THE AFRICAN SPIRIT AND SPIRITS: A SUCCOUR IN THE NEW NORMAL WORLD IN AFRICA AND BEYOND

Abstract

The resilience which characterise the African lifestyle,makes people talk very often of the “The African spirit”. This is premised on the belief that various spirit agents under-pin their action.Combining the African spirit with the different spirit beings in Africa, lives no one in doubt that Africans the world over, arenot just living for themselves, rather, arebounded in a symbiotic relationship with theirphysical and social environment. This paper examines the African spirit of “never say die”and the role of spirit beings in Africa as a source of consolation even in the face of adversity. The research considers the incidents of the Covid-19 pandemic and how Africans coped inspite of the dearth of both technical and human resources. It x-rays the Malaga Sian hand of brotherhood and how African countries rallied round to generate support for themselves. The self-development or self-actualisation theory propounded by Socrates, form the frame of this study. The research adopts the descriptive and phenomenological approach in the discussion. The paper observes that the application of the African spirit with the help of the policing role of the spirit beings were responsible for curtailing the surge of the pandemic. The study concludes thatAfricans should not abandon the mechanism of exploring their flora and fauna in health care delivery that work for them, even in the face of pressure from the west.