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African Solutions for African Problems

Their country. Their people. Their culture.

narrow geographic or spatial confines, to constitute all human beings into one universal family
of humankind. Even though this family is fragmented into a multiplicity of peoples and cultures,

nevertheless, it is a shared family--a shared humanity--the relationships among whose
members ought to feature a certain kind of morality: the morality of a shared humanity.
The common membership of one universal human family constitutes (should constitute) a

legitimate basis for the idea of universal human brotherhood (or unity). This idea is depicted in,
for instance, the Akan maxim:

"A human being's brother is a (or another) human being."
(Or, 'Man's brother is man.') (Onipa nua ne onipa)
***
And a contemporary African writer also notes :

One of the achievements of our [African] society was the universal hospitality on which they
[i.e., members of the community and others] could rely (Julius Nyerere, 1968: 5).

***
The Notion of the Common Good
The notion of the common good features manifestly in African ethics. In Akan moral thought,
the notion is expressed most vividly in an art motif that shows a 'siamese' crocodile with two

heads but a single (i.e., common) stomach.
***
The common good is not a surrogate for the sum of the various individual goods. It does not
consist of, or derive from, the goods and preferences of particular individuals. It is that which is

essentially good for human beings as such, embracing the needs that are basic to the
enjoyment and fulfilment of the life of each individual.

***
Social, Not Individualistic, Ethics
A humanistic morality, whose central focus is the concern for the welfare and interest of each
member of community, would expectably be a social morality which is enjoined by social life

itself. Such is the nature of African morality.
***
African social ethic is expressed in many maxims (or, proverbs) that emphasize the importance
of the values of mutual helpfulness, collective responsibility, cooperation, interdependence, and

reciprocal obligations. Let me refer to a few of these, from the Akan repertoire:
"The well-being of man depends on his fellow man."

(onipa yieye firi onipa)
***
Reciprocity and interdependence are forthrightly expressed in the following Akan maxims:
"The right arm washes the left arm and the left arm washes the right arm."