BOOKS

This book of chapters on Dialogue on Society and development in Africa: is a unique collection of papers delivered at the 2022 International Conference of the Association for the Promotion of African Studies on issues bordering on society and development in Africa. This work constitutes a contemporary dialogue on society and development in Africa. It is a monumental, learned, lucid, patient and comprehensive piece with contributions from scholars from different academic and cultural backgrounds that aims at unraveling the elements around the underdevelopment of Africa societies .It is a collection of papers by productive scholars. These are academics whose productivity is marked by happy versatility, rich variety, unfailing originality, consistent incisiveness, high voltage reasoning, limpidity of style and unwavering logic. This constitutes one of the most powerful reflections on society and development in Africa.

This book also observed that the existence of three major and often opposing religions in Africa-Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Religions-makes it more difficult for the people to engage in meaningful inter-faith dialogue as adherents are deeply affected by religious identities and meanings. Even within a particular religion, theological disputes and denominationalism hinder ecumenism and open dialogue necessary for national development. It would appear that whichever way we turn, religious differences and its attendant crises are inevitable in Africa. Hence, the book recommends that religious post-conflict dialogue be adopted for peace and sustainable development. In this way religion can be harnessed as a source of peace and national development instead of war and violence.

Having introduced the ideas in this book, it is very germane that we look at the methodological approaches the book adopts. The book is conceived from the assumption that for Africa to limp forward in terms of Education, Science and Development no one single approach will suffice. Hence, there is a need to incorporate a plethora of methods and approaches in a multidisciplinary engagement. This is what this book has achieved within its pages. This means that this book will be a valuable resource for both students and scholars in the field of education, philosophy, the sciences, and the arts.

Having given a cursory look at the ideas that resonate in this book. The book adopts a multidisciplinary approach in the engagement of the issues that bother African Culture, Religion, and development. This approach is expedient due to the multidimensional nature of the issues under investigation. The beauty of this approach is that it gives expression to all identified voices and methods within the African intellectual geography. As such the book will serve the interest of all scholars who are genuinely interested in the revival, critique, and invigoration of African traditional culture and religion as one of the bases for engendering sustainable development in Africa.

The contributors in their different chapters showcased a paradigm shift in thinking and writing as they engaged practically Philosophy and Development in their scholarship-dialogue. The beauty of it in seen more as their thoughts are rightly narrowed into African realities with much African bent. Apologetically, if Africa must still develop beyond the contemporary obstructive shackles and glaring chains of the Western World as well as the existing momentous vicious circle of global underdevelopment, she simply needs her own Philosophy of Education, precisely an African Philosophy of Education, that is pertinent to her culture, circumscriptive of her world-view and very typical of her age-long academic cum educational quagmires. Therefore, the African development advocated for, simply rests more on a well defined, mapped-out Africanized curriculum through a functional African Philosophy of Education as a result of authentic and enduring African Philosophy of Development.

The need for the African people to relate to their environment within their categories is very important as Africa is today united by the consciousness that individual destinies are caught up with the health of natural systems at the national, regional and continental levels. This Book of Readings on African EcoPhilosophy: Cosmology, Consciousness and the Environment focuses on philosophical reflections regarding the issue of ecology in Africa. These reflections spring from the African earth-based spiritual traditions and innovative spiritual practices. This book, therefore, would become one of the greatest ornaments and lights in the world of African eco-philosophy.

A cursory glance at the historical development of African anthroposophy, reveals that African earth-based spiritual traditions and innovative spiritual practices that are emerging in response to the painful realities of climate change, mass extinction, biodiversity loss, and the disruption of local and global ecosystems have for long not received the attention that it deserves. This work, therefore, would become one of the greatest ornaments and lights in the world of African eco-spirituality as it responds to questions that are long overdue from the world of African spirituality.

Interestingly, the perspectives in this book reveal how in African anthroposophy, earth-based spiritual traditions and innovative spiritual practices are already emerging in response to the painful realities of climate change, mass extinction, biodiversity loss, and the disruption of local and global ecosystems which have for long not received the attention that it duely deserves. This piece, therefore, will become one of the greatest ornaments and lights in the world of African eco-spiritulaity as it responds to questions that are long overdue.

Scholars such as Udodora (2011), Mbiti (1976), Thompson (1970), Calder (1968), Gbenga (2006) had observed that all religious traditions whether elementary, pre-literate or advanced, are environmental friendly and teaches environmental preservation and protection. African eco-theology, therefore, stands to articulate in a theological manner African earth-based spiritual traditions and innovative spiritual practices that are emerging in response to the painful realities of climate change, mass extinction, biodiversity loss, and the disruption of local and global ecosystems which have for long not received the attention that it deserves. It is in this sense that this Book of Readings titled African Eco-Theology: Meaning, Forms and Expressions will become one of the greatest ornaments and lights in the world of ecotheology as it responds to fundamental questions looming at the corridors of ecological discourses.

The first law of life is unarguably the law on security of life. It is only when life is secured that other things can follow. Something cannot be built on nothing. There must always be a basis for whatever is. For any society to be said to have been developed or be developing, there must be conducive environment engendered by security of life and property. The concrete manifestation of any being (in this instance, human beings) is life. Meaningfulness or meaninglessness in life is highly dependent on how life is secured or not.

It is generally accepted in some quarters that religion constitutes the second nature of the African people. Religion, no doubt, permeates the way of life of an African. It dictates the likes and dislikes of an African. No wonder J. S. Mbiti observed that “Africans are notoriously religious.” Religion is such a powerful force that can be used to make or mar a particular society. It can serve as a tool for unity or disunity depending on how it was employed.

The desire to know is said to be innate in every human person. It is this innate desire that engenders the type of knowledge that is said to be contemporaneous with a particular person or group of persons. It is in this regard that we can talk of African Indigenous Knowledge (AIK) as the knowledge system that is hinged on the way of life and worldview of the African. The African people have got some experiences and as such they can lay hold to a particular or peculiar system of knowledge. For sure, we may not have a homogeneous view on what consists African indigenous knowledge. Different scholars have different opinions on AIK.

Peace is a necessary commodity for the growth, development and sustenance of any business that is worth its name. The implication of this statement is that the absence of peace is a threat, to a greater extent, to any business initiative. In the words of V. A. O. Adetula, “conflicts have the capacity to severely constrain development endeavours by destroying infrastructure, interrupting the production process and diverting resources away from productive uses.” Experience has shown that conflicts and wars have the capacity to hinder economic progress and development. As a continent, African nations have had their own share of experience of wars and violent conflicts.

There are some peculiarities in the way and manner justice is administered in the African world. The pertinent questions now are: How is justice and the rule of law understood in Africa? How rationally permissible is the notion of justice and the rule of law in Africa? What are the parameters for the administration of justice in Africa? What is the place of the contemporary African society in the global community with reference to justice and the rule of law? Preoccupied with these and the related questions, this book stems from the desks of members of the Association for the Promotion of African Studies (APAS) to address the issues and challenges pertaining to justice and the rule of law in Africa.

The Association for the Promotion of African Studies (APAS) believes that proper study of the effects of climate change on Africa and the attendant solutions proffered in this book by seasoned researchers and scholars will go a long way to help policymakers and indeed all Africans and lovers of Africa to be better disposed to tackle the problems of climate change in Africa. The present book is a contribution of APAS members to the ongoing discussion on climate change as it affects Africa as a continent.

This book in your hands provides a context for members of the Association for the Promotion of African Studies (APAS) to study and unveil the dimensions of African Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and thus make them available to you (the reader) and especially the policy makers and development planning experts. The book is packed-full with well-researched works from the desks of African scholars. It is hoped that the various chapters in this book will provide the needed paradigm shift for proper integration, internalization and pragmatic applications of various systems of African Indigenous Knowledge.

The present work is part of the outcome of the 2018 International Conference of the Association for the Promotion of African Studies, which had the theme “African ideologies in a world of change.” This piece, which is a collection of academic papers from seventeen scholars, focuses on the processes of change and disorganization of the various traditional, social, and cultural patterns and organizations and then on the possible recrystallization of some traditional elements within the more modern and differentiated societies.

This piece is a great accomplishment by African scholars to do a grounded hermeneutics of the structures of changes taking place in Africa. The different chapters are the fruits of the 2018 International Conference of the Association for the Promotion of African Studies (APAS). The authors, like artists, combine originality with insightful imagination. They have carefully treated the historical, conceptual, basic and substantive issues in cultural change in Africa.

This piece, which is a collection of papers presented at the 2018 International Conference of the Association of or the Promotion of African Studies, focuses on two major faces of violence in Africa—religiopolitical violence and violence against women. It also studied the developments in literature in the face of changes taking place in Africa. The present work is one of the greatest developments in scholarship in African studies.

This book is a collection of twenty-five topics and themes celebrating the richness of African philosophy through the life, times and philosophy of a robust scholarly life and work of Prof. Kanu Ikechukwu Anthony O.S.A. The authors draw widely on their experience with Prof. Kanu as well as his thought as expressed in his publications and especially his philosophy: Igwebuike.

This book of readings is designed to accomplish two tasks: to philosophize on Igwebuike and to honour Professor KANU, Ikechukwu Anthony, O.S.A. These two tasks or goals go hand in hand because Igwebuike is Professor Kanu’s philosophy. The book clearly demonstrates why Kanu deserves honour as an African philosopher who has introduced a way of doing African philosophy. It is an approach of doing philosophy that takes into account African ontology and cosmology.

In this book, scholars of different hues and academic endeavours have made excursus into the origin, originator, meaning and relevance of Igwebuike philosophy to contemporary African philosophical scholarship and African societies. Research shows that the brain behind Igwebuike philosophy that is gradually becoming a major part of African philosophical engagement is incontestably Prof Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu, O.S.A. Igwebuike itself is a philosophical principle that is drawn from African primordial practice of solidarity and complementarity

This is work is a significant contribution to the development of literature in the area of gender equality with particular reference to the Nigerian context, and an indispensable material for all those who appreciate literatures that focus on gender issues. What the scholars who have contributed the various chapters in this work have done, is to focus on particular contexts in relation to gender issues.

The present work on schedule is a collection of papers from members of the Association for the Promotion of African Studies to investigate from a multidisciplinary perspective the contribution of religion to nation building. This work is a great accomplishment in the study of religion and society, and, therefore, of value to all who treasure good literature on religion and nation building in Africa.

Religion has always been a major component that is capable of initiating either conflicts or peace in the world. This is very important as religion has a strong and perhaps growing significance as a key source of identity for millions of people, especially in the developing world, like Africa. This understanding has attracted the attention of African scholars with the intention of investigating the level of influence of religion on conflict and the extent to which religion can be employed as an instrument for the promotion of peace in the world.