African Theory Of Forces And The Extended Family Relations: A Deconstruction

Abstract

African ontology, for the most part, has been premised on an ancient theory of forces hierarchicized in an inseparable continuum. The basic assumption that forces interact, intermingle and interpenetrate one another informed the extended family relations which stresses the brotherhood of man and the communion of souls from which architects of African societies in the post-colonial era constructed primitive socialism(s) and primitive capitalism( s). The purist school of thought in African philosophy had eulogized every intellectual attempt to relive naive experience from the African past which strenghtened the communality and the extended family relations. As we move into the new millennium with most of black Africa embroiled in social, economic and political turmoil, the hierarchicized theory of forces and the resultant extended family system are overdue for a phenomenological baptism of fire. What is envisaged in such a baptism of fire is the destruction of ancient African ontology with a view to allowing the transcendental ego or, rather, the intersubjective ego to emerge. The net result would be that the existent individual is assisted to extricate itself from petty, partisan, parochial, considerations to ascend the pedestal of global humanism. Only on such a pedestal (global humanism) could African societies attain authentic egalitarianism.