DASEIN’S FACTICITY, EXISTENZ AND BASIC NEEDS: AN ONTOLOGICAL JUSTIFICATION FOR MIGRATION AT THE EXPENSE OF AFRICAN IDENTITY

Abstract

The worsening economic plight in Africa has necessitated Africans’ burning desire to leave their countries for greener pastures and survival. The migration of African people to developed countries seems to pose a threat to African identity, as the new environment exposes African migrants to alien cultures and predisposes them to imbibe foreign ideas and values, to the detriment of their cherished traditional values, and the way of life. This study seeks to justify international migration on the grounds of basic needs, facticity, and Existenz of Dasein (human being). It employs the method of analysis to establish a correlation between facticity, Existenz and basic needs in order to justify international migration at the expense of African identity. The researcher finds that humans tend to seek for improved living conditions elsewhere, at the expense of their cultural roots and values, when basic needs – which take precedence over other needs, including the need to maintain one’s cultural identity – are unmet. Unsatisfied basic needs of life always remind humans of the fact that they are thrown beings (facticity) who find themselves in a historically conditioned environment they did not choose to be, and that they are being towards possibilities (Existenz). As thrown projection, they would not allow history to imprison them eternally. They constantly strive to transcend the confines of their deplorable socio-economic and political conditions in order to achieve their full potential and attain their goals of life. The paper submits that the number of African migrants will continue to surge, at the expense of African identity unless socio-political and economic structures of African countries are arranged in such a way that the overall well-being of the masses is substantially improved.