Sunday, December 12, 2010

Foundations of African ethics By: Pastole Bamwesigye


African ethics is a big enterprise that calls us to reflect on the behaviors of Africans most especially between an individual and the entire society. It is important to note that what we call morality or ethics today in Africa is traced far back in the early stages of African civilization especially before colonialism.
In African conception of ethics and morality both terms mean the same thing. Morality or ethics is the conduct or behavior of a person. There is no African ethics without the conception of human person that is anthropology,
                                
community and   Theo centric. In African ethics, reference to God is a must. The community is the starting point of ethics but this cannot be reduced to only the visible community. The entire African community is made up of the living, the living dead, the ancestors, not yet born children and God.

Africans tend to speak about the human beings than God. This is because; God cannot be reached directly. In African set up, the one who is against a human person is against God. The one, who treats the fellow human being rightly, is praising God.
           
The main goal of African ethics is life itself. Everything done by Africans is characterized by vital force. The African community must guarantee the promotion and protection of life. Any behavior that is against life is not ethical and therefore African morality and ethics must promote life.

The ethics of palaver for example expresses oneness among Africans and creates a critical distance with non-Africans. In the palaver, the council of elders normally comes together to discuss about norms and values of life. It is in the palaver that norms are discovered and justified.

The assumption of palaver insists on freeing members from the suffered problems. It is a process of healing and reconciliation and penance. The family palaver is a kind of dialogue and fellowship. It establishes peace, strengthens relationships, and promotes unity among family members. Vital force is the central dimension of African thinking. 

Pastole Bamwesigye is the head of department school of social sciences Uganda Pentecostal University (UPU)

1 comment:

  1. This is interesting. What actually is meant by 'life' I am not sure. Maybe African ethics, as understood in this article are fairly near to European Existentialism.
    I would be interested to hear what the writer has to say concerning freedom of the will, choice and liberty. As you are a Christian University then I also assume you must agree with the Judeo-Christian ethic as the only system of belief with real moral absolutes. Plato was obviously not able to articulate these because he could only make an analogy with the sun and 'the good'. The latter being the ultimate source of all virtue (arete=excellence).
    Sadly I think a certain intellectual laziness has meant that Westerners/Europeans/English Speaking Peoples may have become intellectually lazy and tend to judge by emotions and feelings rather than rigorous questioning.
    I may need to understand the meaning of 'palaver'. If this is what I think it might be then I do believe that there is much that African culture can teach Europe, America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In jetisonning the Judeo-Christian system we have not only lost our absolutes but have given up the importance of dialogue, first confirmed by Moses in Deuteronomy (ch.6) then questioning as in Socrates and in the New Testament. Indeed we also tend to over emphasise the importance of the lecture/preaching as opposed to dialogue. Take acts 20:7. The word 'preached' is actually a mistranslation of dialegeto, that is dialogue. In the previous chapter we have Paul 'disputing' first in the synagogue and then in 'the school of one tyranus'. (19:8,9) This is a translation of this same word. (also 18:19) The school of Tyranus was probably a philosophical school on the lines of those run by Plato and Aristotle. With these we may also take the example of the Bereans, (17:11) and that of the Lord Jesus Who, as a boy, was found in the temple with the Rabbis,'hearing them and asking questions' . (Luke 2:46,47)
    The work of Professor Bernstein at London University in the late fifties and the sixties on language and social class is interesting in this context.
    I look forward eagerly to a reply as I would value your thoughts. I will try to keep in touch with this blog. I would also like to offer some of my thoughts to the wider audience of your staff and students if you think they might be of some little help and stimulus to debate and discussion. I have websites where I include a similar blog on Christian and Philosophical issues, and wider issues. I also have other articles and books which I would be willing to share.
    www.crfpublishers.co.uk www.heavenearthandhell.co.uk Feel free to correspond roger.penney34@hotmail.co.uk
    Yours with my very Best Wishes in the Lord Jesus
    Roger Penney

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