TRADITIONALAFRICAN IDENTITY: THE OLD IN ANEWRELEVANCE

Abstract

Humans everywhere on the face of the earth have an identity that distinguishes them from others. This identity can be found strategically in some important areas of existence because they have become a way of life of some sort. Since we can identify a people from another, it creates a putative ambience that a people tend to be identified with a culture. Traditional or pre-colonial Africa has weaved an identity that is latent in three core area of existence known as: communalism (social), religious and values (ethics). This is not to say that it is only traditional Africans that can make sense of these aspects of life. But traditional Africa has sublimely instituted her identity into these areas such that if one wants to know African identity, then it must be analyzed from these areas. What distinguishes traditional African culture from that of the Westerners or Easterners is worth investigating especially as they provide a unique identity from the rest. It is from this backdrop that this work adopted the method of critical analysis into the three areas of communalism (social), religious and values (ethics) with the objective of identifying the rationale for traditional African identity to be engraved in those areas and how time has not been able to erode this identity threshold.