PHILOSOPHY AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN AFRICA

Proceedings of the International Conference of the Association for the Promotion of African Studies on African Ideologies, Human Security and Peace Building, 10th -11th June 2020

EDITORS
Ikechukwu Anthony KANU
Ejikemeuwa J. O. NDUBISI

First Published in 2020

A publication of The Association for the Promotion of African Studies

COPYRIGHT © 2020 by The Association for the Promotion of African Studies

ISBN: 978-978-984-933-8

INTRODUCTION

The first law of life is unarguably the law on security of life. It is only when life is secured that other things can follow. Something cannot be built on nothing. There must always be a basis for whatever is. For any society to be said to have been developed or be developing, there must be conducive environment engendered by security of life and property. The concrete manifestation of any being (in this instance, human beings) is life. Meaningfulness or meaninglessness in life is highly dependent on how life is secured or not. The metaphysics of life is that that which is, has existence; and that which has existence, especially in concrete terms, is said to have life (force). In this sense, life concretizes human existence.

However, experience has shown that human life has been greatly threatened in the recent times especially in Africa. There are instances of incessant killings and destruction of properties. Human life appears no longer to be sacred. Almost everything has turned upside down. It appears the human person has lost his rationality or that the human reason has gone on vacation. This book is geared towards reawakening the consciousness of the human person, especially the African, about the sacredness of human life and the necessity of peace. It is undeniable the fact that conflict is a natural phenomenon. Yes, conflict is part of nature but we must not remain in conflict. As rational beings, we have to tow the path of conflict resolution; we have to always find a way to make a redress.

Conflict is a natural phenomenon; but it is better to reconcile and be at peace than to constantly engage in conflict. It is better to train for peace than to train for war. Our authentic existence, as human beings, is not in generation of conflict, but in peaceful and nonviolent conflict resolution.

On another note, philosophy, as we know, is a rational search for truth of reality. Peikoff rightly argued when he states: “Philosophy is a human need as real as the need of food. It is a need of the mind, without which man cannot obtain his food or anything his life requires.”2 One thing that is sure is that philosophy makes every rational effort to solve human problems. This is made explicitly manifest in the eleven (11) chapters of this book. This book is part of the proceeds from the 2020 APAS International conference (10 -11 June) that focused on: African Ideologies, Human Security and Peacebuilding. It is my strong conviction that the critical reflections of African scholars in this book will certainly bring about better understanding of the place of philosophy in conflict resolution and peacebuilding in Africa.