RETHINKING AN AFRICAN ETHICAL SYSTEM: BETWEEN CHANGE AND CONTINUITY

Abstract

European researchers on Africa at various times had concluded (though erroneously) that Africans live unexamined lives. But of course, as has been pointed out by P. O. Bodunrin, an African who himself once denied the existence of African Philosophy, the question of whether there is an African philosophy has generally been unhesitatingly answered in the affirmative. The question at issue today is what constitutes its substance. Such is the province of this paper, to rethink an aspect of African Philosophy Morality (ethics), ancient and modern, among the Tiv of the lower Benue valley in Nigeria. This shall be done in the light of what has changed and what has remained unchanged, and the effects of the change on Tiv social system.


(Humanities Review: 2002 2(1): 134-147)