Abstract
This chapter argues that pluralism in Africa could be positively managed through African political ethics of neighbourliness (APEN), derived from monistic pluralism (MP), the African metaphysics that the diverse entities in nature are ultimately united. There are three basic claims. First, many African states have largely failed, managing their pluralism for peacefulness and cohesion. On many occasions, at the micro level of intra-state citizenship relations, there has been a conflictual gap between the political leadership and the people (vertical incohesion); the leader is perceived as more deeply committed to an ethnic/religious affiliation than others, and among the people, who are deeply committed to different ethnic/religious affiliations (horizontal incohesion). At the macro level of inter-state citizenship relations, different African peoples, separated by morally arbitrary territorial boundaries, have also largely failed to build on the MP, as instantiated by the recent extrajudicial killings of some Nigerians in South Africa. Second, this substantially undermines/inverts cohesion among Africans. Third, suchlike anti-neighbourliness could be creatively addressed through a Yoruba theory of APEN.
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Notes
- 1.
These conclusions are drawn from the works of many authorities on African metaphysics. See, for example, Teffo, Lebisa J. and Roux, and Abraham B.J., ‘Metaphysical thinking in Africa’, The African Philosophy Reader, P.H. Coetzee and A.P.J. Roux, eds., Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 196; however, this position, as related to African political philosophy of eco-democracy, is captured in Badru (2018) above, and in Badru forthcoming (Ethical Perspectives), as related to an African theory of just war.
- 2.
David Coady and Richard Corry, The Climate Change Debate: An Epistemic and Ethical Enquiry, ed. Jonathan Boston, Andrew Bradstock, and David Eng (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK, 2013), p. 2.
- 3.
Jonathan Boston, Andrew Bradstock, and David Eng, ‘Ethics and Public Policy’, Public Policy: Why Ethics Matters (ANU E Press: Canberra, 2010), p. 1.
- 4.
Wasudha Bhatt, ‘WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT ETHICS?: A theoretical inquiry into the philosophical traditions’, The Indian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 70, No. 2 (APRIL–JUNE, 2009), 317–343 (at p. 317), citing G.E. Moore, Principia Ethica (Cambridge University Press, London, 1962), 1–2.
- 5.
Contextually, non-extensive proximity between the self and the other occurs when both legally share a given territorial space (as Nigeria by various Nigerians); thus, neither of them deserves to have more of the space than the other, except on some strong legal (or moral) grounds. In short, the shared space is their point of proximity. Extensive proximity between the self and the other occurs when both share some identical cosmological or ontological link; though, they may or may not legally share the same territorial space (as Africans, who are of different African states). In brief, the identical cosmological and ontological link shared forms their point of proximity.
- 6.
R.O. Badru, ‘Environmental Deficit and Contemporary Nigeria: Evolving an African Political Philosophy for a Sustainable Eco-Democracy’, Environmental Philosophy: The Journal of the International Association for Environmental Philosophy, vol. 15, Issue 2, Fall, 2018, 195–211, at p. 203.
- 7.
Rama Venkatasawmy, ‘Ethnic Conflict in Africa: A Short Critical Discussion’, Transcience 6, 2 (2015), pp. 26–37, at p. 26.
- 8.
See R. Picciotto, ‘Conflict Prevention and Development Co-Operation in Africa: an Introduction’, in Conflict, Security and Development, vol. 10, no. 1. (2010), pp. 1–25, at p. 2.
- 9.
Facts about all these are online.
- 10.
For a critical review of the Boko Haram phenomenon, see, for example, Chidiebere C. Ogbonna, ‘The Inordinate Activities of Boko Haram: A Critical Review of Facts and Challenges’, RIPS, vol. 16, núm. 2 (2017), pp. 9–24.
- 11.
Johnson Olaosebikan Aremu, ‘Conflicts in Africa: Meaning, Causes, Impact and Solution’, African Research Review: An International Multi-Disciplinary Journal, Ethiopia, vol. 4 (4), Serial No. 17, October 2010, pp. 549–560, at p. 550.
- 12.
See Aremu…, pp. 551–554.
- 13.
See Aremu…, pp. 552–553.
- 14.
The basic reason for this is that it is impossible, given the limitation of space for the present work, to philosophically examine all the different cultural groups in Africa. However, there might be some objections, arising from focusing on a given African culture; these would be addressed later in the work.
- 15.
See Bolaji Idowu, Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief (revised and enlarged edition). Ikeja: Longman, 1996. For a philosophical examination of some issues involved in interpreting ‘God’ as ‘Olodumare’, see Benson O. Igboin, ‘Is Olodumare, God in Yoruba Belief, God?’ Kanz Philosophia, vol. 4, no. 2, 2014, pp. 189–208.
- 16.
T. Metz, ‘Towards an African Moral Theory’, The Journal of Political Philosophy, 15/3, 2007, pp. 321–341, at p. 323.
- 17.
See Dennis Masaka and Munamato Chemhuru, ‘Moral Dimensions of Some Shona Taboos (Zviera)’, Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, vol. 13, no. 3, 2011, pp. 132–148, at p. 134; I.A. Menkiti, ‘On the Normative Conception of a Person’, in K. Wiredu (Ed.), A Companion to African Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006, pp. 324–331.
- 18.
See Nimi Wariboko, The Depth and Destiny of Work: An African Theological Interpretation, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Inc., 2008, pp. 105–106.
- 19.
Kwame Gyekye, ‘African Ethics’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2010), accessed on 17 June 2013 from 2013 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/african-ethics/
- 20.
See Segun Gbadegesin, African Philosophy: Traditional Yoruba Philosophy and Contemporary African Realities, New York: Peter Lang, 1991, p. 27.
- 21.
In the rundown to the 2015 general elections in Nigeria, politicians, especially those from leading political parties at that time, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC), were freely using toxic communication against one another in both print and electronic media. Moreover, one of the issues that really heated up the polity among the different ethno-national groups in Nigeria was the so-called Kaduna Declaration on 6 June 2017 by some group of youths in the North, calling on all the Igbo to leave the Northern region by 1 October 2017. For more details on this, see: THE KADUNA DECLARATION—Full Text of Northern Youth Declaration Asking Igbos To Leave Northern Nigeria. Retrieved on 24 Feb 2019 from https://www.tekedia.com/the-kaduna-declaration-full-text-of-northern-youth-declaration-asking-igbos-to-leave-northern-nigeria/
- 22.
See R.O. Badru, ‘Nigeria and the Deficit of National Cohesion: Exploring the Political Philosophy of a Third Culture in the Post-Centennial Era’, Culture and Dialogue 6 (2018) 151–173.
- 23.
Badru…, p. 169.
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Badru, O.R. (2020). Pluralism and African Conflict: Towards a Yoruba Theory of African Political Ethics of Neighbourliness. In: Wariboko, N., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Social Ethics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36490-8_10
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