African Philosophy and the Otherness of Albinism

Imafidon, Elvis

doi:10.4324/9780429443787

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…The vital force is variously described as a life-force (Tempels (1959)), a non-material animating principle (Gyekye (1995)), a quasi-physical phenomenon (Wiredu 1996), and a consciousness-matter event (Agada (2020)). The vital force is believed to come from God as the highest embodiment of vitality in the universe (Tempels (1959); Imafidon (2019)). The term 'universe' is used to mean both the known and unknown physical and metaphysical spaces conceived as an absolute totality.…”

Section: The Existence Of Godmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking the concept of God and the problem of evil from the perspective of African thought

Agadá

2022

Rel. Stud.

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In this article, I show that: (1) There is a transcendence strain in African Traditional Religion (ATR) and traditional African thought that agrees perfectly with traditional monotheism and legitimizes the question of the relation of God with evil in the world. (2) There is incontrovertible evidence of the conception of God as a limited deity that subverts the categories of omnipotence and omniscience. (3) African philosophers of religion must show how a transcendent or, conversely, a limited God is related to the evil that exists in the world, since the overwhelming stance of ATR is that God is the creator of the world and wields effective power. I substitute the categories of omnipotence and omniscience with the novel categories of power and glory and argue that while a powerful and glorious God is not the author of evil and cannot eliminate evil in the world, such a God can be conceived as working to reduce the evil in the world through the instrumentality of human moral agency.

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Section: The Existence Of Godmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking the concept of God and the problem of evil from the perspective of African thought

Agadá

2022

Rel. Stud.

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“…In the African philosophical perspective, the community-defined person who has fulfilled both the ontological and normative requirements of personhood reigns, informing healthcare best practices and the attitude of healthcare professionals. These (Imafidon, 2017(Imafidon, , 2019(Imafidon, , 2021. The impact of these on healthcare systems is quite obvious.…”

Section: Philosophies Of Personhood and Impact On Healthcarementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Persons with disabilities such as persons with albinism, persons with epilepsy, persons with angular kyphosis, and persons with different types of mental health issues as well as ‘queer’ persons (understood in the sense of differing or weird in some way from what is usual or normal remembering for example, the killing of twins in several Nigerian communities for their queerness) fit this profile and are thus treated as sub‐humans. This obviously excludes such persons from enjoying full healthcare benefits within African communities (Imafidon, 2017 , 2019 , 2021 ). The impact of these on healthcare systems is quite obvious.…”

Section: Philosophies Of Personhood and Impact On Healthcarementioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond continental and African philosophies of personhood, healthcare and difference

Imafidon

2022

Nursing Philosophy

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In this study, I explore the challenges that ideological hegemonies of personhood imbibed by nurses and other healthcare workers could pose for the nursing profession, particularly in terms of inhibiting the acknowledgment of difference. Dominant or hegemonic conceptions of personhood in particular spaces often consist of self-contained ideas and essentialist ontologies and normativity of what it means to be a person, lack of which results in the denial of personhood and the othering as non-person or sub-person. The other as the residue of such selfcontained notions of personhood is most often denied the quality of care that the one who fits within such conceptions enjoy. For nurses and other healthcare workers to overcome such exclusionary tendencies in healthcare, they must overcome hegemonies and ideological dominance and be more open to alternative viewpoints and theories of personhood. I develop these lines of thought by focusing on the rich ideological traditions of Continental and African philosophies showing how exclusion takes place within these traditions based on conceptions of personhood and how such exclusion on the basis of difference impacts negatively on healthcare. I conclude by highlighting the need to go beyond hegemonic philosophies of personhood by decolonizing and demasculinizing healthcare, thereby allowing difference to flourish in an ecology of medical knowledge.

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“…For example, one could challenge the paranormal theories of albinism in that circulate in African cultures, including the ghost theory (albinotic persons are ghosts that simply vanish and do not die, a claim commonly heard in East Africa) and the curse theory (albinotic persons are results of ancestral curses, a claim commonly heard in West Africa) with the biological and scientific theory of albinism as the lack of melanin in the skin, hair, or eye pigments. Such questioning and challenging, an option that I have extensively explored elsewhere, calls for revolutionizing knowledge through enlightenment programs and reconstructive and awareness education (Imafidon, 2019(Imafidon, , 2020(Imafidon, , 2021. To end this article, I will focus on highlighting the essentials of the second approach to undermining this exclusionary conception of personhood in African communitarian philosophy, an approach that examines and deconstructs the concept of community or communal living which is central to African communitarian philosophy in general and the African concept of personhood in particular.…”

Section: From a Narrow To A Broad Sense Of Communitymentioning

confidence: 99%

African Communitarian Philosophy of Personhood and Disability: The Asymmetry of Value and Power in Access to Healthcare

Imafidon¹

2021

International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies

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In this essay, I explore the asymmetry of value and power inherent in African communitarian philosophy's assumptions about personhood and the implications of these assumptions for disabled people's access to healthcare in the COVID-19 pandemic era. While African communitarian philosophy forms the fulcrum on which people in an African community thrive and survive, it is also essentially laden with an ontology of exclusion that prioritizes some people as persons over other people who are cast as non-persons. Disabled people – including persons with albinism, autistic people, persons with epilepsy, and persons with angular kyphosis – are excluded as non-persons in this way and are thus unable to enjoy the support of the communitarian structure. In pursuance of the objective of this essay, I begin with an exposition of the nature and contents of African communitarian philosophy. I proceed to analyse the conception of personhood deeply rooted in African philosophy and, by implication, the exclusion of certain beings and persons from the African communitarian philosophical structure. I then show the privileges in terms of value and power that people included within the community of selves enjoy as opposed to the disvalue and lack of power that those excluded from this community face. I show furthermore how this devaluation and disempowerment can become major challenges to wellbeing and healthcare for disabled people, particularly hindering access to healthcare even during a pandemic. I conclude by arguing for the importance of a broad sense of community in African philosophy rather than the narrow sense of community that is currently in place.

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African Philosophy and the Otherness of Albinism

Cited by 18 publications

References 0 publications

Rethinking the concept of God and the problem of evil from the perspective of African thought

Rethinking the concept of God and the problem of evil from the perspective of African thought

Beyond continental and African philosophies of personhood, healthcare and difference

African Communitarian Philosophy of Personhood and Disability: The Asymmetry of Value and Power in Access to Healthcare

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