INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICTs) AND THE ENHANCEMENT OF AFRICAN HUMANISM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71105/Keywords:
ICTs, African Humanism, Human Values.Abstract
This paper discusses the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in enhancing African Humanism. By African Humanism we mean people-centeredness,
promotion of human values and the reconstruction of Ubuntu ethos which creates a moral community among Africans that shares a common vision for a better future. This paper
presents an analysis of how ICTs have facilitated African humanism manifested through relationships of identity and relationships of solidarity via social network platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook groups. Another point advanced in this paper is how ICTs have facilitated the growth of a revolutionary spirit against dictatorship through civic engagement on social network platforms directed towards political issues. The paper finally contends that despite these positive attributes of ICTs, they have also facilitated cultural crisis and identity crisis in Africa.
References
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Terence Irwin. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1985.
Asadu, F. C and Ayumo, G. J. “Facebook Groups and Youth’s Facilitation of Self-Help Rural Development Programmes in River State, Nigeria.” Journal of Sociology and
Development 2, 1 (March 2018), 22-39.
Berger, P. “Four Faces of Global Culture,” Globalization and the Challenges of New Century, London: Penguin, 1974.
Boellstorff, T. Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropological Explores the Virtually Human, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.
Bujo B. Foundations of African Ethics: Beyond the Universal Claims of Western Morality, Nairobi: Paulines Press, 2001.
Dewey, J. The Public and Its Problems. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1927.
Ekwueme, O.E. “Cybernetic and Emergent Personalities in the Wake of ICT in Africa,” in ICT in Africa: Creating or Fragmenting Communities, Vol 15 No.1 May 2012, 51.
Ekwueme, O.E. Emergent Probability, Computers and Insight as Information: Lonergan’s Emergent Probability, Computer Aided Insights, and their Implementation on Development in African History, Herstellung: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010.
Eliseu, T. “In Search of a Sustainable Political Order in Africa: A Hermeneutic of Julius Kambarage Nyerere’sCommunitarian Ethics,” in Chiedza, Vol 15 No.2 December 2012.2010.
Fromm, E. To Have or To Be, New-York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1976.
Gbadegesin, S. African Philosophy. New York: Peter Lang, 1991.
Glifford, P. “The Shocking Inequalities of Power of Diverse Cognitive Styles – and some Consequences.” In Chiedza, Vol 15 No.2 December 2012.
Goldstein, J. “How Doctors Became Revolutionary Force Behind the Protest Movement,” The East African Newspaper, April 27 – May 3. 2019.
Gyekye, K. Beyond Culture. Washington, DC: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy.
Gyekye, K. Tradition and Modernity: Philosophical Reflections on the African Experience, New-York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Iroegbu, P. “Beginning, Purpose and End of Life.” In Iroegbu P and Echekwube A (eds).
Kpim of Morality Ethics. Ibadan: Heinemann Educational.
Langman, L – Morris, D. Globalization, Alienation and Identity: A Critical Approach: August 16, 2013, <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p106427>, index.html. Accessed, 04/10/2012.
Masolo, D. Self and Community in a Changing World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.
Mbiti, J. African Religions and Philosophy, Nairobi: 1970.
Menkiti, I. “On the Normative Conception of a Person,” in A Companion to African Philosophy, in K. WIREDU, A Companion to African Philosophy, Carlton: Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2004
Metz, T. “Recent Philosophical Approaches to Social Protection: From Capability to Ubuntu.” Global Social Policy 16 (2), 2016, 132-150.
Metz, T. “Towards an African Moral Theory.” The Journal of Political Philosophy, 15 (3), 2007, 321-341.
Mindel, D.A. Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control and Computing Before Cybernetic, New-York: The John Hopkins University Press, 2008.
Moindi, E. “In Information Technology Lies the New Resource Power of Africa’s Poor Masses,” in The East African, July 6-12, 2013.
Mokgoro, Y. Ubuntu and the Law in South Africa. Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal 1, 15- 26.
Mubangizi, O. “ICT for Innovation: E-Learning for Africa in the Cyber-Age.” New Pambazuka Newsletter, September 29, 2015.
Mwapachu, J. Challenging the Frontiers of African Integration: The Dynamics of Policies, Politics, and Transformation in the East-African Community, Dar-es-Salaam: University of Dar-es-Salaam Press, 2011.
Norbrook, N. “The Young and the Proud e Brave,” The African Report, No.28 March, 2011
Okolo, C.B. Self as a Problem in African Philosophy in “International Philosophical Quarterly,” Issue No. 128, December 1992.
Oruka, H.O. Practical Philosophy: In Search of an Ethical Minimum, Kampala: East African Educational Publishers Limited, 1997.
Oshikoya, T.W – Nureldin, M.H Information Technology and the Challenges of Economic Development in Africa, Nairobi: Paulines Press, 2009.
Sherman, T. “Aristotle, Friendship and the Question of the Human Significance of ICT in Africa Today,” in ICT in Africa: Creating or Fragmenting Communities? Chiedza:
Lighting Africa, Vol 15. No.1 May 2012, 37.
Smith, P - Musili, P - Ware, G. “Egypt: The Tahrir Square Republic,” The Africa Report,
Tempels, P., Bantu Philosophy, Paris: Presence Africaine, 1959.
The Citizen, “Alaa Salah, the ‘Nubian Queen’ who stood against Bashir, Thursday, April 11,2019.
Tutu, D., No Future Without Forgiveness. New York: Random House, 1999.
Wiredu, K. Cultural Universals and Particulars: An African Perspective. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.