EMMANUEL LEVINAS’ CONCEPT OF OTHERNESS AND THE AFRICAN EXISTENTIAL SITUATION: A HERMENEUTIC ENGAGEMENT

Résumé

This paper attempts an interpretation of African existential situation in the light of Emmanuel Levinas’ theory of the Other. The paper presents that the bid to find measures towards the advancement of humanity forms a very vital concern of philosophy. Thus, several efforts have been made by philosophers over the ages to multiply viable options which are considered by various world societies as veritable tools for their socio-political advancement. When compared with the technologically driven Western society, Africa still struggles to measure up with global defined development with all negativities attendant of such situation. Notably, the works of many philosophers are not only the products of their intellectual curiosity but sometimes informed by their experiences in life. Thus, informed by his life experiences, Levinas delved into a phenomenology of Otherness in which he postulates an ethico-political theory aimed at the need for the of universal care of humanity, a theory which the paper considers a veritable hermeneutic tool for rethinking African existential situation. Africa’s rise in the global developmental scene, the paper finds, requires basically the eschew of viewing the other(Africa) by another(West) as an object of capitalist exploits, but a communalist cotraveler in the project of African upliftment cum global development.