Abstract
In this chapter, Dauda offers a realistic summary of Africa’s governance predicament. African nationalist leaders have searched in vain for an appropriate political system and a relevant constitutional arrangement for socioeconomic development. Also inspired by the post-World War II development in the Union of Soviet Socialist Russia, African leaders have experimented to no avail with different socialist systems of government, but a breakdown of law and order, electoral riggings and violent changes of government, political instability, economic and financial corruption, and a general breach of human rights remain prevalent throughout the continent of Africa. The tragedy of the African nation-states is that the presumed political institutions for governance and socioeconomic development have become the problem rather than the solution itself. Dauda deploys the significance of African humanism to argue that the Ubuntu and Omolúwàbí values can fill in the philosophical gaps for governance in Africa.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adegbindin, Omotade. 2014. Ifá in Yorùbá Thought System. Durham, NC: Carolina Academy Press.
Awolalu, J. Omosade. 1970. The Yoruba Philosophy of Life. Présence Africaine, 73: 20–38.
Bell, Richard. 2002. Understanding African Philosophy: A Cross-cultural Approach to Classical and Contemporary Issues. New York: Routledge.
Bewaji, John Ayotunde Isola. 2004. Ethics and Morality in Yoruba Culture. In A Companion of African Philosophy, ed. Kwasi Wiredu, 396–403. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Bewaji, John Ayotunde Isola. 2013. Black Aesthetics, Beauty and Culture: An Introduction to African and African Diaspora Philosophy of Arts. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Bock, Paul. 1978–1979. Exploring African Morality. CrossCurrents 28 (4): 462–467.
Bondy, Augusto Salazar. 1969. The Meaning and Problem of Hispanic American Philosophic Thought. In Latin American Philosophy in the Twentieth Century, ed. J.J. Gracias. New York: Prometheus Books.
Bondy, A.S. 1986. The Meaning and Problem of Hispanic American Thought. In Latin American Philosophy in the Twentieth Century, ed. J. J. Gracia, 243. New York: Prometheus Books.
Coetzee, P.H., and Roux, A.P.J. (eds.). 1998. The African Philosophy Reader: A Text with Readings, 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
Coetzee, Pieter H. 1998. Morality in African Thought. In The African Philosophy Reader: A Text with Readings, 2nd ed., eds. P.H. Coetzee and A.P.J. Roux, 321–348. London: Routledge.
Dasylva, Ademola Omobewaji. 2010. Toward National Psychic Retrieval: The Omoluwabi Concept and the Enduring Legacy of Toyin Falola’s Scholarship. In Toyin Falola: The Man, The Mask, The Muse, ed. Niyi Afolabi, 303–320. Durham: Carolina Academic Press.
Dauda, Bola. 2011. Motivational Treatise on Parenting. In Gender, Sexuality, and Mothering in Africa, eds. Toyin Falola and Bessie House-Soremekun, 79–100. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Fadipe, N.A. 1970. The Sociology of the Yoruba. Ibadan: University Press Limited.
Falola, Toyin. 2016. The Humanities in Africa: Knowledge Production, Universities, and the Transformation of Society. Austin, TX: Pan-African University Press.
Falola, Toyin (ed.). 2013. Èşù: Yoruba God, Power, and the Imaginative Frontiers. Durham, NC: Carolina Academy Press.
Gbadegesin, Segun. 1991. African Philosophy: Traditional Yoruba Philosophy and Contemporary African Realities. New York: Peter Lang.
Grosfoguel, R. 2007. The Epistemic De-colonial Turn. Cultural Studies 21 (2–3): 211–223.
Gyekye, Kwame. 1997. Tradition and Modernity: Philosophical Reflections on the African Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hountondji, Paulin. 1983. African Philosophy: Myth and Reality. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Kaphagawani, Didier Njirayananda. 2004. African Conceptions of a Person: A Critical Survey. In A Companion of African Philosophy, ed. Kwasi Wiredu‚ 332–342. London: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Matolino, Bernard. 2011. Abantu and Their Ethic in the Face of AIDS. In African Philosophy and the Future Africa, ed. Gerald Walmsley‚ 71–81. Washington, D.C.: The Council for Research Values and Philosophy.
Mbiti, J.S. 1969. African Religions and Philosophy. London: Heinemann.
Menkiti, Ifeanyi A. 1984. Person and Community in African Traditional Thought. In African Philosophy: An Introduction, 176, ed. R. A. Wright. Lanham: University of America.
Ogundeji, Adedotun, and Adeniji Akangbe (eds.). 2009. Omoluabi: Its Concept and Education in Yoruba Land. Ibadan: Ibadan Cultural Studies Group.
Omobowale, Ayokunle Olumuyiwa. 2008. Clientelism and Social Structure: An Analysis of Patronage in Yoruba Social Thought. Africa Spectrum 43 (2): 203–224.
Outlaw, Jr, and T. Lucius. 2004. Africana Philosophy: Origins and Prospects. In A Companion of African Philosophy, ed. Kwasi Wiredu, 90–98. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Owomoyela, Oyekan. 2005. Yoruba Proverbs. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.
Ramose, Mogobe. 1999. African Philosophy Through Ubuntu. Harare: Mond Books.
Ramose, Mogobe B. 2005. African Philosophy Through Ubuntu. Harare, Zimbabwe: Mond Books Publishers.
Roig, A.A. 1986. The Actual Function of Philosophy in Latin America. In Latin American Philosophy in the Twentieth Century, ed. J. J. Gracia‚ 247–259. New York: Prometheus Books.
Shutte, A. 2001. Ubuntu: An Ethic for a New South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications.
Tempels, Placide. 1959. Bantu Philosophy. Paris: Presence Africanine.
Tutu, Desmond. 2011. God Is Not a Christian: Speaking Truth in Times of Crisis. London: Rider Books.
Van Niekerk, Jason. 2011. On the Tension Between Ubuntu and Simuye. In African Philosophy and the Future Africa, ed. Gerald Walmsley, 61–69. Washington, DC: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy.
Wamba-dia-Wamba, E. June 1991. Philosophy and African Intellectuals, Mimeisis of Western Classism, Ethnophilosophical Romanticism or African Selfmastery? In Quest vol. 5 no. 1, 12.
Wamba-dia-Wamba, E. December 1992. Beyond Elite Politics of Democracy in Africa. In Quest, vol. 4 no. 2, 67.
Wiredu, Kwasi. 1980. Philosophy and African Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dauda, B. (2017). African Humanism and Ethics: The Cases of Ubuntu and Omolúwàbí. In: Afolayan, A., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59291-0_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59291-0_31
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59290-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-59291-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)