Philosophical Perspectives on Communalism and Morality in African Traditions

Mbaye, Babacar; Ikuenobe, Polycarp

doi:10.2307/25426992

Cited by 18 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…This ambiguity is explained in terms of the different meanings that the concept has wielded in the history of its treatment in the literature. Scholars have agreed that personhood has at least two conceptual colourations, namely, ontological (also metaphysical or descriptive or ordinary) and normative concepts of personhood 2 (Gbadegesin, 1991(Gbadegesin, , 2003Gyekye, 1978Gyekye, , 1992Ikuenobe, 2006aIkuenobe, , 2006bIkuenobe, , 2016Makinde, 2010;Matolino, 2016;Oyowe, 2013Oyowe, , 2014.…”

Section: African Personhood Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

Building an authentic African philosophy of education based on the African concept of personhood

Balogun

2023

Curric Perspect

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This paper’s central task is to demonstrate how the African concept of personhood provides a suitable grounding for an authentic African philosophy of education. An authentic African philosophy of education is one in which there is a constant search for underlying principles for reflecting on the foundation, nature, and justification for the need and desirability of education in Africa. Scholars have drawn diverse implications from the African concept of personhood, especially in the areas of normative ethics, social and political, and legal philosophies. However, sufficient attention has not yet been paid to how the African conception of personhood could drive fruitful theoretical engagements with the foundations, nature, and justification of the African philosophy of education. This paper attempts to fill this gap. With the combination of critical literature review and philosophical methods of conceptual and logical analyses (and argumentation), the paper argues for the centrality of an African concept of personhood to the questions of the foundation, form (nature), and justification of an authentic African philosophy of education. The paper concludes that a personhood-based African philosophy of education provides a plausible framework within which these questions can be fruitfully engaged.

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Section: African Personhood Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

Building an authentic African philosophy of education based on the African concept of personhood

Balogun

2023

Curric Perspect

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“…In the communal context of Ghana, personhood describes the experience of one's self as relationally connected to others "in a network of embedded interdependence" (Adjei, 2019, p. 490). In the Ghanaian (African) communal ecosystem, relationality and embedded interdependence are considered intrinsic to a person and may serve as the primary unit of consciousness because a sense of personhood is ontologically, cosmologically, spiritually, and normatively connected to others and the community (Ikuenobe, 2006). This means that the constant interdependence of people in their daily routines, the discursive practices, other people's opinions, and social representations become part of the inner speech of one another, and guide people's ways of knowing, thinking, feeling, and acting as social beings.…”

Section: Contextualising Personhood Masculinity and Male-perpetrated Ipvmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personhood, Masculinity, and Male-Perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence

Adjei¹

2023

HARM

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Most international violence research that are firmly rooted in the ontology and cultural background of individualism make rash generalisations about violence and human nature by taking the examples of self and gender concepts in Western settings as the only reference point for their claims. Based on the understanding of self in Western cultures, many social psychological studies have over the years blamed interpersonal violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV), on perpetrators’ self-image. For example, while some studies indicate that people with low self-esteem are more likely to turn violent in order to gain esteem, others have theorised that individuals with inflated (high) self-esteem are more susceptible to use violence, particularly when the inflated self is threatened in interpersonal relationships. A growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship also traces the aetiology of IPV and the propensity for men to commit violence against women to the internalisation, endorsement and enactment of culturally defined male gender role. Despite the valuable contributions of these studies, there are significant challenges inherent in research that make broad universal claims about self and violence at the expense of culture and context. One of the most important phenomena that seems underexplored, overlooked or neglected in the context of violence research is how culture-specific notions of personhood and masculinity shapes male-perpetrated IPV. In this article, I explore the centrality of context and culture-specificities of personhood and masculinity in understanding male-perpetrated IPV. I discuss how the dialogical relationship between men’s psychological sense of who they are (personhood) and cultural notions of masculinity provides new insights for understanding violence research in context. I argue that, rather than a threat to a person’s dispositional self, the social pain of unfavourable third-party communal evaluations of masculine inadequacy threatens a man’s relational sense of personhood, and consequently provoke the use of violence towards the source of the threat in intimate relationships in Ghana.

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“…Examining the formal control mechanisms facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of social cohesion variables in rural areas, and this in turn provides the tools for effective control. With these premises, our study covers the rural areas in Nigeria because of their age-long cultural compliance with communal principles that are noticeable in most of sub-Saharan African countries (Arisukwu, 2017;Gyekye, 2011;Ikuenobe, 2015). Though the population of the rural and urban areas is symmetric (National Population Commission, 2006), He et al (2018) argued that the formal control mechanisms are more effective because of more advanced crime control facilities, trained law enforcement personnel and residents' perception and awareness in the urban areas than in the rural areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The rural dwellers live in agrarian communities, and they are cognizant of, and attached to traditional customs and culture. These rural dwellers enjoy communal interpersonal relationships, and social cohesion is their usual way of life; also, they share a common identity and perform certain roles, obligations and functions to ensure the continued sustenance of their community (Barclay, 2017; Ikuenobe, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Karimu (2014) argued that there is no strong will or genuine intention by any government to effectively engage crime control strategies in the rural areas in Nigeria. To Ikuenobe (2015), crime control has become ineffective in the rural areas because the rural dwellers have lost faith in the operation of the security agencies as a result of persistent use of wrong application of many legal instruments and constitutional powers like pardon, nolle prosequi and mercy to free offenders. Scholars like Lytle et al (2020) have established one defect of these crime control strategies, CCS to be individuals' deliberate violation as a result of their communal mindset which is attributed to rural dwellers' publicly negative perception.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of social cohesion on crime control strategies among rural dwellers in Nigeria

Adeleke

Lawal

Lanre-Babalola

et al. 2023

Journal Community Psychology

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This study examined how social cohesion variables, SCV are associated with effective crime control strategies, CCS in Nigeria's rural areas. With mixed‐methods, we collected data from 3408 participants and 12 interviewees in 48 rural areas; the results showed that strong SCV indirectly hindered an effective CCS. Significant correlation was found between SCV and CCS. The SCV are shared emotions, strong‐family and religious‐ties, mutual‐trust, communal cohesion, well‐articulated common information network, and longstanding age‐group bond. The CCS adopted by the law enforcement agents were largely ineffective; these strategies are indiscriminate arrest or search with/without warrant, secret deployment of informants, liaising with local security guards and prompt documentation of cases. Other strategies include monitoring crime black‐spots, collaboration among different security agencies, awareness programs and strong community‐police relationship. There is a need for public awareness about the negative effects of communal bond on crime control to have a crime‐free society in Nigeria.

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Philosophical Perspectives on Communalism and Morality in African Traditions

Cited by 18 publications

References 0 publications

Building an authentic African philosophy of education based on the African concept of personhood

Building an authentic African philosophy of education based on the African concept of personhood

Personhood, Masculinity, and Male-Perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence

Effect of social cohesion on crime control strategies among rural dwellers in Nigeria

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