PAULIN HOUNTONDJI'S NOTION OF CULTURAL PLURALISM: A PANACEA TO NIGERIAN PROBLEM OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT

Abstract

All humans are gifted differently and there is no iota of doubt about that. Some have what others do not have and vice versa. This then behooves on us humans to engage in complementing each other in different areas of lack. Unfortunately, some people take advantage of this lack in human lives to claim superiority over others. This was the case in 19th and 20th centuries when Europeans tried to subjugate, suppress and undermine the third world countries in a bid to enthrone their culture and ideas as supreme over them. This is referred to as Eurocentrism. This action triggered reactions that brought about the birth of cultural pluralism which seeks peaceful coexistence between various cultures and respect for each other. From the third world countries, the idea of nationalism was born as a counter measure.Hountondji on the contrary sees Eurocentrism and nationalism as extremes. Accordingly, he advocates for cultural pluralism in his work, “Pluralism – True and False”. His position is simply clear: that there should be peaceful coexistence between different cultures, there should be recognition of this plurality and this plurality should be affirmed as a good thing. Hence, this paper establishes thatHountondji's idea of cultural pluralism encourages people to accept the fact that we are all different and this difference and plurality are good values and ingredients for peace and great development in the society. The paper concludes that, cultural pluralism as proposed by Hountondji is a panacea to the challenge of Nigerian underdevelopment if properly applied.