|
African Philosophical Tenets
George B.N. Ayittey
Africans have always believed that their universe was composed of three elements: the sky, the earth and the world. The sky and the earth made up the world, which was the place where all people, ethnic and non-ethnic, lived. Each component, however, could not exist independently of the others, but the sky was recognized in many ethnic societies as supreme. The sky was the domain of the spirits of the living and the unborn as well as thunder, lightning, rain, drought and other natural phenomena. The earth was the burial place of dead ancestors and other tribesmen as well as being the dwelling place of the people and their activities: agriculture, hunting, fishing, government, etc. The world was the domain of all people, both ethnic and non-ethnic, and as such embraced inter-ethnic relationships: war, peace, trade, etc.
Each component was represented as either a force or a god. The names of each god, of course, differed from one ethnic society to another. For example, among the Yoruba, the sky god was the Olorun Oldumare, the supreme god. He was the source of power of his subjects, the orisa or gods, who influenced relations between the sky and the world. The earth goddess was Onile and the Ogboni was the earth cult. The principal organ of the Ogboni was the Oyo Mesi or council of state. Among the Asante, the supreme god was Onyame, and he could be referred to as the sky-god although he had terrestrial functions in providing protection to the people.
The Zulu called the Lord-of-the-Sky iNkosi yaphezulu and iNkosi yezulu. Zulu belief systems considered the sky to be a rock, blue in color, which stretches from one end of the flat surface of the earth to the other. The great vault of rock rests on the edges of the earth, while the earth itself, being a flat surface, is held up by four bulls, `carrying the earth on their horns. When one of them shakes its head, the earth also shakes.' This is how earthquakes are accounted for. The sky is above the sun and the moon. Both the sun and the moon move `along their paths underneath the floor of the sky. They do not reach up to the sky because they must shine on the earth only' (Berglund, 1989; p.32).
It was believed the African art, dance, music and other human activities were a reflection of the rhythms of the universe. Religion intertwined with every aspect of life. Hence, the metaphysical sphere was not abstractly divorced from concrete experience, especially since the physical and the metaphysical were aspects of reality, and the transition from the one to the other was natural (Onwaunibe, 1984).\l "F Note1". According to Yelpaala (1983:374): Endowed with lethal powers, all the supernatural and cosmic forces exhibit and maintain an intricate, delicate, and mysterious balance with their normative and
functional inter-relationships harmonized into a set of coherent and non-contradictory higher norms, prohibitions, and prescriptions to human beings.
Therefore all other norms, legal or social, subordinate to and originating from ancestors or humans cannot contradict these higher norms of supernatural origins. The Dagaaba ideal picture of their world is therefore a system exhibiting congruency, symmetry, consistency, and constant cooperation among all the component parts and humans are enjoined to maintain the symmetry by observing these higher norms. In this type of setting, the supernatural enters the legal system so directly that the lawmaking functions of the entire society are effectively preempted and controlled by the supernatural. In fact, a formal legislative body is unnecessary. It was essential for the components to be in perfect harmony and order, called kiet by the Nandi of Kenya. If an element was out of balance, there would be chaos, disease and death. For example, if the sky was out of equilibrium, thunder or floods would result. Similarly, if the earth was "angry", there would be disease, poor harvests, famine and barren women. An individual was not a mere spectator in this potentially turbulent cosmos. Among the Igbo "a man was perceived to be the union of the three elements" (Carlston, 1968:190).
Africans believed that their daily actions were controlled and observed by these spirits, gods and cosmic forces. These supernatural forces were assumed to have emotional intelligence and certain rules of prohibited human behavior. Compliance with these rules was blessed in the form of longevity, freedom from sickness and individual prosperity. Violations elicited punishment, which often came in the form of sudden death, affliction by a terrible disease, or financial ruin on an individual basis and collectively by poor harvests and barren women. The ancestral spirits, for example, supervised and maintained the social norms that had been handed down from time immemorial.
These ancestors were assumed to have continuing concern for the safety, welfare and progress of living members of the kin group. Therefore, fear of offending these ancestors established and reinforced the moral order. It was necessary to communicate with these gods and spirits, to placate them in order not to incur their displeasure or wrath and to make atonements in cases of wrongdoing to prevent vengeful acts. Above all, however, it was essential to maintain order and a state of harmony between the sky, the earth and the world. Thus, economic activity (on the earth) was heavily influenced by religious phenomena. To agricultural societies, the harmony between the sky and the earth was particularly important.
The set of beliefs associated with this harmony is known as the earth cult. An aspect of this cult was the attribution to the earth of the power to bring good or bad fortune to the people in such matters as fertility of the land in crops and fertility of wives. The Asante, for example, honored the earth goddess in the annual Adae ceremony held on Thursdays. Thursday was the natal day of the earth goddess and work on that day was prohibited, otherwise misfortune would result. The Ga fishermen also banned fishing on Tuesdays and certain fishing communities have taboos with regard to sex before going out to sea. The function of maintaing harmony and order among the three components of the universe or what Rappaport (1968) called "cognized environment," was reserved to ritual leaders or priests. The precise forms and methods, of course, varied from tribe to tribe. Among the Bashu of Zaire, for example, the world is divided between opposing spheres of existence. On the one hand is the world of the homestead, in which the Bashu live, grow their crops, and keep domesticated animals. Surrounding this world, and impinging upon it, is the world of the bush, inhabited by the untamed and chaotic elements of nature, including
powerful medicines and spirits.
Ritual mediation served to purge the homestead of untamed forces of the bush that have penetrated the homestead, causing misfortune, sickness, and famine. In other words, ritual mediation temporarily resolves major contradictions within the Bashu view of the natural environment in which they live and in which rain, spirits, and medicines are at once necessities of their existence and potential sources of misfortune (Packard, 1981; p.4). Accordingly, there was also a hierarchical ordering of intercessors. At the lowest level were such posts as priests, diviners, witches, sorcerers, witch doctors, priests, medicine men, who together with shrines, fetishes or other objects embodying supernatural powers were the agents that were believed to be capable of communicating with the supernatural world and able to influence the impact of supernatural power on human affairs or to influence its aid in attaining desired goals. Such goals included the averting of misfortune or inflicting injury on adversaries.
This mediation was the primary function of local or family priests in stateless societies; the chief in states and kings in kingdoms. Among the Ga people of Ghana, each family had a priest whose function it was to ensure that the family tradition was followed and if not, to propitiate the ancestral spirits. The Bashu chief, mwami "is ultimately responsible for mediating between the opposing spheres of Bashu existence and for resolving the antinomies of Bashu experience. It follows that the death or weakness of the mwami results in misfortune or famine" (Packard, 1981; p.4).
Thus, in African states, the chief or the king had a precise function, that was to "maintain harmony between society and its natural environment by means of ritual action" (Davidson, 1970; p.192). To accomplish this, the king somehow needed to possess some force to deal with the three elements. Clearly, his power had to be greater than that of the witch doctor, priest or even a witch. Further, his force had to be supernatural and as such, he had to be the one only with the greatest vital force in the whole kingdom. Only in this way could he serve as mediator with the superior universe, without throwing any of the three elements out of equilibrium. In most ethnic societies, the king's throne, or stool, was the repository of ancestral powers as well as the confluence of all residual powers in the kingdom. In sitting on the stool, the king was expected to have his own powers enhanced sufficiently by all other ancestral powers to enable him to perform this mediating role.
Indigenous African religion and philosophy also have similar beliefs as we have seen. There are various Gods, supreme and lesser gods. The gods take human, inanimate and spiritual forms. Indigenous African religions also have several intercessors, both dead and living. Ancestors generally comprise the first category and witch doctors, priests, chiefs and kings. But rather strangely, Christianity is called a religion. So too is Islam. But that of the natives of Africa is called paganism. As Curtin, et. al (1988) wrote: All African religions, as they appeared at the end of the colonial period, were monotheistic in the sense that they believed the world was created by a single God. They differed from Christianity and Islam in holding that the creator God was no longer in active charge -- nor was he ever a moral force for good or evil; he simply set the stage and then retired into neutrality.
The Individual Versus The Society :In traditional African societies, as in other non-African cultures, there is acute awareness of the effects of the environment on people. Karp (1986) argued that, A careful comparison of African and Western cultures shows that they share in common spheres of concern with the limits on the controls people can hold over their social and natural environment and with how they can reassert control or influence their worlds. In both Western and African cultures this set of questions and problems includes technology, morality, and belief... The great conclusion of E.E. Evans-Pritchard's pioneering study of the Azande systems of thought was that differences between the Azande and Westerners were not differences in logic or thinking capacity.
The Azande and other Africans reason much as people everywhere do. They also govern their lives with a mixture of skepticism and belief, and they have the same ambivalent and helplessly dependent faith in their specialists and doctors (p.202). Normally, an individual's power was not considered adequate to overcome or to mediate between the society and the natural environment. Auxiliary power was required, which could come from several sources: from his own intelligence, capabilities, and ingenuity; from the ancestors; or from magic or even witchcraft. The Tiv of Nigeria, for example, believed that, "individuals who rose above the general level of the group could not have achieved power without an ability to call upon magical forces to promote their advance" (Carlston, 1968:212). The vital forces required to deal with the supernatural were considered to be additive. In walking in the shoes of a powerful person, an individual may somehow assume some of his powers to add to his own. Or if one cooperated with another, the sum total of two forces would be greater than each individual force. Consequently, the accent was on promoting cooperation and harmony. Accordingly, indigenous African societies developed various mechanisms to achieve these. For instance, The Kuranko say that one of the functions of the kere (working bee) system is to create a network of mutual obligation and interdependence...If labor recruitment for farming were based solely on lineage ties then there would be fewer bonds among neighbors.
Bonds of amity are created among villagers by less formal means: visiting and sharing food, eating kola or drinking palm wine together, giving sympathy gifts to the bereaved, attending and participating in village festivals and rituals, greeting and talking to people during the business of day-to-day life, assisting friends and neighbors with labor, money or food (Jackson, 1982; p.19). Cooperation was also necessary for the survival of the group. By himself, the (Kuranko) individual could not deal with rival (the world). "The fortunes of the (Kuranko) individual are inextricably bound up with relations with kinsmen, friends,
mentors, neighbors, strangers, ancestors, God, and other beings. Sabu refers to the dynamic interactions within this field of relations" (Jackson, 1982; p.19). Group effort or cooperation was vital. This underscored the general cultural practice among Africans to extend the terms "brother" and "sister" to other kinspersons and non-kinspersons as well. "Naive Europeans or Americans have sometimes thought that Africans could not understand such terms as sister, mother, or son because they seemingly used the terms so loosely, when in fact it was the non-Africans who failed to understand the African system"
(Vaughan, 1986; p.171). \l "FNote2" At any rate, the African emphasis on cooperation did not rule out the existence of the individual as a person capable of making an effort on his own initiative. This issue of the individual versus the community has been the source of much confusion. In the West, individuals would say, " I am because I am and I want what I want when I want it."
In Africa, the peasant would say, "I am because we are." This is well expressed by a Vais (Sierra Leone) proverb: "What belongs to me is destroyable by water or fire; what belongs to us is destroyable neither by water or fire." Again: "What is mine goes; what is ours abides." The 'we' or 'us' connote kinship. The community plays a crucial role in the individual's acquisition of full personhood. But the individual alone defines the self, or person, he is to become. The Zulu word for this is ubuntu, with botho as the Sesotho equivalent. It has been described as the African philosophy of life, which in its most fundamental sense connotes personhood, humanity, humaneness and morality; a metaphor that describes group solidarity where such group solidarity is central to the survival of the community with scarce resources. It is captured by the Zulu statement: Ubuntu ugumuntu ngabantu/motho ke motho ka batho ba bangwe." The literal translation is: "A human being is a human being because of other human beings." That is, an individual's existence and well-being is meaningless without that of the community.
This is manifested in anti-individualistic conduct, which threatens the survival of the group. If the individual is to survive within the group, there is need for a collective effort for group survival. According to Mokgoro (1997): "The meaning of ubuntu, however, becomes much clearer when we examine its practical effect on everyday life. Thus, for example, a society based on ubuntu places strong emphasis on family obligations. Family members are obliged to look out for each other. Moreover, the concept of family is not that of a narrow "nuclear" one, but includes the extended family. People are willing to pool community resources to help an individual in need. This is captured in some of the African aphorisms such as "a botho ba gago bo nne botho seshabeng," which, literally translated, means "let your welfare be the welfare of the nation."
Group solidarity, conformity, compassion, respect, human dignity, humanistic orientation and collective unity have, among others, been defined as key social values of ubuntu. Because of the expansive nature of the concept, its social value will always depend on the approach and the purpose for which it is relied upon. Survival is the primary objective of the leader of every African tribe. Within the tribe, individuals are free and independent, but their rights and interests are subordinate to those of the community as an entity. As the Ga of Ghana say, "Individuals don't live to be a hundred years old; the tribe does." An Igbo saying also captures the same essence: "Ofu onye ada akali oho" ("No one individual can be greater or bigger than the community or country.") In traditional Africa, primary duty is owed to the community. Persons exist only in relation to one another; individual rights are secondary. These clash with the Western concept of individual liberty, which has little meaning in the traditional African context. Harmony and cooperation can only be extracted at some cost to personal liberty. An African can be totally free, liberated from the moral obligations imposed by society if s/he chooses to live outside the community and fend for him/herself. But his/her survival as an individual would not
be assured.
Therefore, people choose to live in communities to enhance their chances of survival but this comes with mutual obligations to ensure the permanance of the group. "The essence of moral responsibility among the Kuranko (of Sierra Leone) springs from the view that a person's actions affect and implicate all those who are related to him" (Jackson, 1982; p.18). This is expressed by the Kuranko proverb: "Soron i la ko yolke", meaning "one's birth is like a chain." Individual self-sufficiency is as absurd to the Kuranko as the notion that the individual is essentially the proprietor of his own person or capacities, owing nothing to society for them (Jackson, 1982; p.17). "One's head is in the hands of others," say the Kuranko. It must be pointed out that many Africans misinterpreted the indigenous system of ethics. Recall the dictum: "I am because we are."
BACK |
