Abstract
This chapter argues that African social ethic is (was) not purely and thoroughly communitarian everywhere. Today, it is best described as agonistic communitarianism. Agonistic communitarianism is an attitude and a position that speaks to the intense and relentless struggle of individualism with the weight of communitarianism on one hand and the struggle of communitarianism against the fires of individualism that want to melt and erode the established structures of the community on the other. Agonistic communitarianism is the artful irruption into communitarianism of individualism. It is a combination of sense of self-interest and norm-grounded conception of the common good. Agonistic communitarianism, as I am using the term here, is individualism (not selfishness) that is framed within communitarianism that undergirds and propels it. It is an exfoliation of the abiding care and concern for individuality in African communitarianism, the individual-in-communion given an ample space to better actualize his/her potentiality for the flourishing of the self and what transcends it.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
As this chapter was about to go to press I came across the work of Moses E. Ochonu where he basically agrees with the position I have taken in this chapter. He argues that too much epistemic visibility has been given to the “incorrect notion of precolonial Africa as a site of subsistent communalism, an undifferentiated societal continuum supposedly unspoiled by the twin capitalist evils of the profit motive and private wealth accumulation. … Evidence … indicates that a communitarian ethos underpinned and mediated the entrepreneurial pursuits of precolonial Africans. … Even the most communally organized precolonial societies and economies had enterprising members who improved their lives through entrepreneurial initiatives, indicating that neither communalism not subsistence, two hyperbolized and overgeneralized features of precolonial Africa, was incompatible with private property or the pursuit of individual wealth for self-improvement.” See Moses E. Ochonu, “Introduction: Toward African Entrepreneurship and Business History” in Moses E. Ochonu (ed.) Entrepreneurship in Africa: A History Approach (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2018), pp. 1–27; quotation from p. 16.
- 2.
Robin Horton, “Social Psychologies: African and Western” in M. Fortes and Robin Horton (eds.), Oedipus and Job in West African Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 54, pp. 41–82.
- 3.
Peter Ekeh, “The Public Realm and Public Finance in Africa” in Ulf Himmelstrand, Kabiru Kinyanjui, and Edward Mburugu (eds.), African Perspectives On Development (London: James Currey Ltd., 1994), pp. 234–248; Peter Ekeh, “Social Anthropology and the Two Contrasting Uses of Tribalism in Africa,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 32.4 (1990), pp. 660–700; Peter Ekeh, “Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 17.1 (1975), pp. 91–112.
- 4.
This definition was inspired by Michael Onyebuchi Eze, “What is African Communitarianism? Against Consensus as a regulative ideal,” South African Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 27, no. 4 (July 2008): 386–399.
- 5.
Marc Stier, “Reconciling Liberalism and Communitarianism.” A paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Marriot Waldman Park, August 31–September 3, 2000, p. 12 [1–24]. Note that my notion of agonistic communitarianism is quite different from his. Stier’s notion is based on the usefulness of conflicts between different conceptions of goods and schemes of virtues between liberalism and communitarianism that lead to refinements of viewpoints. Mine, as I will latter demonstrate, is about the existence of the ethos of individualism within the framework of communitarianism in Kalabari ethical consciousness.
- 6.
Reinhold Niebuhr, Love and Justice (quoted in 259 of Forell and Childs, Christian Social Teachings, second edition).
- 7.
Niebuhr, Love and Justice (quoted in 259 of Forell and Childs).
- 8.
Niebuhr, Love and Justice (quoted in 259 of Forell and Childs).
- 9.
Robert Wright, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny (New York: Vintage Books, 2001).
- 10.
The terms of cooperative intimacy and competitive intimacy came from my Gambian friend, Mariama Khan. I have deployed them here in ways that are somewhat different from her usage.
- 11.
This is the original name of the Kalabari people.
- 12.
J. Budziszewki, The Revenge of Conscience: Politics and the Fall of Man (Dallas, TX: Spence Publishing Company, 1999), 121–124. This paragraph was inspired by these pages.
- 13.
See Nimi Wariboko, The Mind of African Strategists: A Study of Kalabari Management Practice (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickenson University Press, 1997).
- 14.
Michael J. Sandel, Justice: What’s the right thing to do? (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009) gave me the language to express my ideas here.
- 15.
Paul Tillich, Theology of Peace, edited by Ronald Stone (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1990), 94; I have borrowed language from this book to articulate my understanding of individualism in precolonial Kalabari.
- 16.
Advocates of African communitarianism have the dream of transcendence. This is the dream of transcendence of acting and thinking from non-individual location, of an individual engagement with fellow community members without the original sin of self-interest, self-preference, and partiality that communitarians hold fast or tot up.
- 17.
Kwame Gyekye, An Essay on African Philosophical Thought: The Akan Conceptual Scheme (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 145–146, 158–61.
- 18.
Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2019), 335. I have implanted her words from a different context to make my point here.
- 19.
W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folks (New York: Penguin, 1989), 5.
- 20.
See Nimi Wariboko, “Colonialism, Christianity, and Personhood” in Charles Ambler, William A. Worger, and Nwando Achebe (eds.), Blackwell Companion to African History (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2019): 59–76.
- 21.
Ekeh, “Social Anthropology and the Two Contrasting Uses” and “Colonialism and the Two Publics.”
- 22.
Nimi Wariboko, Ethics and Society in Nigeria: Identity, History, Political Theory (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2019): pp. 19–34.
- 23.
Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen (Stanford: University of Stanford Press, 1998), 28.
- 24.
Carl Schmitt, The Nomos of the Earth in International Law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum (New York: Telos Press, 2003), 95.
Bibliography
Agamben, Giorgio. 1998. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen. Stanford: University of Stanford Press.
Budziszewki, J. 1999. The Revenge of Conscience: Politics and the Fall of Man. Dallas: Spence Publishing Company.
Du Bois, W.E.B. 1989. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Penguin.
Ekeh, Peter. 1975. Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement. Comparative Studies in Society and History 17 (1): 91–112.
———. 1990. Social Anthropology and the Two Contrasting Uses of Tribalism in Africa. Comparative Studies in Society and History 32 (4): 660–700.
———. 1994. The Public Realm and Public Finance in Africa. In African Perspectives On Development, ed. Ulf Himmelstrand, Kabiru Kinyanjui, and Edward Mburugu, 234–248. London: James Currey Ltd.
Eze, Michael Onyebuchi. 2008. What Is African Communitarianism? Against Consensus as a Regulative Ideal. South African Journal of Philosophy 27 (4): 386–399.
Gyekye, Kwame. 1987. An Essay on African Philosophical Thought: The Akan Conceptual Scheme. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Horton, Robin. 1983. Social Psychologies: African and Western. In Oedipus and Job in West Africa, ed. M. Fortes and Robin Horton, 41–82. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Morrison, Toni. 2019. The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Niebuhr, Reinhold. Love and Justice (Quoted in 259 of Forell and Childs, Christian Social Teachings, Second Edition).
Ochonu, Moses E. 2018. Introduction: Toward African Entrepreneurship and Business History. In Entrepreneurship in Africa: A History Approach, ed. Moses E. Ochonu, 1–27. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Sandel, Michael J. 2009. Justice: What Is the Right Thing to Do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Schmitt, Carl. 2003. The Nomos of the Earth in International Law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum. New York: Telos Press.
Stier, Marc. 2000. Reconciling Liberalism and Communitarianism. A Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Marriot Waldman Park, August 31–September 3.
Tillich, Paul. 1990. Theology of Peace, ed. Ronald Stone. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.
Wariboko, Nimi. 1997. The Mind of African Strategist: A Study of Kalabari Management Practice. Madison: Fairleigh Dickenson University Press.
———. 2019a. Colonialism, Christianity, and Personhood. In Blackwell Companion to African History, ed. Charles Ambler, William A. Worger, and Nwando Achebe. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons.
———. 2019b. Ethics and Society in Nigeria: Identity, History, and Political Theory. Rochester: University of Rochester Press.
Wright, Robert. 2001. Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny. New York: Vintage Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wariboko, N. (2020). Between Community and My Mother: A Theory of Agonistic Communitarianism. 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_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36490-8_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-36489-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-36490-8
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)