections also build up to what is called African worldview. A worldview is described as: As a system of values, attitudes, and beliefs, which provide people with a mechanism to understand the world in which they live and everyday events and occurrences.108 The meaning of these activities and events is gotten from whether an individual was able to derive comfort or was in pains during the course of the action. Such a worldview which strengthens the unity of the followers of a particular society fits in better as a philosophy of the people. It is philosophical because it gives a better understanding of African peoples, cultures, and events in Africa. Thus, the people can explain what it means to be born, to die and to marry, to think of planting and harvesting at the appropriate times and seasons. Though creation stories are more religiously inclined, they are necessary for a deeper understanding of who God is, who to describe God and define Him, they attempt to inform us of the relationship that has existed between God and human beings, what do we consider to be the best way of relating with other human beings, what is the meaning of life on earth, and
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most importantly, we are made to know the reason for suffering and death in this world. The acceptance of the concept of God among African cultures is a clear indication that Africans have knowledge of God and of the world. The consequence of this reality is the fact that the Africans also have ideas, concepts, and worship even though very hard to explain. In every culture, the reality of God who is listed using the following concept Olodumare has the follow attributes; as transcendence, immanence, selfexistence, pre-eminence, greatness, causal powers, immateriality, mysteriousness, unity, eternity, plurality, mercifulness, kindness, love, faithfulness, and goodness (19). When all these attributes are co-present in the Supreme Being to the maximum, it presents the problem of evil in any given society. So if the knowledge of God does not bring the African to philosophize, the glaring reality of evil in the world should at least stimulate the African to true philosophy in Africa and perhaps African philosophy. The African does not claim knowledge of God through revelation, nor direct intuition, but through moral grounds and the nature of the cosmos to support their epistemic affirmation. The African is faced with a prevalent theistic problem of evil which causes him to ask: If God is omnipotent, omniscient, creator (causa sui or prima causa), All-loving, all-good, allmerciful, then how can we explain evil? Does God cause evil? If God does not cause evil, then who causes it? Who created this cause of evil? Was the creator of evil all-knowing, past, present, and future? Or, is God actually allgood, all-loving and all-powerful but unable to stop evil- which is patently absurd? Or, does God not wish to stop evil?109 This is the dilemma of any theist whether in Africa or elsewhere. If the African theist chooses to say that God did not create evil, then it would follow that there either is no evil in the world, which is patently false, unless we redefine our concepts, or that someone else created evil, which means that
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God did not create everything. Even with this caveat, there would still remain the problem of accounting for who created the creator of evil or else, evil is self-caused, which is equally unconvincing. If they choose to say that God did not wish to eradicate evil, then it could mean either He lacks the power to do so, or He is sadistic and malevolent, options which are totally unacceptable to the theist. There then seems no way of escaping the problem without either redefining and limiting the attributes of Deity or becoming an atheist, or at least, an agnostic. Men and women who are practicing Christians and Muslims find it very difficult to question the reality of God. None speaks of the origin of evil and knowledge of Satan. This refusal to entertain questions pertaining the existence of God and Satan is to inhibit our knowledge and deeper understanding of God. Person The notion of person brings us to the question of who an African is. This notion particularly refers to ―the nature of African personhood and identity.‖ It also recalls the challenge African philosophers are facing in the 21st century in an attempt to properly articulate African philosophy for others to see and appreciate. I was particularly interested in the way he framed the questions guiding the studies. His framework had the following questions: Is being African is some way unique, qualitatively different from other ways of being human, or is one human first and African (or some other particularization) second? What is African identity? Who counts as African? What does being African entail? Is race a necessary and central feature of Africanity? Is it contingent and incidental? Who can speak for Africa? Can African philosophy theorize other identity categories, such as feminism? The issue at stake here is who is a person? Is the person in Africa different from the use of person in Europe? This brings us to the early debate entered into by anthropologists like Lucien Levi-Bruhl and his colleagues who were of the view
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that Africans were incapable of rational thought, and hence less than human. The works of Placide Tempels and Leopold Sedar Senghor were to prove beyond reasonable doubt that African identity was different, but equal to that of Europeans, and it manifested through emotions, while the European humanness is expressed in abstract reasoning. Muntu is the name for a human being. This is derived from Ntu which means human. The human being is composed of mind, soul and body. We are treating personhood in a more existential form. What is the role of culture regarding the identity of person in Africa? The role of culture in the formation of identity is certainly critical. It is critical because it forms the basis any philosophical analysis concerning the human person. The person in African philosophical thought would be examined under four major headings; the continuous nature of personhood, the means by which individuals achieve full personhood, and the implications of this conception of personhood for, the relationship between individuals and the community and the African understanding of responsibility and freedom. We shall follow the debate between Kwasi Wiredu and Gyekye because of the richness and variety in their arguments. It is worthy to note that discussions about the person cannot be done without searching for the effects of such conceptions on social practices and institutions in such a community. This said and done, the African philosopher makes use of the facts available from these practices and institutions to reconstruct a conception of personhood. This practice brings into being the way of life of the people. A person is not seen as a person if such a human being is not in any way contributing to the progress of the community at large. The judgments we make of people in our immediate societies must and should be able to contribute to shaping and supporting the communal status of the people. There are no two ways of defining the human person in Africa. He is a person if and only if his humanity serves as an
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innate source of value and he is humanity if only if such humanity supports equality. With these factors, the person is able to walk towards the achievement of trust, cooperation, and responsibility in the practice of communal relationships. It is based on the foregoing that the Akan philosophy of persons attempts to resolve the questions of identity, freedom, and morality in favour of a communalistic way of life that has evolved as a rational adaptation to the exigencies of survival under harsh conditions. How best can a human being be described in order to bring out the ―Person‖. Personhood according to Kenneth Kaunda ―is not an automatic quality of the human individual; it is something to be achieved, the higher the achievement, the higher the credit‖.110 The former president of Zambia used the Akan word ―onipa‖ which is translated as ―truly a person‖ in praise of the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in critical analysis reveals its ambiguity. On one hand it refers to a member of a biological species and on the other hand it refers to ―a human who has attained a special kind of social status‖.111 From the perception of Wiredu, the duality is as a result of distinction made between a human being who is a biological entity and a person who is an entity with special moral and metaphysical qualities. When the term human is used on a person, it does not imply susceptible to degree. It is not conferred on an individual as a reward for anyone‘s efforts. A human being cannot not be human; there is no point of argument to say that one is becoming a human. It is important to note that personhood is something someone can become and can be judged in various degrees through human achievements. The best way to express personhood is directly proportional to the degree of rights and privileges that accrue to an individual. To discuss a person in terms of being successful or not, means making a mature reflection and action by an individual who has flourished economically and is successful in meeting his/her responsibilities to his family and community. Two things can be derived from Wiredu‘s analysis; the possibility of offering a graduation of the concept
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of persons and the role social status plays in attempting the relevance of person. Are two human beings equal to each other due to the nature of the human being? Gyekye Kwame does not think that we are different from each other. As human beings, Wiredu posits, that we possess the okra. This means in Gyekye‘s Kantian parlance ―the claim that one‘s status as not just a human being but as a moral agent rests solely on one‘s capacity for reason. He goes on to argue that Wiredu‘s concept of personhood is faulty because it ―inconsistent with the natural or innate moral equality of persons derived from their common humanity. For him, ―we are human persons before we are anything else and it is the human person that matters from the moral point of view. Not surprisingly, Gyekye quotes Kant‘s categorical imperative approvingly when arguing that human persons are, as members of the ‗kingdom of ends,‘ equal independent of their empirical or accidental characteristics (be they social or even genetic qualities. According to Gyekye, it is our essentially human capacity for reason not other fortuitous or accidental predicates that serves as the basis for moral worth. In this respect, one cannot point to such accidental characteristics as height, gender, age, marital status, or social class as basis for personhood: What a person acquires are status, habits, and personality or character traits: he, qua person acquires and thus becomes the subject of acquisition, and being thus prior to acquisition process, he cannot be defined by what he acquires. One is a person because of what he is, not because of what he acquires.112 We are here presented with the fact that personhood as far as Gyekye is concerned is prior to and independent of such acquisitions. It is out of place to begin to confuse conventional notions of status which is a highly variable quantity with the notion of personhood for all human persons. The distinctive analogy on the issue can be drawn from the consideration of the status of infants vis-à-vis personhood. Who is an infant?
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Is an infant a person or a human being? The infant in the common language of the Akan people is ―one who lacks intellectual and moral maturity.‖ This does not imply that an infant is not respected in Akan culture. The infant is accorded respect based on the virtue of them possessing the okra. This point is stressed by Wiredu and Gyekye when they said: ―An infant is entitled to the respect due to any other human, regardless of age, or capacity‖.113 In this context humanity becomes a necessary condition for personhood. A person can be referred to as onipa hun (useless person) and onye‘ nipa (he is not a person). The fact of the matter is that ―an individual is a moral agent, one that is equal to all others with respect to having the potential for full personhood. It is convincing that the person with okra has the capacity for rationality and has an irreducible respect that is matched by irreducible rights of respect for life. The normative implication of possession of the okra or the capacity for rationality is that the entity is entitled to an irreducible respect matched by irreducible rights—like the negative right not to be killed unjustly, or the positive right to be given what is needed to sustain life. The social bases of personhood supplement this minimum level of inherent respect. In this wise one can say that all persons are human beings but not all human beings are persons. At bottom, all human beings are potential moral agents. This is a status (capacity for rationality and morality) that a colt cannot be accorded because even a horse cannot become a moral agent. An infant can.114 The okra is the core of the human being. It precedes one‘s life as a human and constitutes one end of this progress. The process of becoming a person ends with the story of ancestor whose memory serves as a moral exemplar to the living that guides the moral journey of the Akan people. Indeed, this is a naïve explanation of Akan personhood. Gyekye calls for its rejection and strongly insists that:
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A human person is a person whatever his age or social status. Personhood may reach its full realization in community, but it is not acquired or yet to be achieved as one goes along in society. What a person acquires are status, habits, and personality or character traits: he, qua person, thus becomes the subject of acquisition, and being thus prior to the acquisition, he cannot be defined by what he acquires. One is a person because of what he is not because of what he has acquired.115 The child or adult is a person and at the death of any of them, there is a feeling of losing a member of the society. The size and magnitude of mourners is differentiated by the fact that one is socially connected with members of the community than the other. Thus, ―the death of a wealthy and wellconnected person will naturally call for a more elaborate ceremony than the death of a newborn, quite independently of their status as persons‖.116 This brings us to the idea of reincarnation among the Akan people. Talking about reincarnation, Gyekye strongly denies the role that the idea of reincarnation plays in the Akan in the formation of persons. He goes on to say that ―the idea of reincarnation and of the graduated concept of persons is less a factual account of personhood than a moral narrative which helps to explain and justify moral precepts‖. The attitude of the elders towards the deceased can be evaluated as motivating those who are alive to act in certain ways. It calls for a reinforcement of socially valuable traits and practices such as cooperation and industriousness. When a human being dies, the ceremonies carried out during the burial could encourage those who are living to live morally. For instance, the Akan may abstain from mourning a rapist or a murderer to express their collective abhorrence of the offending act. The issue at this juncture is to get the criteria for judging who has actually achieved personhood in Akan culture. One is said to achieve personhood in Akan in two ways; there is a
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natural fact that people tend to care for their kin and feel responsible for those whom they have a close reciprocal relationships with and the fact that societies need some way to encourage and support members‘ feelings of empathy for those beyond their families‖. The first consideration has to do with marriage and procreation. Wiredu opines that marriage and procreation are a necessary, but not a sufficient condition of personhood. The implication is that one can have a wife who supports him to cater for the health, social, educational and economic needs of the children in the nuclear family, yet the parents are not qualified to be spoken of as achieving personhood, but if an individual takes up the responsibility of bringing up distant relatives such that they become part and parcel of the family, then such an individual will score very high in personhood. He shall be called ―oye nipa‖ which means he is ―a real person‖. This individual, according to Wiredu has the ability to critically assess their communal values to identify those that are good to bring them to the knowledge of other members and those that are bad to discard them. He is called a moral reformer and has the dual privilege of having a place of honour among his living people and a secured ticket to the ancestral world. This idea is captured by Wiredu and Gyekye: More than this one is required to make concrete material contributions to the well-being of one‘s lineage, which is quite a sizeable group of people. A series of events in the lineage, such as marriage, births, illnesses and deaths, gives rise to urgent obligations. The individual who is able to meet these in a timely and adequate manner is the true person.117 There is a negative feeling expressed to members of the community who are not contributing their quota to the development of the community. Such people are referred to as onne nipa which means that he is not a real person. It is important to know that contributing to one‘s community does not involve feeding, clothing and educating other members of the community alone. It has to do with the issue of joining
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hands with members of the community to construct bridges, roads, attending burials, mourning the dead, cleaning of public spaces, joining and fully participating in community associations. Individuals that score very high in community projects are rewarded with titles which are eulogized during their burial rites. Those individuals who have scored very high are considered to have the ability to reincarnate in the ancestral world. They are also considered to have the ability to guard the living. Though there is no limit to how high an individual can grow on the scale of getting to the state of personhood, there is a limit to how far an individual can fall. An adult to does so little or nothing for the community is seen as descending to the level of being only human. The fact of being human accords him only the basic dignity and the unconditional rights inherent in him due to the status. In this sense all humans have a moral value that entitles them to basic dignity and unconditional rights whether they have attained personhood or not. The insistence on the influence of society on an individual leads the critics of Wiredu to question the place of freedom of expression and choice making by an individual. They are of the view that Wiredu strongly endorses a form of tyranny of the community over the individual. Gyekye who is a fervent critic of Wiredu such understanding is both wrong both descriptively and normatively‖.118 He goes further to say: The whole gamut of values and practices in which the individual is necessarily embedded is a creation of cultural community and is part of his history‖ and that this indicates a close relationship between the communal structure and individual‘s goals119 Gyekye is also of the view that the close relationship does not imply that the communal structure is the only factor that propels the individual to consider in the context of analyzing these goals. According to him: Individual persons as participants in the shared values and practices, and enmeshed in the web
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of communal relationships, may find that aspects of those cultural givens are inelegant, undignifying or unenlightening and can thoughtfully be questioned and evaluated. The evaluation may result in individual‘s affirming or amending or refining existing communal goals, values and practices; but it may or could also result in the individual‘s total rejection of them. The possibility of re-evaluation means, surely that the person cannot be absorbed by the communal or cultural apparatuses.120 From the above quotation we are made to know that the individual has an inherent potentiality to enable him either accept or reject the communal consensus. Though the individual is a member of the community, he is not tied to the values of the community. Thus, he is an independent part of the community. This gives the individual the ability ―to participate in the determination or definition of his own identity.‖121 This does not mean the human life is with meaning if it is not done in association with others and the nature. A man is not a man in Africa except in reference to the community. This is the distinguishing mark between African understanding of a human being and that of the West. This view finds support with the words of Menkiti: A crucial distinction (thus) exists between the African view of man and the view of man found in western thought: in the African view it is the community which defines the person as a person, not some isolated static quality of rationality, will or memory.122 In African thought system the human person is the stock of creation. It is the beginning of life, sustainer of life and the true meaning of life. No wonder the human person is the centre of everything that exists. It is on this basis that succinctly captures African‘s understanding of the human being as living above both ideology and social institution. He warned we must continuously refuse to tie the human being to anything… society is there because of the human being,
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and whatever we undertake to do, we have got to remember that it is the human being that is the centre of all human society. It is to be acknowledged here that such fundamental principles as are found in traditional African society, which we here refer to as African humanistic heritage, remains the greatest cultural heritage to the world. As earlier on posited, if it is underplayed and ignored because it does not follow the fashion of science, then, we misunderstand it and miss the important better half of what makes human existence meaningful. Freewill and Responsibility To begin with, it is important to categorically state that freewill and responsibility are two sides of the same coin. One cannot be treated without considering the other. There fundamental ingredients necessary for any discussion concerning freewill and responsibility. An important condition for achieving personhood is that the agent has the ability to act on the basis of rational reflection. Before we attempt to discuss in this chapter, we must ask a very pertinent question. When is a person responsible? The Akan approach to deviant conduct is that an individual is responsible to the extent that his conduct can be modified through rational persuasion or moral correction. In this case, the source of that action must be determined before the judgment is passed. In Akan philosophy of person, where there is free will there is responsibility. But in a situation that demands for equality among people who are not offered the same opportunities, how can the wrong be identified in arguing for freewill and responsibility of an adult? For instance, a person is born handicapped or in the family of burglars, such a person ab initio is prevented from attaining the height of prestige like any normal bodied human being. In such a case is the person responsible for what he turns out to be or not? In other words, how does one account for equality in unequal circumstances?
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Using the Akan society, Wiredu opines that it starts with presumption. An erratic behavior is inference drawn from the superficial qualities of the individual action relative to the expectations members of the community has on him. The individual can choose to change or remain the same. Where there is change in behavior, the inference may also be changed, but if the attitude persist, the individual‘s family members may decide to summon an expert a geomancer who is capable of determining if such a person is acting based on freewill. At the determination that the individual is not acting from freewill, the community will gather and would announced to the individual in question a message of this nature: ―It is not her eyes, it is not her head, it is not her mind‖. This is a pronouncement of not guilty on the individual. At this passage of this judgment the community changes the presumed irresponsibility to non-responsibility. This is the way the Akan has for equalizing background conditions of individuals in their attempt at dealing with the difficulties of equality in unequal circumstances. Destiny or Fate in Africa The distinctive mark of African philosophy is its closeness to the culture of the African. African philosophy is accepted only to the extent to which it keeps in touch with life. In fact, a philosophy that can be held in high esteem today is one that has the capacity to critically examine the philosophical ideas that underlie the African way of life. African continent is in transition. On one hand, the way of life of Africans is still guided and controlled though unconsciously by traditional conceptions and loyalties. On the other hand, the actions and habits of the African are controlled by ideas and attitudes coming from foreign lands. This brings us to the idea of destiny or fate in Africa. In discussing fate or destiny it is important to acknowledge the impact of Christianity on African culture. When something happens to the African, is it safe for him to attribute the event or action to Providence or to fate. Is it possible for me as an African to solve the problems facing me in this world on my
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own? Does the African have a moral code? How does the African attempt to solve his problems in the face of other people who do not share the same interest and ideas? These questions are crucial in discussing fate or destiny in Africa. This is so because in Africa there is a strong belief system concerning fate. In many African cultures it is strongly believed that the destiny of each person is so predetermined that whatever a person does, he cannot change the path marked out for him. This simply means that any attempt one makes to change a course of event, it is suggestive that that is the path he has to follow. Thus, he is not conscious of his actions as they are meant to lead to the point already prepared for him time immemorial. There is something special about destiny, it is a doubleedged sword. It may lead one person to success and sometimes it may lead another person to destruction. For instance, if a man happens to be successful, he may be encouraged by his past achievements to reach even greater heights. On the other hand, he may have made such achievements through dubious means, but because he ways are not known to other people, he may attribute it to a blessing on his methods. It is still very possible for a man not to be witty and dubious to be successful, in fact, such a person may not be successful in life ab initio, but when he begins to work very hard with strong determination and finally achieve success in life, what would people say? That is his destiny in the first place. A man with strong will power can always rely on the maxim ―If poverty overtakes you, do not give up life, better days will come‖. The mother bed bug in the very terrible situation especially when hot water is poured on the straw bed in order to kill them would encourage the little ones, er i tsee nahan u doho kpa ngu van. This is literally translated thus, ―as it is hot it will become cold soon‖. Those who think this way are not giving in to fate or destiny. They are thinking of strategies to beat what others called a gloomy fate. There are other members of the society who would follow another line of thought. For such people they hold strong to
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the maxim: ―my destiny is obviously a gloomy one, however hard I may try I will never succeed‖. Such people are of the view that no one can change the destiny that was fixed for him by God. This attitude is a clear acquisition of a permanent ticket to be dependent on his family members and other colleagues and the society. This class of people without any form of adversity would persuade themselves and bring themselves into believing that they are not blessed by God and such thinking would make them go through life as social louts and loafers. A habitual drunkard puts it thus, ―my relatives have placed an alcohol receptacle in my belly, I will die a straw man‖. This attitude is a clear case of put blames on every wrong thing that goes on in their life to an unkind fate or destiny. The benefit of such a way of life for these people is taking away the sense of responsibility which accompanies every human conduct. They feel it is wrong to place their seemingly liabilities on them. Most people use bad fate to cause anarchy in their homes. For instance, a husband may blame his bad luck on his wife, any time he is not successful, he attributes it to his wife. This would make the woman go through a lot of battering and at the end send her packing out of the house. This action agrees with the wise saying that ―you give a dog a bad name in order to hang it‖. It is very important to ask the following questions concerning the doctrine of fate or destiny. How valid is the doctrine of fate or destiny? Who comprehensive is the message of destiny? Does destiny determine every single detail in the entire life of a person? On the issue of destiny determining every detail of someone‘s entire life, most people in our traditional society are of the view that destiny does not determine every single act, but only the broad outlines. This brings us to the issue of free will in judging the action of human beings and still talks of rewards and punishments. Whether it is in an African society or not, the freedom to decide for one thing and not the other must be present available before an action can be term culpable or not. This
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does not mean that the doctrine of free will must play an active role in issues of destiny. In the case of an unalterable pre-appointed destiny the free will strategy cannot be maintained. For instance, a man who rushes to the motor park on his way to Abuja and on getting to the park discovers that there was only one seat in the bus, he quickly pays the fare and the bus takes off to go to Abuja. After thirty minutes of driving, a call is made by the driver of the bus informing the people at the terminus that the last man who entered the bus has died through a motor accident. Another case where free will has no place is the case of a man who is passing through the woods and just as he was walking through the forest, a withering stick cuts and falls on the man and kills. These two cases may call for fatalistic reflections. What will happen, will happen, by whatever means, happens of necessity‖ logically, this argument is fallacious. It is tautological or a fallacy begging the question. The claim is significant and excessively deterministic. Such positions actually show that humanly, it is not possible to explain the trend of events in the world in its totality. The conclusion for the pre-literate person to draw in the midst of all this happenings is that the world is fundamentally mysterious. The statement is tautological in the sense that the person involved is simply making a claim of repeating himself. Let us have a critical analysis of the statement. ―What has happened has happened did happen simply means that what has happened has happened and there is nothing one would have done to stop it from happening. This is merely stating that a fact is a fact and it cannot be otherwise. The fallacy of begging the question in the statement, ―whatever has happened, had to happen‖. To accept the statement above implies that an empirical fact logically implies a necessary fact. In this case there is confusion between saying ―whatever is a fact must logically be possible‖ and saying ―whatever is a fact is logically necessary‖. A third kind of fallacy is in the statement as a result of the inability to explain known facts by human explanations. By so
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doing one is able to reach out for explanations which are both unknown and empirically unverifiable and therefore in a sense unquestionable. Finally, the argument appealing to fate and destiny may be an example of what is known as the rhetorical question which seeks not so much an answer but an emotional release: why should this happen to me? Or the equally emotionally relieving thought rationally dissatisfying answer: Riddle of destiny who can show What thy visit meant, or know What they errand here below? (C. Lamb on the death of an infant soon after birth) Regarding the distinctive moral dilemmas many African feel particularly in urban areas and in interaction with members of other tribes we must first comment on the great value placed on communal fellowship in traditional society. Though this is not African value as such it is very prominent in African society. Indeed, a great human value. This quality of our culture is obviously one which we must not only preserve but positively develop and deepen. It would profit us little to gain all the technology in the world and lose the humanist essence of our culture. This is one of the great challenges to African society today; to bring about a transfer of their value system – those values in it which are so essential to a truly human society refine and extend them so that they become the core values of nations and a continent now in the maturing. This is easier said than done. Just as the ethical values themselves have an ethnic habitat so too does the communal sense of being which is so strong in Nigerian society, within the tribe. Ali Mazrui and Wiredu have drawn attention to this feature of African society when they note that Europeans in particular have a tendency to treat the ways of behavior of African in absolutist categories by describing them as acts of embezzlement, corruption and the like. When in fact the situation is for more complex and may not be so simplistically interpreted.
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From the philosophical point of view a very basic consideration… relates to out ethical attitudes. There is what one might call a certain home-town orientation in our traditional thinking which is, I think, a consequence of the emphasis on family and kinship relations. Villagers are proverbially indulgent in judging the sharp practices of one of their number in some far-off city, provided that he conduct brings high public posit one of responsibility can testify to the constant, insistent pressure from relations and the people of their home towns for help and favours regardless of the claims of other people. As is well known, such nepotism is an evil that often occurs in public life. This does not mean that the African in such a position lacks a sense of fairness. Rather it points to the tremendous power of the extended family and local village even in faraway places. This implies that you must be a human being before being a saint. Wiredu gives a complete polish of the idea we are pursuing here. It is a function, indeed, a duty of philosophy in any society to examine the intellectual foundations of its culture. For any such examination to be of any real use it should take the form of reasoned criticism and where possible, reconstruction. No other way to philosophical progress is known than through criticism and adaptation. Those who seem to think that the criticism of African traditional philosophy by an African is something akin to betrayal are actually more conservative than those among our elders who are real thinkers as distinct from mere repositories of traditional ideas. If you talk to some of them you will soon discover that they are not afraid to criticize, reject, modify or add to traditional philosophical ideas. Cause and Chance Nobody dies a natural death in Tiv society. The idea of cause and chance is very central to the life of an African. It is often expressed with the air of frustration, why must this happen to me? Why must it be at this particular place? These questions seek to know the cause of events in our lives. If so
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much effort is put into knowing the cause of events in our lives, then it is proper to state categorically that chance per se does not have a place in African metaphysics. This implies that what the African calls chance is the result of his ignorance of the series of actions and reactions that have given rise to a particular event. Before an event takes place there are certain action that would occur and the reaction that would necessarily take place. The inability to interpret these actions correctly makes the African conclude that it happens due to chance. By this standard, an African world is permanently deterministic by nature. To hold strong to this assumption is to deprive the African of freewill and responsibility. Cause and chance and determinism are two faces of the same coin. On one side is the strength of freewill opens up the road to an action, while on the other hand is closure of an action by determinism. In life, man is also faced with alternatives. It could be two or more, but we cannot deny having the privilege to choose to make a right choice. That is why in critical times of decision making, the refusal to make a choice is in itself a made choice. Even in an arena of death, a person may decide to die or to survival. This does not mean that there is occasionally in which an individual may not be given the opportunity to choose one of the alternative. By definition, chance is any event that occurs in one‘s life accidentally and can be traced to a cause and reason attributed to it. When a man decides to have sexual intercourse with somebody‘s wife, it can be assigned to determinism in the sense that the act of sexual intercourse is product of a freely committed act with determined cause and effect. It is like free will opens the door of actions and then determinism takes its turn. When this idea is applied to the African society, it becomes clear. For instance, a man who is a very quite person would normally like staying indoors. It is not that he is not a social person, but he usually likes staying with his family at home at the close of the day‘s work. One day he was crown a king of the community. His primary assignment calls for his going out
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to visit members of his community who are sick and most importantly to sit out with friends. At this point in his life, he is faced with his freedom to remain indoors and at the same time his community challenges him to make several visits to them. We can draw from the analogy that an African is free to some extent and to some extent he is deeply limited. Thus, ―the African reality scheme is said to be both individualistic and communitarian‖.123 The individual is totally free to decide to go against the stipulations of the community. But going against the wishes, stipulations and enactment of the community in Africa does not exonerate the individual from being sanction by the community. This attitude can be seen from the members of a religious organization who would on a normal day refuse to attend Mass on Sunday, but if there is a community meeting on the same day, the person will do every in his power to attend the community meeting. Through personal initiative, the individual can exercise his freedom without coming into conflict with the collective will of the community. The African is not troubled about the Humean gnoseological intricacies of necessary conditions for causality namely, priority in time, constant conjunction, contiguity in time and space and necessary connection. Neither do the Africans bother themselves about the Cartesian problem of interactionism. It is rather taken for granted that the body and the spirit though having different natures interact. As Sogolo has aptly put it, ―one of the puzzles that face those seeking to understand traditional African belief system is how, in the explanation of observable events, disembodied or nonextended entities (spirits), witches, ghosts, gods, etc. Existing beyond the confines of space could possibly be invoked as causes. This problem arises mainly due to the widespread mechanistic view of causality where necessary connection is assumed to exist between the cause and effect. Sogolo maintains that: the conception of causality today is so loose and varied in meaning that what counts as a causal explanation of an event would depend on factors
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such as the nature of the event to be explained, our interest in the event, whether the event has one cause or a multiplicity of necessary causes, whether, when the causes are more than one, they can be compatibly invoked and finally whether some of the causes are sufficient such that the others are unnecessary and superfluous.124 It is now clearer that there are different conceptions that could constitute causal explanation in Africa. We may not need to examine the material, formal, efficient and final causes as Aristotle did in every case the need arises for given a causal explanation. The Africans look at cause and effect from the point of view of imaginable range of possibilities or they resort to oracles for the final verdict.
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CHAPTER EIGHT PERSONAL IMMORTALITY IN TIV CULTURE Personal identity of a person cannot be written or transferred. Each person is unique. What defines a person, group and society is that which gives such a person, group and society the identity that is irreplaceable. Africans believe in the idea of communalism, ―you are because I am, a am because you are‖.125 Our need for members of the community is to be self-sufficient and live happily. Everyone is needed for humanity to be at peace. We need those who are yet to be born. We need those who are born. We need those who are dead. We need those who are not yet born to continue with what we have here on earth, but for the dead are not highly priced in Tiv culture as their relevance is greatly reduced if not needed. In fact, the unborn child is valueless to Tiv society as he/she is used for the repair of the land for fertility. The question on the lips of many readers and listeners would be, how can the unborn child (ren) make the land fertile for Tiv society? The practice of offering an unborn child for the fertility of the land, act of cannibalism, and other activities associated with death and the process of dying in Tiv culture are some of the challenges that the modern Tiv man is faced with in an effort to intellectually, physically, socially and technologically transform the Tiv land. The most difficulty experience in Tiv society is the poor understanding of the newly introduced philosophy of personal immortality by Christianity. Where does the soul come from and where does it go to at death? Can we still blame our level of development on Europe or on our mentality as Africans? This study examines the extent to which believe in personal immortality influences the development of the human being, the Tiv nation and the world at large. The expository method is used to x-ray the philosophy of immortality of the soul and its influence on Tiv
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mentality. The evaluative method ensures a critical analysis of personal immortality as it affects development in Tivland. The study bridges the analytical frameworks and other numerous discussions on the need to fast track development in Tiv land. This study concludes that cyclical perception of life by the people has greatly affected their way of thinking and acting. The historical development of the philosophy of personal immortality and the effect of such philosophy on the belief systems and morality of the Tiv people forms the focus of this section. The Ancient Greek philosophers hold that the soul is dualistic nature. For Snell B., ―it is the soul which a person can risk or lose and that at death, it endures as a shade in the underworld.‖126 The assertion is plausible, but it is scientifically non-verifiable. The soul got a new understanding during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., the soul was associated with man‘s vulnerability that culminated in death. It was also linked to the life of man and other living things. Diogenis Laertius identified this implication in Thales‘ teaching on the immortality of the soul: ―all things are full of gods‖.127 It was a touch of speculation with the taste of religious connotations. Heraclitus used the speculative aspect in Thales doctrine to build his knowledge of the soul. He introduced the doctrine of logos (λογος) to substantiate the teaching that the λογος is the source of human reason, human intelligence and human consciousness or human soul, order and harmony in the universe with a single element and entity. Anaxagoras‘ nous (ηους) is infinite, self-ruled and mixed with nothing, it is itself spirit.128 He likened the spirit to a god who is eternal and uncreated and sets the planets in motion and order. In an attempt to put to sleep question of a Creator Anaxagoras says: ―In everything there is a particle of every other thing‖. He categorically states that the nous is totally superior to matter and is apart from it. An improvement from Anaxagoras teaching came with Leucippus and Democritus. They introduced the idea of atoms. Armstrong A. H. quotes them saying: ―Everything in the universe is composed of atoms believed to be the smallest units of matter‖.129 Implicitly it was a move to eliminate the idea of a Creator, thereby
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making chance the whole reality. Joseph Omoregbe captures this feeling: ―The only thing that happens in the universe which gives rise to all other things is the movement of the atoms‖.130 The atomists did not only eliminate the reality of a Creator, they also deny in principle spiritual reality. John Locke distinguishes between the identity of atoms, masses of atoms and living things. Pythagoras brought in a new dimension to the search with his doctrine Pythagoreanism. Pythagoras strongly believed in the immortality of the soul and reincarnation. He insists that souls that keep away from doing evil deeds would be saved from eternal destruction. On this D. Furley opines: To make the continued existence of this soul significant as the continued existence of the person in question at least some of the states, activities, operations and the like that seemed crucial to the identity of the person had to be attributed to the soul‖.131 Barnes J. says this attribute was expanded to include; ―All the functions of the human person‖.132 Pythagoreanism a religious group headed by Pythagoras who once asked a man to whipping a dog because it carried ―the soul of a friend‖. This was a demonstration of believe in the immortality of the soul especially of the souls that are virtuous, these may rejoin the divine spark itself. In fact, there was no strong belief in afterlife of the soul in the ancient Greek culture.‖133 The skepticism is demonstrated in all the works of Plato in Phaedo and Apology Socrates skeptically argues for the immortality of the soul with his interlocutors. Hear him: ―As to whether the (soul) survives at all, men find it very hard to believe‖. In this same work, Simmias challenged Socrates saying: ―What you say about the soul, they think that after it has left the body, it no longer exists anywhere, but that it is destroyed and dissolved on the day the man dies‖. The Republic shows the skeptical opinion of majority of the Greeks at the time of Socrates.‖ In the Timaeus Plato defines the soul as a composite of two elements; ―sameness‖ tauton, which corresponds to the universal and intelligible order of truth,
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and the element of distinction or ―otherness‖ thateron, corresponding to the world of sensible and particular existences. While in another work ―Phaedrus‖, Plato teaches of the plurality of souls. While the ―Republic‖, teaches of the triple soul. We can see the confusion and elements of contradiction in Plato‘s speculation on the issue of immortality. Wherever the search took him, he could not give a definite position on the origin of the soul. In fact, in the ―Timaeus‖ Plato is led to deny the intrinsic immortality even of the world-soul, and to admit only immortality conditional on the good pleasure of God. Plato‘s argument for the immortality of the soul was based on the nature of intellectual knowledge buffered by the theory of reminiscence (i.e. the pre-existence of the soul). This is interpreted to mean that the soul which existed from eternity necessarily participates in the idea of life, thus making room for the impossibility of an extinct soul. In all the discussions about death, Plato had Socrates speak of death as something that is not evil in itself. The Platonic doctrine of the soul is tended towards extreme transcendentalism. He taught that the soul and body as distinct orders of reality. The body is the prison, the tomb or the hell of the soul. Plato was aware that most of his contemporaries did not understand his doctrine of the soul, so he decided to urge all philosophers who understood or not to always pursue death and dying and should never be afraid of the end. The difficulties of describing the soul seem to be avoided in the works of Aristotle. Aristotle‘s theory of immortality of the soul is found in his famous book, De Anima. It presents the development of the soul in its aspects and functions. This ―articulates the ways in which all the vital functions of all animate organisms are related to the soul‖.134 Aristotle defines the soul as a particular kind of nature, a principle that accounts for change and rest in the particular case of living bodies including that of plants, non-human animals and human beings. Aristotle may have agreed with his master that ―souls have different kinds of bodies, but at the same time refuses to accept with Plato that all the abilities that are constitutive of the souls of plants,
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beasts and human beings are such that their exercise involves and requires bodily parts and organs. Thus, the exercise of thought involves the use of a bodily part or organ that exists specifically for this purpose. For instance, ―sensory impressions (phantasmata) are somehow involved in every occurent act of thought, at least as far as human beings are concerned‖.135 This was the dividing line between Aristotle and his master on the philosophy of the soul. Aristotle was committed to the view that ―even human souls are not capable of existence if separated from the body and cannot act if not in connection with the body‖136 For him, ―an ensouled, living body is a particular kind of in-formed matter. Human beings are, ―Slightly simplifying things by limiting ourselves to the sublunary world‖.137 This explains why Aristotle sees the soul as ―a first actuality of a natural body which has life in potentiality‖138 all claims which apply to plants, animals and humans alike. Technically, the soul is a ―first actuality of a natural organic body‖.139 The soul is considered as the form of the body, while the body is the matter of the soul. There is no way in which one of the two composite can exist apart from the other. He argues: It is not necessary to ask whether soul and body are one, just as it is not necessary to ask whether the wax and its shape are one, nor generally whether the matter of each thing and that of which it is the matter are one. For even if one and being are spoken of in several ways, what is properly so spoken of is the actuality‖.140 From the above position we can categorically declare that questions concerning the unity of the soul and body are meaningless because of two possibilities; they may be readily answered or they are somehow unimportant. This was to fit the soul-body relations into a larger hylomorphic pattern of explanation. According to Aristotle, just as we cannot separate the activity of cutting from the knife, so it is that we cannot separate the soul which is an actuality of a living body. The implication of the above proposition is that the soul in itself cannot be immortal. Can a knife which has the ability of
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cutting still cut when it is destroyed? Hence, ―the soul does not survive the demise of the body and does not remember.‖ This is the implication of his statement: ―It is not unclear that the soul – or certain parts of it, if it naturally has parts – is not separable from the body.‖141 Our literature review culminates with Aristotle because any other scholar after this period based his/her work of either Plato or Aristotle. This philosophical approach brings out the true nature of the self as a key to what happens to the soul after death. People become more real as they develop their spiritual selves to a higher level. What happens after death depends on how ―real‖ the self has become. People who have gone through life without awakening their spiritual potential will have little or nothing that can survive death, but those who have sought and opened themselves to enlightenment will continue to develop after death. They must have seen the need to even develop their societies while they were alive. Brief History of the Tiv People Tiv as they are commonly referred to are found in different parts of the world. Traditionally, they are localized in Benue, Nasarawa, Adamawa and Taraba States of Nigeria. Interestingly, Tiv people speak one unified language known as Tiv. They are descendants of an ancestral legend called Takuruku Anyamazenga who had two sons namely; Tiv and Uke (foreigner). When Tiv grew up he got married to Aliwe142 who also gave birth to two sons; Ichongo which means (circumcised) and Ipusu143 which literally means (uncircumcised). Shagbaor Francis Wegh a social anthropologist explains that circumcision was not common among the Tiv people. It was the foreigners (the Uke or atotiev) that practiced it. 144 It has become necessary for all male children of Tiv origin to be circumcised in keeping with tradition or at least for the purpose of hygiene. With the practice of total circumcision it is held in trust that everyone who claims to be Tiv descends from one stock (Tiv) with Takuruku as an ancestor closest Gba-Aondo (God the
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Creator). Apart from Takuruku and Tiv there is no other mention of ancestor among the Tiv people. The Tiv people are good farmers. They produce yams, maize, soyabeans, cassava, millet, rice in commercial quantity. Their whole life depends on the land which is held as a very sacred gift from Gba-Aondo. Shagbaor Francis Wegh writes on the value placed on the land: It is sacred. When one considers what it took them to acquire the land – the long treks, the attacks from their neighbours, then it is understandable that the Tiv are so serious about their land. They are always on their guard against encroachment on their land, and take every measure to protect the land against evil forces.145 Historically, the Tiv people before the declaration of Nigerian independence decided to stage a revolt in the then Northern region with the ―hope of delaying independence until given their own region‖ and to retain their vitality. 146 In fact, the occupation of the Benue Valley was not on a platter of gold as they passed through thick and thin, struggles and wars. There are many legends concerning the original home of the Tiv people, but the most common legend tells us that the Tiv people migrated from Swem to their present place of abode. Cultural anthropologists who have been working on Tiv culture have not established a definite location for Swem. Recently, Dzurgba Akpenpuun made bold to locate Swem at the source of Katsina-Ala River in the Southern-Western Cameroun.147 While foreign authors are of the opinion that Tiv people came from Swem or Bantu Tribe in Central Africa.148 Wherever they came from, the traditional Tiv society appreciated and cherished the art of living together in unity and peace. They are tolerant especially towards their members, tend to be aggressive to their enemies especially someone who comes to usurp their land. The white man met strong resistance when he wanted to visit the Tiv people, because of the fear that their presence would destroy or spoil their land. Thereby, offering so many of their unborn children
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for the purpose of purifying the land so as to sustain their practice of cultivation, planting and harvesting of both human and natural resources. Fighting Death in Tiv Culture Belief in personal immortality is grounded on the following; custom, authority, positive personal experience, inner knowledge, external fact, and reason. Traditionally, Tiv people do not strongly believe in either immortality of the soul or personal immortality of the soul. They think and know that all they have is life to live and when death comes, they are finished eternally. When the Tiv person is involved in any form of ritual, it is not with the hope of preparing for an eternal life after death, but because the custom and authority demand these of him. Nevertheless, there are very impressive rituals in Tiv society and members are encouraged to participate in arts of worship and ceremonies. On matters of death and dying, the situation is very distinct in Tiv culture. We would discuss the process of dying and the way the Tiv people understand death and treat the dead in their land. It is not an exaggeration to state that the most fearful thing for the Tiv person is death. It is so much feared that some Tiv people do not call the death by its Tiv name. Death is referred to as Ku in Tiv language, but Ku is hardly used for a human being. The word Kpe which is ―to die‖ is substituted for Ku when discussing about a dead person. In absence of using kpe other expressions are adopted. They are; saa lost, ayem gone ander ga did not wake up, mkohol ga, I did not meet or jinjingi na yem his spirit has gone. The Tiv person does not believe in life after death. When he falls sick, he does everything humanly and spiritually possible to regain his health in order to stay alive. A common persuasive expressions used for encouraging the sick to continue search for the right medication for their ailment is; angev mbu a de uga u deen ici ga (if you are not healed of a disease, you do have to cease taken drugs). When the orthodox medicine cannot heal the Tiv person, the medical doctor would
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recommend that the sick person go back to the root (return to native treatment in all its ramifications). In the village eldest man is informed of the sick person. He sends for two or three of his relations to come to his ate (a hut in the middle of the village where meetings are conducted). The meeting selects two members of the village to go to the soothsayer or diviner to find out the cause of illness. On their return, the most eldest man in the village is informed of the result of the findings before any other person. If action is delayed, other signs of impending death in the village are observed occasionally, then constantly as the days draw near for death to occur in the village. The signs ranging from the hooting of owls (avungu) in the night to the sounds of other nocturnal birds like akiki, ikpile, gbev, and mtsaan.149 No elder with a good heart will stay action on observing these signs. He sends for the igba and ityo (that is, father‘s relations and mother‘s relations) to meet in his ate for deliberations towards making the sick person get well. These two groups are highly valued and respected in Tiv culture because the life of an individual is under their control and protection. They decide when a person is to live or die. On arrival elders of the two groups are able to discuss the omens associated with the sick person. When the gathering does not arrive at a consensus concerning the good health of the sick person, one‘s igba would ask the father‘s relations for permission to take the sick person to their house for treatment. This is in order to prevent the person from dying. The igba are concerned with the task of protecting their sister‘s children from unwanted deaths. This practice is still on in Tiv society. Even those who strongly claim to be soldiers of Christ in the sacrament of confirmation and those who profess to be servants of God in His vineyard as well as exhibit strong faith in the saving grace of God are not comfortable with sickness and death. They may openly declare their love and faith in one true God. They have vowed not to enter any shrine for anything. They may totally denounce Satan and its entire works. They may claim to be born again, but these proclamations only hold waters when
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they are not sick and not at the point of dying. No one is exempted from this fact. The Catholic priests, the Protestant pastors and members of their various congregations visit these traditional healers for the treatment of their sicknesses. These unfaithful children of God are quick to tell you if you care to listen that ―God help those who help themselves‖. When they are made well, they return to the Church for thanksgiving, rather than gathering their loved ones around those shrines in which they got their healing. With this practice and expression of faith by the Tiv person, is it out of place to remark that they do not belief in monotheism? Can we say they have the hope of reuniting their souls to the Creator at the end of their physical life here on earth? Death in Tiv Society Death is death, but there are different ways in which a person may die. Some people may die after several years, months, weeks and day of sickness, while others may die accidentally. Whatever way a person dies, there is belief system which holds that no one dies naturally. Death is often attributed to those who possess the substance (tsav) capable of causing death. Someone must be ―accused of being responsible for a particular death‖.150 The major cause of death in traditional Tiv society is the fact that mbatsav are responsible for the death of others. The person who dies is offered as payment for flesh debt owe by a member of the community. The witches and wizards in active consultation with members of the witch community would decide who will be the next person to provide human flesh for their meal. Dzurgba Akpenpuun explains the phenomenon thus: It is a general indication of the plan and intention of the witches to cause the death of a human being. It indicates that the witches are in need of the meals of human flesh and they are therefore actively consulting the members of the witch community who have been indebted to others in flesh debts. They had received a share of human flesh of the children of the others,
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relatives and parents; that time has come for them to pay back the debts. The piece of human flesh may be paid in a human being.151 There are different ways to pay this debt. The Mbatsav highly appreciate and value accidental death because the meal resulting from such death is fresh and tasty. Therefore, a person can die as a result a fall from a tree, a hit by a bicycle, motorcycle, vehicles, snake-bite, drowning in shallow water, or is struck down by lightning during rain or in a hot day. A man may decide to offer his child, wife, husband, niece, nephew, cousin and a friend for the payment of the debt. The person offered is called ikegh (chicken). Spiritually, the person is slaughtered for spiritual consumption by wizards and witches. Bereavement in Tiv Culture When a person dies, the news of his death is to be passed on to his relations. The women are the first people to announce that death has taken place by crying aloud. For instance, at death of a husband, the widow cries out saying: orya wam saa yoo! Man me er nena? My husband is lost! What can I do? A yem shin a lu gbem (he has gone to the place where he will be forever). If she was away, on return and hearing the news of the death of her relation she would cry out saying: a nder ga or mkohol ga (meaning he has not woken up or I did not meet him). It is after the women have cried out and announced the death of a member that the eldest person in the village would send out some young men to inform all those who are related to the family of the deceased. He ties a piece of cloth called nagba around the waist. This cloth was not specifically white or black. The anger which is black and white was commonly used for the purpose of symbolizing death. The moment you sight a man or woman with this cloth around the waist you need not ask if the person is bereaved. While the message is going out, the dead is cared for a befitting burial. The body of the deceased is properly washed by either a men or women depending on the sex of the dead. In traditional Tiv society water and kungulaku (a substance that has a strong smell with the ability to make the dead body
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strong) is used for washing the corpse. Among the Igbos the washing of the corpse is symbolical. The ritual washing cleanses the individual‘s past life and in a sense regenerates the deceased. The freshness of the blood from the recently slaughtered goat or fowl with which the body is smeared and weird feathers are indications of the new status the deceased has acquired.152 In Tiv society this stage is followed by smearing the corpse with kpagh to prevent it from rotting and producing bad odour. Then, the eyes, mouth and ears are covered with cotton wool so as to prevent flies from defecating maggots into the openings. The body of the dead is laid on a bed made of straw (palm branches) and kept in the kitchen of his wife or mother as the case may be especially if the deceased is a man. Two reasons were given for doing this, it was a degree of embalmment and that the deceased can say farewell to either the wife or mother. While the body is placed in the kitchen aged women who have reached menopause are assigned to keep watch over it in turns. This is to prevent the body from being eaten by mice. It is important to note that any corpse that is eaten by mice gives the family members a bad name. So the body of the dead is guarded jealously. Occasionally, the men would walk into the place where the corpse is kept to stretch the legs and hands of the dead to make them flexible so as to get them to bend easily at the time of burial. The Grave of the Dead in Tiv The grave in which a dead person was buried in was prepared immediately the death was announced. Though the smearing of kpagh was meant to prevent immediate rotting of the dead body, it was not a strong method of embalmment. The eldest man in the village points out a piece of land where the dead person would be buried. According to Iyortyom B. D., ―in most cases, the grave is shown outside the compound, by the side of the path, which is leading to the deceased igba‖.153 The time given for manually digging the grave gave the Tiv youths ample time to do the work according to
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specification (four feet for elders and two feet for the kids. Culturally, a grave in Tiv was round and small. Those who are assigned with the task of digging the grave were forbidden to return to the house with the red soil from the grave on their body or on the tools they used for digging. It was taboo for women to sight this soil whether on the body of the young men or on the tools used for digging. For a pregnant woman the moment she saw the spots on the grave digger it was automatic miscarriage, any other woman would suffer from barrenness. The Burial Rites in Tiv Culture It was very common in the olden days to have burials done in the morning for ordinary people. 154 Before the burial, the elders of the village would gather in the Ate to discuss the cause of the death of their kin. This is called, Ku Orun (discussing death). Ku Orun is done in the presence of the ityo and igba. The ityo are the ones responsible for the death of their kin, but usually it is done with the knowledge of the igba. In a case where the ityo unilaterally decided to kill one of their own without the consent of the igba unlawfully, the igba are quick at asking for a return of their ingor (including the children) so as to protect them from such deaths. The death of a very young person usually precipitates anger among elders. The death of a very good talented person or the only male child of a good man is not easily accepted by the elders during Ku Orun. Death is not just seen and understood as removing a member from society, it is not just socially destructive, it is creates anxiety and stress which are destructive to human existence. When a situation of refusal to admit the cause of death arises, the elders would unanimously agree that such a person ought not to have died. The next thing to happen is to ask one of the elders to speak life into the dead person. The moment the elder speaks, the said dead person would get up and sneeze six times. The elders would bring him/her and give to the parents with the words that so and so person did not die, but was sleeping.
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The person lives a ripe old life before dying. If he was not married, a wife is given to him to set posterity and have a name for his lineage. In the case of an old person, at the confirmation of the cause of the death, the elders roll into Akombo a sorun. This is a ceremony performed by the elders to prepare their kin to be accepted into the world of the ancestors. These people are usually buried in the late hours of the morning because they were initiated in biamegh. Otherwise, ordinary people were buried in the morning usually so that their family members can have good luck, but when a person was buried in the evening the members were sure of experiencing bad luck (ikyor i vihi ve). Those who were buried in the late hours of the morning were those initiated with biamegh. The men were buried in their father‘s place of birth under normal circumstances or if you were not taken back to your mother‘s house for the sake of protection. A woman who is properly married is buried in her husband‘s compound. Women whose husband‘s could not pay their bride price are buried in their father‘s compound. At the time of burial, the deceased was laid down in the grave with the right hand up and facing the east. ―…this position enables the dead to use the right hand to get hold of the chain used by the witch to exhume him.‖155 Parrinder who is a foreigner attributes this act to the negative tsav. According to him: They are believed to carefully organize; and one of their members is destined to fetch bodies out of graves, while another member restores the deceased to life, while the third member performs the usual sacrificial rite of the mbatsav. These agents have nocturnal hook tsue used in the exhumation of dead bodies of their victims. Women cook the meat, though invisibly and spiritual for consumption among members.156 The exhume person is transformed into one the following; a pig, a chicken, or remains a human being if the wizard responsible for removing the dead assumes the dead person to be calm. The spirit of the dead is infused into the body
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spiritually making the deceased to take on his/her full body. The exhume person is able to perform the actions he/she was carrying out while on earth. Those who were sick for a long time and emaciated are kept in the barn and fed with feces and beniseed for a period of time to make them fresh for consumption in respect of ikpindi (flesh debt). As Parrinder has rightly said the person is served as meat for the mbatsav during a spiritual festival. In fact, on matters of this Dzurgba Akpenpuun has dealt with them extensively in the work On the Tiv of Central Nigeria: A Cultural Perspective.157 Ancestral Communion The Tiv can confidently assert the reality of two ancestors; Takuruku and Tiv. Among all the scholars who have worked on Tiv culture, it is only Gbor Terwase John is explicit on the issue of Tiv ancestors. According to him: ―the only known Tiv ancestor is Takuruku Anyam Azenga.”158Takuruku‘s ancestral status can be appreciated when the Tiv elder is calling Aondo‘s assistance. In most cases, the name Takuruku is not always mention during prayers of need. The common pattern of prayer in Tiv calls on Aondo, Abaverjua, Iyookoo and Ishankyura. The most eldest person in the community who is of good reputation and behavior would use the following prayer format to call on God to avert disaster or request for rain in times of drought and for rain to stop when there is flood. Ooo Aondo! Ooo Aondo! Ooo God! Ooo God! Aondo u Abaverjua! God of Aberverjua! Aondo u Iyookoo! God of Iyookoo! Aondo u Ishankyura! God of Ishankyura! Aondo tile jigh jigh jigh! God stand calm, calm calm159 It is very difficult to decide for these personalities as being related to the Jewish worldview that see them as the equivalent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Adega Philips Andrew argues that: ―the personalities mentioned in the prayer Abaverjua, Iyookoo and Ishankyura are renowned Tiv ancestors rather than the general belief that associates them
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with the biblical God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac.‖160 This makes the belief in ancestral cult in Tiv land significantly difficult to comprehend. Yet, lack of ancestral cult does not rule out the reality of the spirit world in Tiv society. It is in this light that the generalization made by Talbot P. A. could not hold waters for the Tiv nation. Speaking of veneration of ancestors, Talbot had this to say: Perhaps nowhere in the world is the influence of the dead stronger than in West Africa; nowhere is the dividing line between the dead and the living less definite. No one can hope to appreciate the feelings and thought of the blackman, who does not realize that to him, the dead are not dead but living, in all command of their faculties including memory, and endowed with greater abilities and powers than when they are living on earth.161 Instead of believing in ancestors, the Tiv man/woman has a strong belief in adzov (spirits). These spirits are able to interact with human beings especially when they take human form. Adzov are never spirits of the dead members of Tiv society. They are a creation of Gba-Aondo. Scholars like Dzurgba Akpenpuun, Tseayo J. I., East R. N., among others have discussed extensively on the nature of the adzov or mbakuv. For instance, Dzurgba Akpenpuun upholds that: Ormbakuv may appear as a very old man or woman, an orphan, a blind, lame, deaf, or dumb person, a poor widow suffering from hunger, thirst, disease, nakedness, shelterlessness, injury or any other misfortune. Thus, he or she may ask for help. A person who refuses to satisfy that need earns the wrath of that spirit. A sudden disappearance of the person informs one that one has ill-treated ijov. Punishments include loss of wealth, sickness, becoming disabled or a poor harvest.162 The fear of being punished by the spirits prevents the Tiv people from throwing water or refuse out of a house while
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inside the house at night. The woman or child who intends to throw water or refuse out in the night must come out of the house before throwing away some water. This is to avoid pouring it on the spirits that live among the people. The coming out of the house does not in any way imply that the child or woman will be able to see the spirit. It has become a forbidding act to sweep at night or throw away refuse at night in Tiv culture. These are some of the ways in which the Tiv people show that they are accountable and responsible and can regulated human conduct at any time. There are times that mention is made of ancestors (u ter asev), in the form of the things they did or say (kwagh u mbayiase kaa la) or (kwagh mabyiase er la). These actions and sayings have actually become a model of our everyday life. Immortality of the Soul in Tiv Philosophy There is a strong belief in Tiv that the body of human being is composed of body and spirit, but that is where the story ends. They are silent as to whether the body influences the spirit or vice-versa. The Tiv people do not believe in reincarnation. The Tiv people do not believe in final judgment after death. Jijingi (an immaterial substance associated with the human soul) has the ability to determine what is good and that which is bad. In fact, it is the subject of the psychological experiences like perception, thinking or consciousness. Consciousness is spoken of only in relation to the person who is alive. The manner in which both work is a matter of faith and not reason. There is a strong belief that God is the point of interaction between the mind willing and the body moving. This is reflected in the Tiv notion of unity of the human being whose component parts are inseparable whether in life or death. In Tiv culture judgment is meant for the living and not the dead. In death little is known about the fate of the dead. When someone dies, he/she is said to ―mem‖ which simply means rest. The rest in Tiv context is not to have gone to enjoy eternal bliss with God. It means that at the dissolution of your body and the departure of your uma (spirit) the tendency to
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feel pain is no longer there. This thought pattern is closely related to of Lamont Corliss in the Crisis called Death: Our main antidote for death is preoccupation with life, with the manifold enjoyments that it brings and with creative work that contributes to the progress of our country and the welfare of humanity. We know there can be no individual immortality, but we have hopes that once global peace is permanently established, international cooperation and the steady advance of science will secure the immortality of the human race in this infinitely varied and beautiful world of Nature.163 This quotation shows that there is little or not believe in personal immortality of a people. Liberation for such people is different from that of other nationalities. The cultivation of basic moral values may be considered over and above the place of heaven for some cultures. This is the situation the Tiv person finds himself in, unlike the Yoruba people have develop elaborate ancestral cult over the years. The Yoruba belief in the reality of ancestors and ancestral worship is so pronounced that they could confidently talk of theology of salvation. This is expressed in the work of Adedeji G.M.A. when he says: No part of their life would be left behind when they die to join the ancestors. Body, soul, spirit and head will follow them to the ancestral world. Therefore, liberation plays an important role in the African theology of salvation.164 There is activity that strongly supports the philosophy of life after death in Tiv culture. Let us look at the theology of punishment among the Tiv people. According to Dzurgba Akpenpuun : ―The theology of punishment after death does not exist in Tiv traditional religion‖.165 Everything a person ought to do should be properly done here on earth. This is arising from the fact that it is not the soul of a man that is responsible to God; rather it is the combination of the body and spirit. The only point in which this soul is in union with
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the body is when the person is on earth and alive. He further contended: ―It is not the soul (uma), but the body (iyol) that is morally responsible to God and the people. This is clearly seen in the expression jijingi na due (his spirit has gone out). No traditional Tiv person would interpret the phrase to mean the person has died physically, but spiritually he is still alive. What then does B.D. Iyortyom in his book, Cults and Burial among Tiv call libation to the ancestors? For him: ―Tiv people give libation to the ancestors for they (Tiv) believe in their continual existence‖.166 The question he is left with to answer is, where are the ancestors in Tiv society? At what time does the Tiv person pour out libation in respect of the ancestors? . How many cults are raised in the name of ancestors in Tiv land? The difficulty associated with these questions makes this study to deny the possibility of a philosophy of personal immortality among Tiv people. We have a strong belief in the reality of spirit as earlier indicated in this study. When a person especially an elder who is initiated into akombo wants to eat food or drink water, he throws or pours a piece or little drop of the thing to the ground for the spirits to also partake in the meal. This is not done for the sake of the ancestors. How many Tiv worthy men and women have been deified? His idea of deifying those who are dead is borrowed from Christianity and the Yoruba culture. His position on the reality of ancestor is captured in this manner: We may on one hand say that Tiv believe that there is life after death, but only a few are qualified to reach such status and live after death. Those who are qualified are those who die at the good age. That means old men. That is when one dies, they call upon their ancestors, who is Takuruku Anyamazenga to stand up and wait for angyo (relation) for he is coming.167 The whole of Tiv race is proud to celebrate to prominent people who qualified to be called ancestors are Takurku Anyamazenga and Tiv. How can we explain the sweet song
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sang during the burial of a prominent Tiv person? The wordings of the song are: Takuruku Anyamazenga Tile jigj jigh Tile keghen angyo ngu van Sha kumun u tamen. This song might depict a sense of life after death, but a deeper reflection of the practice at the point of burial and the practice of the Tiv people concerning death would clearly show that it is a mere song without any meaning attached to personal immortality. Even if we consider the song as connoting the possibility of an immortal soul, the reference to angyo in the song is clearly shows that women, and young men as well as children are not part and parcel of those to be found in the ancestral world. Personal Immortality and Development in Tiv The absence of the philosophy of personal immortality of the soul in Tiv culture has made them think very little about development. Life for the Tiv person is a continuum, but its continuity does not imply a return to the former life. In cases where the spirit of the dead is infused in the body of the exhumed person who becomes conscious of himself and begins to perform that which he knew best does not symbolize immortality. We cannot say that the salvation of a person begins on this earth and ends in the hereafter. This can be true of the Yoruba who understand that: ―Salvation of the entire person begins in the world of the living and leads one on a pilgrimage to the ancestral world.‖168 The deceased person may be spoken of as if he is able to dance, if he was a dancer, carve if he was an artist, driver if he was driver and etc., the abilities possessed have nothing to add to the life of those who are living. He does not perform these acts consciously. He ceases being either a man or person by the definition of John Locke. The simply reason is that the dead person does not regain consciousness and ―consciousness goes with personal identity‖. He cannot regret of avoiding bad acts like the student of Walter T. Stace did
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when he said: ―If he did not believe in a future life, in heaven and hell, he would rape, murder, steal and be a drunkard‖.169 Here, is a person who seriously thinks of the possibility of heaven or hell. He avoids evil to do good in anticipation of a reward in the hereafter. He is good here on earth in order to avoid the wrath of the final judge. The Tiv man does not care about how he lives his life on earth. When he wants to be good, it is done so as to bring him happiness here and now. There is no restriction as to how many wives a man should marry in Tiv society. There is no restriction as to how many children a person should have in Tiv society. What matters to him is that he has many wives and children who would work on his growing farm. The training such a person gives to the children is to help them sustain their lives only. The Tiv person is not innovative, productive scientifically. He is involved in social activities like marriage, burial and agricultural ceremonies. This attitude has been transferred from one generation to another. The lack self control in all ramifications. They hardly spare time to reflect on activities around them. They are complacent with imitating other people. They belief system of the Tiv people is centered on Tsav. This is corroborated by Philip Adega Philip and Anthony Apenda: It is true that a man will often admit that he/she is the cause of another‘s death; but this is usually for one or two reasons: either he makes the claim deliberately in order to over awe fellow members of his group, or else he is unable to maintain his innocence in the face of public opinion.170 The impression that it could be used by those who possess it for their personal benefits has actually created the fear for the Mbatsav in Tiv land. The young people in the land are afraid of attempting to develop the society, least they may die. Originally, Tsav was meant for the good of the community. Those who possessed it had a communal responsibility to the whole people.
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Today, tsav has become devilish and destructive. The ormbatsav is happy when the death of a vibrant young man or woman is attributed to him or her. What they claim to be gifted with cannot help in the development of society. The elders make claim of having aeroplanes, motor cars, horses, trains, boats but you will never see any of the items physically. Their horse is an art of manipulation of the human being into a horse and ridden spiritually only at night. The deceased who is highly placed and educated does not live long in Tiv society. He is said to be offered as a chicken to be eaten during spiritual festivals. Sometimes, the deceased himself is involved in the practice of eating human flesh. When his time to donate someone for sacrifice, he is not able to do so, such a person‘s spiritually killed by members of his cult for the same purpose. This brings out clearly the self-centeredness of some of the Tiv people. All the activities presented above in this section categorically reveal that the absence of the philosophy of personal immortality gingers the Tiv people to think of here and now alone. The death of most valuable sons and daughters who would bring development to the land is a great loss to the Tiv nation. In societies in which the thought of life after death is paramount, the people of such societies are bent on changing the face of the earth through acts that encourage moral upbringing and maintenance of social order. The thought pattern of developers emanated from the appreciation of how they hope to fare well in the next life. The death of a man is culturally taken to be the end of life in Tiv society. Majority of Tiv people live in rural areas. They live unhappy lives. The few rich members of Tiv society live in urban settlements and cities. No one feels comfortable going to visit his parents or relations in the remote village. ―I will die if I go to the village‖. When the person dies, everything about him ends. Tiv mentality does not contain values of personal immortality. Citizens of Tiv nation do not imagine that the things to do to others here count in their favor in the hereafter. To live is to die, then everything is forgotten. There
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is no need to develop the human person. There is no need to think of development at all. What is is, what is not is not.
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CHAPTER EIGHT PHILOSOPHY AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA The question of the right orientation in pursuing philosophy in Africa is a matter of great importance. To do this, we must reflection on the following questions; what can philosophy do for Africa today? What is the cultural matrix of philosophy in Africa today? We have already considered the distinctiveness of philosophy in Africa, what is left for us to do is determine the impact of philosophy on African society? There are many factors responsible for this kind of regression or stagnation. They are: the colonial legacy, social pluralism and its centrifugal tendencies, the corruption of leaders, poor labour discipline, lack of entrepreneurial skills, poor planning and incompetent management, inappropriate policies, the stifling of market mechanisms, low level of technical assistance, the limited inflow of foreign capital, falling commodity prices and unfavorable terms of trade, and low level of saving and investment.171 These factors are so many and practically appear to be overlapping. With such a structure they are able to cover any angle one discusses any issue concerning underdevelopment in most parts of Africa. In fact, they have actually formed the greatest impediments to the development of Africa. This does not in any way diminished the lack of the political will prevalent on the continent. No doubt, this makes the link between philosophy and development in Africa very crucial and significant. Africa is undergoing a lot of transformational changes. The presence of western colonialists and imperialism is dying away. These foreigners no doubt left behind them their economic mentality, their industrial and technological expertise. These things are eating deeper into the soul of many
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cultures in Africa than any creed or ideology would do. It is as a result of these influxes that Africans are thinking of the road towards modernization. Modernization in Africa did not come in the same manner as that of the West. In Africa, the common features associated with modernization were a shift from small-scale, illiterate, societies with their tribal gods and social systems to the larger modernized, industrialized, and urbanized democratic states. This development followed a chronological order. Thus, this development made the cultural distance between the past and present, between traditional and contemporary societies far greater in Africa than in the West. In this paper we shall examine the reasons behind underdevelopment in Africa, the contribution of philosophy towards enhancing an effective and efficient development. The paper will conclude by making practical suggestions that if adequately applied will stimulate an enduring link between philosophy and development. People in Africa were culturally deprived and racially oppressed. This situation has thrown a culturally diversified Africa into a challenge of unity of system without recourse to recrimination based on past experiences the continent went through in the hands of the colonialists and missionaries. The struggle in Africa with regards to industrialization is not so much about gaining Africa‘s identity, but towards achieving Africa‘s destiny. This presupposition is captured by Ruch when he said: ―Africa is searching not so much for its identity as for its destiny‖. This search has very high stakes, yet Africans cannot be guaranteed of readymade guidelines outside of Africa. The way forward is to be discovered in Africa, among Africans and for the benefits of Africans. Africans must search for the right consensus and resourcefulness for them to build a broad based sense of cooperation. African philosophers cannot remain indifferent to this challenge. Any attempt to remain indifferent will sentence them in the court of history.
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Development The term development is understood various by different schools of thought. We are not very interested in attempting every kind of definition here. The intention in this book is to make development an all-inclusive, all-embracing and less ambiguous for the reader. We want to achieve an integral development in Africa. This can be done if it is considered in the sphere of psychology, economic, sociology, political science, and the humanities. P. Iroegbu sums up this idea in his definition of development: Development is the progressive unfolding of the inner potentialities of a given reality. It is to develop, that is, to bring out to light existential, functional and epistemic what was enveloped, folded or hidden. As it applies to people, development is the integration of the various givens: natural, physical, acquired and human, of a people towards a full working out, permanently and cumulatively, of their being as persons, of their community and of their real productivity.172 It is with this background that Walter Rodney conceives development in human society is a many-sided process. It is a fundamental transformation of the society‘s mode of production so as to bring about qualitative changes in the community‘s living conditions. This process of transformation brings on the people‘s collective will and determination to improve their common situation through imaginative and practical application of these skills‖.173 Development is a value word. It means ―social and personal change that moves towards conscious chosen goals. People who are normally in the process of change do the choosing‖.174 Focusing on social development, Acha, defines social development as ―an increase in social complexity to achieve the conscionably chosen goals which are desired to promote good interpersonal relationships, tolerance, mutual and social benefit, love and justice for all‖.175 True
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development does not begin with the mere provision of social amenities, social services and institution of reform policies and programmes. It cannot come with strong emphasis on scientific and technological advancement as it is the case with Nigeria where our leaders continuously encourage students in the sciences while turning the blind eye to those in the humanities especially in philosophy and religion. To neglect the spiritual development of a people is in a way to dislocate the connection with the world of true development. It must start with the improvement of human resources. This is the improvement of man in the unfolding realities of his creative potential. This process enhances the personality of man and it serves as the moving force behind the socioeconomic advancement of the society. Such efforts increase human skills, provide the capacity for greater freedom, enable human control of his natural environment and man‘s natural well being. Under-development in Africa There are several factors that are responsible for the regressive position of Africa. The advent of the colonial administrator to Africa was based on the idea of Africans being people without a clear focus. Initially, Africa was ruled, exploited, oppressed without any form of opposition. The land of Africa was shared out among European countries. It was left for the colonizer to decide the method of administration to be adopted. They distributed the land of Africa and while on the land, they decided to determine who should produce what and how to go about the production of that particular idea. Young energetic African men were sold into slavery; the mineral resources and agricultural goods were carted away. In fact, the planning of soyabeans in Tivland was seriously cultivated, but there was a prohibition from the same government on the consumption of soyabeans. Today, we all know the benefits of eating soyabeans. The consequences of the exploitative nature of the colonialist were the impoverished society, the replacement of African value system with that of the West.
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The political situation instituted by the colonial administrators can best be described as not only ―absolute but arbitrary.‖176 For instance, in Kenya, the Coffee Plantation Registration Ordinance of 1918 forbade the growing of coffee, the country‘s most profitable commodity, by Africans while the White Highlands in Kenya were reserved for European Farmers and the Marketing to European and barred Africans. The implication of such form of absolutions and arbitrariness was politics reduced to the crude mechanics of opposing force driven by the calculus of power.177 A political theory built on power is might or might is right. Power was made the top priority in all circumstances and sought by all means. As the rulers and subordinates extended their rights to their powers, the idea of lawful political competition became impossible, and politics was inevitably reduced to a single issue: the leader is the awaited messiah (emphasis mine).178 The radical growth of nationalism brought to Africa the spirit of political liberation. African leaders such as: Kwame Nkrumah, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Julius Nyerere Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo strongly condemned the political oppression of Africans. For example, Senghor in his philosophy called ―Negritude‖ condemns the French policy of assimilation on the grounds that Africans have a culture, value system and an identity that must be accepted, cherished and respected. Africans have their own cultures, their own values, and their own identity derived from a common heritage and different from the European culture, the European values and the European identity… feelings and sentiments take precedence over abstraction in African way of life‖.179 The victory won by these nationalists did not come without gluts of violence in most places. In most cases, African leaders who replaced the colonialists acted as mere stooges. They lacked a serious interest on transformation. They could not adequately manage their success. This resulted into the proliferation of conflict among political elites. The ground upon which they stood to fight the colonial regime became weaker and weaker. The struggle for political power was moved from the foreign manipulators to an enduring conflict
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that emanated from ethnic groups, command and interest groups within the same locality. This is what Africans were left with by the colonial administrators; they sought for power by all means and maintained the same powers using every available means. Corruption of African Leaders Corruption is the greatest obstacle to development. It can simply be defined as the giving and taking of bribe. In most African countries, nay countries of the world, it is hard to get someone to do something for you (his duty) without receiving a material gratification. Onigu quotes Wraith and Simpkins, saying: ―Corruption has been with societies throughout history‖.180 In Africa the condemnation that has come to greet the so-called practice of corruption has received a dual reaction. On one side, it is opined that what is called corruption is an adaptation of the traditional gift giving. Again, ―That the need to be corrupt is derived from the obligation to help others who are in desperate needs, to educate one‘s children and those of relatives, feed kinsmen, and organize feast and funeral etc‖.181 On the other hand, Southall, has observed that ―gift-giving in our modern era is garnished with the intention to infringe and pervert rule‖.182 There are many forms of corruption. They are: ―political, economic bureaucratic, judicial, moral corruption and developmental corruption‖.183 We shall deal with two form of corruption enumerated above: moral and developmental corruptions. Moral Corruption This is simply moral deprivation. It is induced by desire for meeting other needs without following the laid down procedures. For instance, ―the desire for employment, the wish to show wealth through the acquisition of women, the exploitation of the less privileged by the few rich in the society‖.184 We do not abhor riches as the above examples might imply what is distasted is the wrong possession of wealth and employment of such wealth as a demonstration of
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flamboyant living. The society in which we live in respects selfishness, self-interest, and greed. Our leaders in order to please their people would usually decide to flout public moral codes and this indeed makes them morally corrupt. Developmental Corruption Developmental corruption occurs where there are numerous development projects by the state. There is a lack of private participation in the execution of such projects. The state is responsible for the kind of projects to be implemented, the leaders in power determine where, when and how to situate such an industry. The officers are able to make money as fast as possible. There are types of developmental corruption; awarding contracts at over-bloated rates to receive kick-backs, the state acts as the sole importers of goods and services, custom officers are ready to allow the passage of smuggle goods in order to have their spoils‖.185 Effects of Corruption on Development There is no rational defense for any corrupt practice. Corruption is bad. It leads to underdevelopment of the nation. Corruption tends to lower respect for those in authority. It erodes people‘s faith in their government to treat them even properly. The worse aspect of corruption is got from the fact that our leaders are obviously self-centered. They refuse to place the country‘s interest before their own. Our leaders are corrupt, what they do set standards for people under them. In fairness, we must acknowledge that corruption is a cankerworm that needs to be curbed if Nigeria will ever hope to make any appreciable progress towards development. The Contributions of Philosophy In discussing issues like development one is primarily talking about the development of the human person. Considering the social anthropological approach, is ―the unfolding into concrete reality and putting into progressive usefulness the potentialities of man and human nature, the producers of culture and the maker of society‖.186 Any
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developmental issue not focused on the human being in the first place is driven towards absolute failure. The drivers are considered inadequate to make the right interpretation that would lead to the target of members of the community. This is where philosophy has ―a vital contribution to make to the development of human persons as these forms the main object, the inquiry of the human person.‖187 This perspective has been at work since the time of Socrates. His emphasis on ―man, know thyself‖ and ―an unexamined life is not worth living‖ speak volumes to us on the need for man to look inward for his growth and development. Philosophy has led us to ask ourselves some fundamental questions relating to the life of man. What is man? What is the purpose of man‘s existence? What is the ultimate value of his life? Has his life any ultimate meaning? Is human life worth living? What is freedom? What is development all about? To think seriously about these questions is to demand for effective change. This change is offered by philosophy which has the lasting meaning for change and development. This is the idea of C.B. Okolo: People who take up the study of philosophy such as the university students for example, do so in the understanding that philosophy offers the best method, perhaps, the only rational method for tackling the questions of the meaning of human existence and life in general.188 With the eyes of philosophy human beings are able to assert their freedom of thought which is the basis for any meaningful development. With the study of African philosophy, Africans are better placed to take a critical look at the same Africa in a different light. This attempt enables the African to have an epistemic breakthrough in terms of improving himself and the environment in which he lives in. the notion of philosophical questions being more fundamental is achieved at this moment as philosophical inquiry is the highest form of inquiry in the sense that it involves no presuppositions, no taking anything for granted, but questions everything including itself in the process. This
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means that philosophy helps man to determine societal values, development and progress. It enlightens and enlarges our level of understanding these issues. Whenever our yearnings for change are not met, it is only the people with philosophical wisdom that would persistently seek for better ways of tackling the issue. No wonder, the Tiv man in his wisdom says, ―angev mbu a deuga we kpa udeen u man ci ga‖. This means if you are still suffering from sickness, you will always have need for drugs. The Task of Philosophy in Africa Philosophers in Africa are no longer ignorant of the need to vigorously fight for political liberation. The African philosopher‘s main concern is with ideas. In fact, they are not talking about increased production, accumulation of capital, transfer of technology, ideologies and models etc.189 they are no longer ignorant of the evil of capitalism on the Africa society.190 They are no longer ignorant of the evil of individualism, clans struggle, and conflict. These tendencies have made progress and development in Africa very slow and difficult. To break away from these shackles is to adopt philosophy as the yardstick of human and natural development. This does not erode the fact that the task of the philosopher in Africa, which is primarily to analyze the various aspects of African culture, identity and separate the good from the bad, is hazardous.191 To get things moving in Africa, the philosopher has nothing else to change, but the ideas around them. Philosophy encourages rational human beings to pursue truth. When truth is slaughtered on the altar of greediness, such a society is moving towards ultimate destruction. This is where I think Nigerian leaders should begin to chart a new road to making Nigeria a better place. Nigerian society lacks gadflies of the caliber of Salami Ayo, Dele Giwa, Wole Soyinka, and the likes. These candidates have come to realize the relevance of philosophy as it helps them understand themselves and the world around them better. They persistently made serious attempts at rediscovering their
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existential integrity; they have tried to have control of the world around them, their life and destiny. Indeed, such Nigerians are true gadfly for others to follow. These are citizens who have the capacity it takes to examine one‘s life. They are people who are open to criticism. They listen to the views of others. African philosophers who are found in places of authority should as a mark of maturity should be able to question themselves. A governor who is alleged of forging examination certificate should be able to ask himself, why did I do this? Is this act dignifying? Does this act make me truly human? How am I encouraging the young ones in the pursuit of their life? What change can I bring about in my society if I make bold to resign from this seat? Will this make the leaders of tomorrow more accountable? In what way am I going to create the enabling environment for a progressive society? Indeed, such questions would lead the person to criticize what he had held in high esteem as his values, life-options, societal goals. The person involved in this quest would realize that everything revolves around himself, which is contrary to the rule of utilitarianism. It is upon this moral standard that democracy which is universally practice is based on for the good of society. Nigerian leaders are hereby encouraged to study philosophy in order to carrying out self-questioning and searching their actions critically. Such attempts are philosophizing would make the human mind achieve greatness and nobility of character, cultivates healthy habits of tolerance, largeness of heart. This would lead them out of the prison of pettiness and political bitterness. The words of Joad are appropriate here: For most of us constitute the prison of everyday life and forgetting the nervous little clod of wants and ailments which is the self, is elevated into communion with that which is greater than self. On the practical side, this greatness of mind generates qualities of tolerance, justice and
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understanding in the growth of which lies the chief hope of the world today.192 The Significance of a Philosopher The significance of the philosopher is primarily observed from his way of philosophizing. According to K.C. Anyanwu: Philosophers are looking for knowledge, truth and value not in a vacuum but in a given social historical context and their knowledge of reality has tended to reinforce or retard the sociohistorical process of a period.193 This manner of philosophizing must be seen as having a direct touch on the basic condition of modernization. The ability to analyze issues and circumstances makes policy makers and executors travel the path of decision-making consciously. The ability of the philosopher is to clarify concepts is the best way philosopher he is able to change ideas for good. The clarification of ideas and concepts makes people in such situations to have a better look at the world, their society, and issues. This aspect of philosophy has made a great impact on human thinking. Philosophers have encouraged us to consider the human being as a developing creature and a duplication of the universe. That is, by looking at man under the philosophical lenses, his dignity is appreciated and respected. The philosopher is something of a prophet not only because he stands to predict future trends, he also acts as the voice of humanity in search of new dimension of being. He reshapes past values in order to make them align with the present and enable them stand the challenges of the contemporary era.194 It was based on the above understanding of the role of the philosopher that the words of Josiah Royce quoted by Professor Mason are relevant to our situation in Africa. A great philosopher in the wrong is like a beacon on the reefs, which says o Seamen: steer clear of me. He enables men to identify the errors, from which they suffer, and to become clearly aware of them, and to struggle against them. This is an essential need of society, insofar as society is, not merely
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animal society, but society made up of person endowed with intelligence and freedom.195 Thus, the task of the philosopher is any part of the world is open to both opportunities and contradictions. Issues of Development in Africa To effectively contribute to development in Africa, philosophy must be applied in the process of making adequate clarification of key concepts. The population in Africa must be given ample opportunity to receive philosophical education. It is with proper education that member of the society can distinguish between good aspects of Western education and African culture and bad influence Western education, African culture has on the psyche of the human beings. The philosopher in Africa who wants to contribute to the development in Africa must be well schooled in both cultures and at the same time refuse to be overwhelmed by any of them. Africa is gradually experiencing social, economic, political and religio-cultural development. The kind of Africa we expect to emerge after in the 21st century largely depends on the common decision we shall make today as rational human beings. Such a decision must be able to transform the political ideologies of our leaders in Africa. Leaders in Africa must grow out of the shackles of selfishness. They must understand that their occupation of leadership position is a privileged opportunity that is opened to service. They must appreciate that as leaders, they are equal to their followers and make it a point of duty to positively touch their lives, integrally. The task of developing both human and physical resource must be the priority of African leaders. African leaders must learn to travel the path taken by Nelson Mandela who spent 27 years of his life fighting for the liberation of South Africa. He had all the plausible reasons for clinging to power, but he did not. This is because Mandela and his political party (African National Congress) had a workable ideology had propelled their struggle and has kept them in focus. The same ideology has made Thabo Mbeki to categorically squelch the speculation
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about running for a third term so that South Africa could get on with more urgent issues of nation-building. The attitude of Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Abdou Diouf in stepping down before they are pushed or before they die is worth emulating. Africa is known for leaders who are ready to cling on to power forever. In most of the countries that experience tenure elongation the development is rather very slow or stagnant. The problem with African leaders is that they do not know why they are in office, ―excerpt for power and the self-aggrandizement that comes with it. The political parties have no ideology. The leaders have no vision. That is why today ―politics is pedestrian, remote from people‘s needs and is preoccupied with elite settlement and understanding‖. The success of any government in Africa strongly depends on its ideology. An ideology, which is capable of harnessing the divergent views of the people for progress and development, must be upheld in Nigeria. This is where philosophy has to focus its fundamental role. It must make a careful analysis of different ideological schools of thought in order to bring up an acceptable ideology for the benefit of all and sundry. The failure to produce an acceptable ideology for leaders by philosophers in Africa will lead to the arrest of cultural evolution. Sogolo therefore calls for a philosophy, which will be uniquely African in content and methodology. He calls for cultural relevance. For the start one may use some descriptive accounts of the raw ingredients of thought beliefs, folk wisdom, worldview etc, which though necessary, are no more than rudiments yielding philosophical questions. This is the new orientation he proposes in studying African philosophy. According to him ―it is therefore an orientation that puts one foot ahead of ethno philosophy and the other beside professionalism by way of domestication‖.196 It is only when African philosophy take this position that it ―becomes more relevant culturally and professionally‖.197 The abuse of human rights, oppression of the populace and the stagnation of development should be a thing of the past in Nigeria. It is clear enough to put the blame on the
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leaders in Africa when dealing with the issue of development. Perhaps, it is because African leaders have not taken the call to produce philosopher-king very seriously. Leaders in Africa lack a well-defined philosophy. The importance of philosophy on the political system of a people cannot be taken for granted. We need carefully articulated philosophy to remove the wrong ideas from our people that leadership is a privileged position to partake in the nation cake. We must make our leaders know that they have a duty to serve the masses and philosophically make the electorates feel as truly human beings. They must be guided to change from the preconceived idea of exploiting the resources of the nation for personal aggrandizement to the improving the people integrally. While it is a fact that cultural isolation is not possible in contemporary world and it is also true that cross-cultural interdependence and mutual borrowings cannot be overemphasized, we should use African philosophy to create a fertile ground for cross- cultural pollination of ideas between the Africans and people of other races. Except for argument sake, any philosophy that does not recognize the importance of cross cultural interaction, for instance, the impact of science and technology, in contemporary times, is nothing but a waste of time, a mere hair splitting exercise, because whether we like it or not, whatever affects any part of the world will necessarily affect us in Africa, directly or indirectly either positively or negatively. Hence, we cannot afford to waste time. Our philosophy and indeed African philosophy can only be made relevant to the needs of our time only through speculative construction and critical examination of the ideas that govern our existence as Africans. A leader who is able to put policies and programs through critical analysis before implementation will not throw her country into corruption and underdevelopment. The presence of corruption in many African countries explained the reason for poverty in Africa. The application of philosophy in the daily activities of the people of Africa particularly the leaders at any level will go a long way in reducing poor planning, corruption,
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and poverty, it will enhance rapid development in whatever sphere of human endeavour. The way out of underdevelopment is through social struggles for broad democracy which will free public criticism, scientific creativity, and social as well as political self-organizational capacities of the working people. This will bring about the total transformation of social relation in Africa.198 Gene Blocker also believes that African philosophy must utilize the traditional tools of philosophical analysis to clarify and offer solutions to social and political problems of contemporary West Africa. He stated further that African philosophy has no particular style but several prominent features. The most dominant feature according to him is social, political and ethical. He concludes that: West African philosophers are striving to reshape their human affairs and we are thus brought close to the optimism of Plato and Aristotle attempting to rebuild society from the ground on the basis of philosophical reflection.199
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