JOURNALS

ABSTRACT

It is pertinent that in the discourse concerning the African, the definition of who he is must start from him. Unlike the Cartesian methodic doubt where he goes through the process of thinking to assert an Existence, the African must define and assert himself and without doubts, in order to make out not just existence but an authentic existence for that matter. This kind of project has become necessary especially with the identity questions ever increasing and the crisis of relevance almost becoming a mainstay in the African conversation, across the globe. Every Philosophy is a product of an environment, an age and the contribution of a philosopher. African Philosophy like Olusegun Oladipo admonished must move beyond the question of what it is or if there is such a Philosophy to doing and practicing it. This itself asserts its existence, especially to those who view it from outside and doubtful of its sustainable veracity and operative condition. While other African Philosophers have interpreted a lot of African realities, there is still a missing gap of what it means to be an African: especially with being Black in a White World. Is the African actually black, brown, which? Who is White or who is black? Are these not mere nomenclatural constructs? Across the epochs and historicity of the African, the stakes are high that Africa remains the cradle of man and that civilization began along the Nile, where Egypt sits. For Africa to be actualized, it must first realize itself. The questions: Who is the African? What is in Africa? How ontologically self-aware is the African? These have become important and engaging questions in a changing World on the move. What is the African contribution to this change? Is he an onlooker or a participator? How developed is the African mentally, politically, religiously, economically, technologically and in all aspects of his reality? How can this be Sustainable? How can he rise like the rest in the present milieu and dust himself of the chains tied around him. How can the African move towards Authentic Existence? These are the realities, the present currents in African Philosophy should address with profit and this present study summed this up with the conceptual framing of I di-adi. I di-adi is an Igbo word for to be; to exist. But any type of existence will not usher an Africa whose present potentials do not match with its credentials and vice-versa. The African Declaration is such that an Authentic Existence should bring about an Africa where the idea of mmadu (personhood) has enrobed dignified essence and both human and natural resources developed to the fullest in projecting Africa as the destination of the next man— technologically, philosophically, politically, religiously, culturally, in the process of history. The study engages the philosophic methods of hermeneutics, analysis and phenomenology to create a new paradigm in the crisis of identity and relevance in an ever-changing World, where the African is useful elsewhere but arguably in his homeland. I DI-ADISM is an African Philosophy of self-realization, through the path of assertion, contribution, authentication, in order to arrive at sustainable development and actualization. The idea of I di-adi would become that the African is, both in potentials and credentials, identifiable and relevant in the comity of human communities.