IMPLICATIONS OF TOLERANCE ON ETHNICITY AND RELIGIONS IN AFRICA: PERSPECTIVES FROM KARL POPPER’S PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

One of the problems that have plagued Africa since time immemorial without any sign of leaving is the issue of tolerance. Undoubtedly, it is believed that the majority of African people are decent human beings who inherently desire to live in a tolerant society. An integral aspect of a tolerant society is people’s ability to have and promote differing viewpoints i.e. freedom of speech. However to declare such freedoms as unlimited is to give unsavoury voices a place at the table. This explains why Karl Popper’s paradox of intolerance asserted that unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed including tolerance with them. While adopting historical and qualitative research methodologies, the paper argues that ethnicity and intragroup religious activities both spatially generate spill-overs and such spill-overs are exacerbated by value-frictions between and among groups. Tolerance is therefore required not to put too much weight upon such externalities. The paper submits that tolerance has to be induced and sustained among ethnic and religious groups. That the same instrumentality required for inducing tolerance is required to sustain it. Tolerance thrives best through the creation of a culture of mutual respect and civility. Thus peaceful coexistence among ethnic and religious groups in Africa is based on tolerance and tolerance subsists upon mutual respect and understanding one another differing needs.