A REVIEW OF BELONGINGNESS: A DEFINITIVE METAPHYSICAL PRINCIPLE IN AFRICAN COMMUNALISM BY DR JUDE IFEANYI ONEBUNNE
Abstract
The question, ‘what is being?’ is one of the fundamental enquiries within the parameters of metaphysics. This becomes very important since metaphysics as a branch of philosophy is concerned with the totality of being in its nature and structure. Since the emergence of African philosophy as a discipline, African thinkers have questioned the nature of being. Iroegbu tried to understand being within the context of belongingness. He defines belongingness as ‘the synthesis of the reality and experience of belongingness’. In this case, the recipient-subject of belonging is involved: something belongs and it belongs to something. Belongingness is a special noun from the verb ‘to belong’. It means to be part of, or to be a member of a group. There is also a possessive nuance of the verb ‘to belong’. I can say that the soap belongs to me. In the first nuance, to belong creates a situation of participation and in the second, it creates a situation of possession. There is an ontological nuance of belongingness, which specifies that a thing is because it belongs. The present work published in 2019 is one of five chapters, with 76 pages, is a contribution of the author to the ongoing discourse on the philosophy of belongingness.