Abstract
In this chapter I present ideas about human suffering that are salient among the black peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, reconstruct them in order to make them relevant to an international audience with philosophical interests, and urge that audience to give them consideration as alternatives or correctives to some dominant Western approaches. I first recount views commonly held by sub-Saharans about the nature, causes and cures of suffering, and then draw on them to articulate an account of it qua enervation, which rivals a neuro-physical perspective that friends of Western science would readily adopt. Then, I address the way one morally should respond to suffering, appealing to judgements about the value of community that are influential among Africans. I show that, upon theoretical refinement, an Afro-communitarianism entails an ethical analysis of suffering that seriously competes with those entailed by standard Western moral philosophies. This view instructs moral agents neither to make others suffer because they deserve it, as per Kantian retributivism, nor to do whatever will minimize suffering, à la utilitarianism. Instead, it roughly prescribes responding to suffering out of love, which can require increasing the amount of suffering in the world by taking it upon oneself, instead of leaving it to others to bear on their own.
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Notes
- 1.
In speaking of ‘salient’ features, I mean those that are prominent in the sub-Saharan region in ways they tend not to be elsewhere on the globe. Hence, I am asserting neither that these features pertain to all sub-Saharan societies, nor that they are exclusive to them. Talk of things ‘African’ suggests to some people something that is unique to, and universal among, sub-Saharan peoples; but that simply is not how I employ the word here.
- 2.
Having published widely on sub-Saharan ethics in international journals, having given dozens of talks on the topic to African audiences, and consequently having been appointed to an ubuntu advisory panel to South Africa’s National Heritage Council.
- 3.
And of course many development theorists would argue that it is not, that under-development is a direct effect of Western imperialism. For a classic text, see Rodney (1972).
- 4.
For overviews of metaphysical beliefs that are common below the Sahara, see Teffo and Roux (2003); Mkhize (2008).
- 5.
I again emphasize not all Africans; for one who denies that the notion of life-force is salient in his culture, see Kaphagawani (1998).
- 6.
Or, in some cases, the misdirection of it, on which see Setiloane (1976, pp. 42–43).
- 7.
For one clear analysis, see Menkiti (2004, pp. 324-331).
- 8.
For thoughtful written comments on an earlier draft, I express my gratitude to Mbongisi Dyantyi, Bernard Matolino and Pedro Tabensky. I am also thankful that Nicole Caunter and Motsamai Molefe took the time to read a draft and to express their support.
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Metz, T. (2012). ‘Giving the World a More Human Face’—Human Suffering in African Thought and Philosophy. In: Malpas, J., Lickiss, N. (eds) Perspectives on Human Suffering. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2795-3_6
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