African Communalism and the Question of Individual Autonomy

Abstract

There are some vital questions that continuously and constantly confront us as human beings in Africa. Such questions include, issues about their identity, culture, artistic prowess, language and appearance. Matters about leadership and the extent to which they can exert their authority are of equal concerns.  This give rise to the concern of whether African individuals have autonomy at all, their definition of autonomy as well as the importance of autonomy to life for the African man. This question is important in the view of the fact that many African writers have emphasised communalism as the nature and structure of the African society. This seems to be in conflict with individual freedom within the African socio-political set up and African cannot but ask “Are we really autonomous?”  Many African philosophers had one time or the other responded to such questions and this is what this article tries to answer using the method of critical evaluation.

Keywords… Communalism, Collective rights, Individual rights, Individual autonomy