HUMAN NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT: A PERSPECTIVE FROM AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

The main issue that inspired systematicAfrican philosophy is the critical comments from renowned Western scholars that nobody of African origin has contributed anything of note to world civilization. The controversies engendered by this accusation seem to have been adequately dealt with as questions on the contribution ofAfrica to world civilization are rarely asked. Beside the evidence that Egypt is the cradle of all civilizations, including Greek civilization that currently dominate the world, there are other well documented accounts of greatAfricans who made land breaking contributions to humanity. Therefore, the most recent question seems not to center on what Africa has contributed but what Africa can contribute to humanity. This question is very important because it goes right back to the debate on African identity. With data collected through the documentary method and analyzed using content analysis, this study examined African idea of human nature and development and in this context determines how the continent can contribute to development in the current context of globalization. The paper discovered that Africa has communitarian idea of both human nature and development and recommended that these understandings can be deployed to mitigate the ongoing clash of civilization ravaging the world.