Authentic personhood in traditional Igbo-African thought

Abstract

The precarious nature of human life and the general social disorder that characterise human society is a human creation. A good human community requisite for human well-being is equally not natural but man-made. This type of community is made possible by the conscious, deliberate and conscientious efforts and activities of good persons or what I have called ‘Authentic Personhood’ in this discourse. This paper therefore, discusses the notion of authentic personhood in traditional Igbo thought and argues that the qualities and values of authentic personhood create the wholesome human relations and environment necessary for social cohesion and human well-being. The paper further claims that the Igbo traditional notion of authentic personhood is better than the Western conception of personhood in this respect and can therefore serve as a cure to most of the ills of our modern society if well understood, and rightly applied in human interactions and general social engineering.

Keywords: Personhood, Community, Values, Well-Being, Igbo, Authentic