Our attempt in this paper is to reconstruct African traditional Metaphysics. The main problematic has to do with whether we can in any meaningful and coherent manner talk about a traditional metaphysics that covers or incorporates the inevitable nuances that go with cultural and individual differences. We have adopted the principles of charity where in hermeneutical studies we are allowed to carry out our interpretation with some sense of liberalism and assumption which is not harmful to the letter and spirit (...) of interpretation.We have therefore assumed that all Africans are bound to have more in common than with people of other continents. We have used Nigeria and Ghana as representative cultures in this studiy. We have attempted understanding the basis of African traditional metaphysics which has to do with ‘Being’ and its ontological appurtenances like personality, substance, etc, and to see how they differ from the western conception of Being. We examined the vitalist element of African traditional metaphysics and came to the conclusion that African traditional metaphysics includes and transcends the western explanatory indices. While the west limit their enquiry to experience and reason, the African go beyond that to employ extra empirical and extra-ratiocinative means often called extra-sensory perception. (shrink)

This paper explores the relationship between the African communitarian conception of personhood and gender. Defenders of this conception of personhood generally hold that an individual is defined in reference to the community, or that personhood is something that is acquired in community. Such characterisations often ignore the role, if any, that gender plays in that conception of personhood. Our aim in this paper is to critically explore the relationship between the two. In doing this we advance a number of claims. (...) First, we point out that the supposed gender-neutrality of the African communitarian idea of personhood is a more general feature of African philosophy that, for instance, evinces a general lack of attention to issues of gender violence and discrimination. Second, we briefly survey the literature on the communitarian idea of personhood in African thought, in particular the views of Ifeanyi Menkiti and Kwasi Wiredu. Our aim is to demonstrate our hypothesis that this idea of personhood is often construed as a gender-neutral concept. Third, we argue that the relational and community-based nature of the communitarian idea of personhood indicates that it is in fact a gendered notion. We conclude that the assumed gender-neutrality is in conflict with the gendered nature of the communitarian idea of personhood. Fourth, we explore a probable objection to our claim that the communitarian idea of personhood is gendered and therefore vulnerable to gender inequality, by examining Ifi Amadiume’s position that the notion of gender in traditional African cultures was fluid and indicated complementarity rather than inequality between the sexes. We argue that Amadiume’s case is not convincing. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Communitarianism in African Systems of Thought Self as a Metaphysical Collectivity The Cultivation of the Person: Culture as Education and Vice Versa Communication and Communalism Communitarianism and Modern Society in Africa Communitarianism and Individual Rights Conclusion.