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African Solutions for African Problems

Their country. Their people. Their culture.

'African values'

Community Obligations as in Communitarianism
"Africans believe in something that is difficult to render in English. We call it ‘ubuntu, botho’. It

means the essence of being human. You know when it is there and when it is absent. It speaks
about humaneness, gentleness, hospitality, putting yourself out on behalf of others, being

vulnerable. It embraces compassion and toughness. It recognizes that my humanity is bound
up in yours, for we can only be human together."
Desmond Tutu 427

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“ The Notion of Character as Central to African Ethics African ethics is, thus, a character-based

ethics that maintains that the quality of the individual's character is most fundamental in our
moral life.

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Good character is the essence of the African moral system, the linchpin of the moral wheel

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African maxims are explicit about the formation of character: character is acquired.
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Character is defined by the Akan thinkers in terms of habits, which result from a person's deeds
or actions: 'character comes from your actions' (or deeds: nneyee), says an Akan traditional
thinker.

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The Humanistic Foundations of African Morality
Observations have been made by a number of scholars that Africans are a very--even a

notoriously--religious people, that religion so deeply permeates all spheres of their lives that it
cannot be distinguished from non-religious aspects of life, that in the African traditional life
there are no atheists, and that the African cultural heritage is intensely and pervasively religious

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Humanity and Brotherhood
These two concepts, humanity and brotherhood, feature prominently in African social and moral

thought and practice. They are among the moral or human values that constitute the basic--
perhaps the ultimate--criteria that not only motivate but also justify human actions that affect

other human beings.
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Thus, even though the African people traditionally live in small communities and are divided
into different ethnic or cultural groups and into clans and lineages with complex networks of
relationships, nevertheless, they perceive humanity to embrace all other peoples beyond their