Polishing the Pearls of Indigenous African Thoughts: A Critical Examination of Kwame Gyekye’s Moderate Communitarianism

Abstract

The issue about whether the community is superior to the individual, or vice versa, has been a matter of serious controversy and debate in current academic discourse. Looking at this issue, it is observed that there exists a delicate relationship between the individual and the community. In this regard, Indigenous African Communitarianism (IAC) has maintained that the community ought to be superior over the individual. Kwame Gyekye, a reputable African philosopher, has argued otherwise. Though a communitarian, Gyekye believes that it is radical for IAC to place premium on the community over the individual. Hence, he proposes a new theory called Moderate Communitarianism (MC) where he argues that this theory (MC) would give equal recognition to both the interest of the community and that of the individual. However, through the textual analysis method; where primary and secondary texts were scrutinized, the conclusion reached in this study is that not only was Gyekye unable to give equal balance to the interest of the community and that of the individual but also, contrary to what Gyekye wants us to believe, IAC is not radical. The central contribution of this work is that it has demonstrated that IAC is impartial. This is because IAC recognises both the interest of the community and that of the individual. This study would serve as a reference material to shape ideas about how to improve the relationship that exists between the individual and the community.