INTRODUCTION

People usually see the question: "What is the image of man in our indigenous culture?" as connoting any one of the following three sub-questions:

a) What is man?

b) What is the nature of man?

c) Who is man?

The first sub-question--`What is man'?--is an empirical question which may yield an answer based upon an objective description of man's observable behaviour. Such answers as `Man is a bio-social being', `Man is an aggressive and predacious being', or `Man is a sexual being' are the consequences of empirical investigations based on such a question.

`What is the nature of man?' strictly speaking is a metaphysical question, even though some people take it to mean the same as `who is man?' As a metaphysical question it asks for what constitutes the elements of man's being. The essence of man's being is often a matter of speculation, and one may come across such answers as `Man is a spiritual being', `Man is a rational being', `Man is nothing but matter', `Man is both matter and spirit', or `body and mind'. Such speculative views of man vary from one school of thought to another, and are based upon one's metaphysical presuppositions.

`Who is man?' on the other hand, refers to man's understanding of himself. Because one understands oneself in a certain way, one projects a certain image and becomes responsible for who one is. The image of man taken as his self-understanding varies from culture to culture. This page limits its examination of one's self-understanding to that found in the indigenous African culture. The term `culture' as used here refers to the totality of Africa's basic orientation to life. As the emphasis is upon the foundations of Africa's culture we will speak of Africa's culture, not cultures.

Since the image of man is self-understanding, it helps to shape the very phenomenon it describes, namely, man; it gives meaning to one's behavior, relationships and history. This understanding of the function of one's image implies an interaction between one's understanding of oneself, that is, one's picture of oneself, and what one actually is, that is, one's existence at any moment of one's life. One's essence emerges as a result of this interaction. Let me illustrate this point with two African proverbs. The first proverb says: "The chameleon says people respect you as a king if you respect yourself, that is why he walks like a king." In this proverb the chameleon understands himself to be a king and so he behaves like a king; thus royalty becomes his image. The second proverb says: "Disgraceful behaviour is unbecoming of an Akan born." The image of an Akan in this proverb is that of a morally well-behaved person; this is the picture of an Akan that shapes his/her character. Therefore as John Macquarrie said: "Within limits, man is what he thinks he is."⁽⁵⁸⁾ The person then is responsible for his/her own essence.

It is not enough, however, to form a grandiose and kingly image of oneself; there must be the means to realize the picture conceived of oneself, otherwise one will be building in the air an image of oneself as a king. Man's self-understanding therefore must be accompanied by a motive force which is not external to man, but an integral component of man's being. As an Ewe proverb says "Life is like an anthill, it is built from within out." In other words, what one considers the basic and ultimate moving force of one's behavior is the true and basic image of oneself, one's true and basic self-understanding. We therefore tend to think of the image of man in terms of some internally generated basic prime movers or forces. Thus the question "who is man in Africa"? can be reduced finally to "What do Africans consider to be the basic and ultimate force that motivates human passions and desires"? This basic and ultimate force, if found, will be the image of man in Africa.

To a considerable degree human motivations can be said to be the same for people in all cultures with varying contextual modifications and emphasis. They can be divided into two major groups, namely: the physiologically determined (sometimes called survival) drives, comprising such master drives as hunger, thirst and sex and their derivatives such as money and what it can buy; and the trans-survival drives such as the need for security, peace, safety, love, recognition, status, honor, influence, happiness, solidarity, human creativity and productivity, motherhood, fatherhood, success and prosperity. These drives may be described as secondary or penultimate motivations of behaviour, which means that they are not basic and ultimate. It is usually what people consider to be the basic and ultimate moving force of human behaviour that differentiates one culture from another and also reveals the true common identity of any two cultures. Let us now look briefly at three classical conceptions of this ultimate and basic motive force of human behaviour as found in the Western and Middle Eastern cultures which have come into direct contact with the African one.

THEORIES OF HUMAN NATURE

We preface our discussion of the African view of man with the Western and Middle Eastern images for the following reasons. These alien views of man have, to a considerable extent, penetrated our world-view and in some cases have displaced the African view of the person for some Africans. Such Africans have therefore been alienated from their own healthy and well-balanced view of man.

The second reason for a prior examination of the Western views of man is the fact that some contemporary Western view of man such as those found in the writings of authors such as Erich Fromm and June Singer are very close to the African view--and, in fact, identical to it in some respects. This provides both a meeting point of the two views and at the same time clarifies their point of divergence. We shall consider two classical theories of man, namely, the conflict and the Freudian theories of human nature, and one contemporary theory: Fromm's polar theory.

The Conflict Theory of Human Nature

The conflict theory of human nature,⁽⁵⁹⁾ which was scientifically formulated in Darwin's theory of evolution and in the nineteenth century economic liberalism as developed by Thomas Robert Malthus, contends that conflict and aggression are locked into the natural order of things, and that by nature man is an aggressor and predator. This theory stresses instinct and animality as the essence of man, and contends that human nature and society develop through conflict, competition and elimination of the weak and the peaceful. In short, the conflict theory portrays man as evil, brutish and destructive; he is moved by the instinct to survive and sees every other member of his species as an enemy. Believers in this theory see co-operation and mutual help as derived or learned motivations of behavior: people learn to co-operate and help each other as they realize that they cannot satisfactorily accomplish difficult tasks alone. Man is therefore seen by nature as a solitary being who joins forces with others out of his finitude and only to fight a common enemy.

The view of human behavior as motivated by struggle for survival and competition is deeply entrenched as man's chief self-understanding in the West and the Middle East. Growth and progress are seen as resulting from the friction of competing individual interests. It is believed that each person must stand on his own feet and fight for what he gets; in this way the common welfare throughout the entire culture is achieved. What the individual needs above all else in order to succeed in this competitive existence is power, i.e., the ability to realize one's aim in the face of opposition from others. Man is thus portrayed as a being motivated by a single master force: the will to survive through struggle and competition. The basic image of man is that of aggressor and predator. Thus the white man of the colonial days came to Africa to plunder and rob, because he understood himself to be a predator and aggressor. The colonial empire and the present economic empire of the West were established through this picture of man.

Freudian Theories of Human Nature

Before World War I and right after the War, Freud developed two theories to account for the basic motivation of human behavior. He advanced, first, the theory of sexuality (libido) and then, in 1920, the theory of the life (Eros) and Death (Thanatos) instincts.

First, according to Freud, man is driven primarily by a sexual energy called libido. This major and basic force of human behavior is instinctual. Man's major concern in life is to satisfy either directly or indirectly his sexual needs. The sublimation of this sexual drive results in the development of culture and civilization; its suppression leads to neurosis.

Probably as a result of his experiences during World War I, Freud became dissatisfied with the sexual theory for explaining human behaviour and so between 1915 and 1920 he formulated a new theory of man's nature. According to this theory two basic instincts, namely, the Life instinct (Eros) and the Death instinct (Thanatos), are the moving forces of human behaviour. The Life instinct combines the old concept of libido and part of the preservation drive of the conflict theory. The Death instinct is an innate destructiveness and aggression directed primarily against the self. While the Life instinct is creative, the Death instinct is constantly working towards death and ultimately towards a return to the original inorganic state of complete freedom from tension or striving.⁽⁶⁰⁾

Both instincts, however, operate constantly within man and fight with each other. According to Freud, the Death instinct as the principle of destructiveness is the stronger force and in the end becomes victorious over the Life instinct and leads eventually to the death of the individual. Man therefore cannot help wanting to destroy, for the tendency is rooted in his biological constitution. He either destroys himself or something outside himself, and has no chance to liberate himself from his tragic dilemma.⁽⁶¹⁾ Freud thus had come round in the end to the same view propounded by the conflict theorists: Man is essentially destructive and an aggressor.

In Freud, however, the Western view of man began to approach the African view in one significant way. By postulating the temporary existence of two conflicting principles--life and death--existing in the same body, Freud saw man, as does the African, as having a dual or polar nature. According to the African view of man, moreover, the two conflicting principles are not only physiological but universal to all creation, applying equally to human nature and other entities and structures. That is, according to the African world view, polarity is the essence of reality. But whereas the death principle is victorious over the life principle in Freud's theory, in the African theory of being it is the life or Creative principle which is the foundation of reality and of the meaning of existence. This does not obliterate the death principle because the two constitute one reality. More will be said about this later.

The Polar Theory of Human Nature

There are many reactions to Freud's pessimistic and forlorn view of man. Notable among those is that of Erich Fromm who maintained that "destructiveness is a secondary potentiality in man, which becomes manifest only if he fails to realize his primary potentialities."⁽⁶²⁾ With Fromm, Clara Thompson holds that "the tendency to grow, develop and reproduce seems to be a part of the human organism."⁽⁶³⁾ She goes on to say that aggression is not a product of the death instinct, but an expression of the organism's will to live. Both writers hold that the life principle or principle of creativity is basic to human nature. This is a radical departure from Social Darwinism and the Freudian views of man, and is in harmony with the African view according to which the life principle which is the principle of creativity, is not only basic to human nature, but is woven into the very fabric of society and of the universe.⁽⁶⁴⁾

It is Fromm, however, who developed a distinctive theory of human behaviour based upon polarity. Fromm views man as evolving from his critical instinctual (animal) level of existence to that of the rational or human, and hence is unable to live by repeating the instinctual pattern of his species. Therefore, man now experiences his existence as a problem to be solved, a part of which is that he must proceed to develop his reason until he has become master of himself and of nature.⁽⁶⁵⁾ Man is therefore condemned to find a new home, not in the realm of instincts, but in one which he creates himself by making the world human and becoming truly human himself. This then is the goal of human existence: to become truly human and to make society truly human.

For Fromm the condition is, however, characterized by polarity, i.e., by conflicting tendencies: man has fallen out of nature, as it were, but remains in it; he is partly animal and partly human, partly finite and partly infinite.⁽⁶⁶⁾ He is torn between progressing to become fully human and regressing to live according to his instinctual nature. Man's essential nature, therefore, is constituted by two opposing tendencies and an inner contradiction is lodged at the heart of human existence. This drives man to seek an ever new pattern for resolving the existential problem of being. Thus man's very nature is to transcend himself through the act of creativity: "In the act of creation man transcends himself as a creature, raises himself beyond the passivity, and accidentalness of his existence into the realm of purposefulness and freedom."⁽⁶⁷⁾

To summarize Fromm's main contributions and to indicate where they harmonize with the African view: Fromm sees man as inheriting two conflicting natures, one rational and the other instinctual, which form the basic structure of his being. An inner contradiction or polarity therefore is lodged at the heart of human existence. This has become the basic and ultimate motivation of human behaviour, not towards destructiveness and aggression, but towards creativity and productivity. Man's existential problem then has become the ground of his creativity, which is rooted in the very peculiarity of man's polar nature. Creativity thus becomes the essence of being and of human existence, and the goal of man's existence is to become creative. This is the only way man becomes truly human; in other words, to be human is to be creative and productive.

THE AFRICAN VIEW OF MAN:

SYNTHESIS MODEL OF HUMAN NATURE

Unity in Duality

The African view of man is derived from the African view of reality which is found in the indigenous religion, creation myths, personal names, symbols and proverbs. This view is expressed simply by a Tanzanian proverb: "In the world all things are two and two." This is a basic ontological statement of the African perception of reality. The two which form the nature of everything in the universe are made up of opposites which become one while remaining two. The Mende of Sierra Leone express the dual origin of all things by saying that the High God, Mangala, created the twin varieties of eleusine seed conceived as twins of opposite sex in the "egg of God" which is also called the "egg of the world."⁽⁶⁸⁾ The Ewe cosmogony expresses this same view of reality in more detail. It says that in the beginning there was only one androgynous High God called Nana Buluku (Bruku, Briku) who gave birth to siamese twins called Mawu-Lisa, whose union has become the basis of the organization of the world. In this divine duality Mawu, the female, is envisaged as a Janus-like figure. One side of its body being female, with the eyes forming the moon and bearing the name Mawu. The other portion is male, whose eyes are the sun, and whose name is Lisa. P. Mercier pointed out that "their dual and conflicting nature expresses, even before the world of men was organized, the complementary forces which were to be active in it."⁽⁶⁹⁾ He went on to report from his study of the Fon of Benin (Dahomey) that Mawu, the female principle, is fertility, motherhood, life, creativity, gentleness, forgiveness, night, freshness, rest and joy, while Lisa, the male principle, is power, warlikeness, death, strength, toughness, destructivity, day, heat, labor, and all hard things.⁽⁷⁰⁾

Those two references express very well not just a fundamental theory of man, but a theory of reality that conceives the basic structure of reality as unity in duality. The primordial unity referred to either as the Egg of God or the Androgynous High God called Nana Buluku is the one in which all the opposites are contained. But, as June Singer pointed out, one pair is basic, i.e., the female and male pair which serves as the symbolic expression of the power behind all the other polarities and forms the creating principle.⁽⁷¹⁾

The opposites in any duality and their relationship are therefore modelled on the paradigm of the female and male relationship paradigm, i.e., on the principle of creativity, complementarity, tension, balance and otherness. The female-male polarity as seen in the indigenous cultures of the Wolof,

Conflict Theory

The instinct to survive through struggle, competition and destruction is the main force of human behavior.

Man is an aggressor, a predator by nature. He is not different from the animals.

Freudian Theory

The drive for pleasure and to destroy is the main motive force of man's behavior. The drive to destroy is stronger and final.

Man is an aggressor and destroyer by nature.

Fromm's Theory

The drive to solve the problem created by the presence of an inner contradiction lodged at the heart of human existence, so as to become truly human by being creative and productive, is the moving force of human behavior.

Man is a creator by virtue of his polar nature which is basic. Man is evolutive.

Synthesis Model of Human Nature

(African)

The drive to realize a synthesis of being through creativity. Since polarity is a basic category of being the drive to realize a synthesis of being is a never ending force of human behavior.

(1) Man is a creator being with polar elements which are basic to his nature.

(2) Man then is a subject and not an object of history.

(3) Man is not evolutive, his conflicting tendencies are original to his nature.

(4) Man is a communal being.

(Gambia) Mendes (Sierra Leone), Ewe (Ghana, Togo and Benin), Akan and Tallensi (Ghana), Herero (Namibia), Burundi (Central Africa), Lango (Uganda) and in the religion of ancient Egypt, to mention a few, is a primordial image of reality. It is an archetype which the whole human race has inherited, and so is a universal collective image of reality and of man. It appears in us as an innate sense of a primordial cosmic unity, having existed in oneness or wholeness before any separation was made and still remaining one. W.J. Argyle commenting on the polar view of reality as found in the religious tradition of the Fon of Benin said, "Mawu-Lisa (the Dual High God) expresses together the unity of the world conceived in terms of duality."⁽⁷²⁾ The Akan of Ghana express this by giving siamese personal names to people, one half of the name being female and the other half male. An example is Dua-Agyeman, in which dual name Dua, meaning `tree', is the female principle and Agyeman, meaning `warrior', is the male principle. In the religious tradition of the Akan the Sky God, Nyame, and the Earth God, Asase Yaa, are paired together: Nyame is the male principle and Asase Yaa is the female principle in the pair. The Ga of Ghana have such a dual name for their High God called Ataa-Naa Nyonmo which literally means `Father-Mother Sky God'.

In sum, Africans see reality, including the reality of man and society, structured as unity in duality comprising two conflicting elements. Polarity and unity are, therefore, basic categories of being. Since the female and male pair is basic to all polarities, creativity becomes the essence of polarity as is the case in the union of woman and man. Leopold S. Senghor was right therefore when he observed that, while Western and Middle Eastern view of reality is founded on separation and opposition, on analysis and conflict, the African conceives the world, beyond the diversity of its forms, as a fundamentally mobile, yet unique, reality that seeks synthesis.⁽⁷³⁾

Creativity is thus the goal of human striving, and the polar elements find their unity in creativity. Paul Tillich stated a similar idea thus: "A polar relation is a relation of interdependent elements, each of which is necessary for the other one and for the whole, although it is in tension with the opposite element. The tension drives both to conflicts and beyond the conflicts to possible unions of polar elements."⁽⁷⁴⁾

Man as Possibility

The whole of life therefore is perceived in Africa as oriented toward creativity and is symbolized by woman; Man, used generically, is seen as an integral part of this creative process of life. Thus, the drive to create is the basic and ultimate force behind all human behaviour; the goal of human creation is to realize a synthesis of being.

The creative principle in man is given different names by the different ethnic groups, but its essential oneness with the High God is always maintained. The following are some of its names: se or kra (Ewe), okra (Akan), kla (Ga), ori (Yoruba), Chi (Igbo) dya (Mende) and we (Kassem of Ghana). Some of these names for the creative principle, which is the principle of life in man, are fragments of the names for the High Gods. Thus se comes from Segbo, meaning "The Source of the Creative Principle of Life," Ori from Orise meaning, "The Source from which Beings Spring," and Chi from Chukwu meaning "The Great, Immense, Undimensional Source of Being."

Man's ultimate goal as an individual and as a member of his clan therefore is to multiply and increase because he is the repository of the creative power, the right use of which is his chief responsibility. Likewise, when a woman marries the most important thing that she takes to her husband's house is her productive powers because this is the essential part of her nature.

The creative process is not limited to bringing forth children, but is seen as embracing the whole of man's life and his relationships. The individual therefore is to grow in the development of a creative personality and to develop the capacity to maintain creative relationship. He is to see his individual life and that of his society as fields that are sown with life's experiences and which should yield fruit. This understanding of life is expressed in such personal names as Agbefanu (Ewe) "Life sows seeds," Agbefovi (Ewe) "Life hatches things." The person who has achieved a creative personality and productive life and is able to maintain a productive relationship with others is said "to have become a person." (Ezu ame-Ewe; Oye onipa pa-Akan). The persons who are considered models of creative life are the chief, the elders and the ancestors. Such a life is counted as the greatest value in the indigenous culture.

Man as an Agent

The conception that creativity is the essence of true human personality implies that man is not just a being who thinks but also a being who acts to change his world. This implies that man is free and self-determining and has a say in shaping his own history and destiny. Through his free action he releases forces which shape the world and society, and because of his dual nature he also can release forces which will destroy society and the world. These two forces are basic to his nature and he does not evolve from one into the other. Since this capacity for action is essential to being a man it follows that, where freedom to act is denied there is a diminution in the fullest sense of humanity; one's dignity is taken away and one's capacity for creativity is destroyed.

The most devastating effect of Western colonization and missionary proselytization on Africa is the removal of a genuine capacity for free action from Africans who have been made into objects of history instead of being its subjects. To a considerable extent Africans have lost their capacity for creativity; instead of assuming the active role of self-creators and makers of culture they have adopted the passive role of acquiescence before alleged immutable cosmic laws imposed on them by foreign religion and education.

Man as a Communal Being

One important deduction from the fact that polarity has been woven into the fabric of the universe and of society is that community belongs to the very being of man. The origin of all being is existence in a polar relation. The individual's being emerges from a prior social whole which is truly other; it comes into being for the sake of him and exists for his development and growth. Hence, an individual who is cut off from the communal organism is nothing. In Africa it is true then to say: "As the glow of a coal depends upon its remaining in the fire, so the vitality, the psychic security, the very humanity of man, depends on his integration into the family."⁽⁷⁵⁾

By living creatively the individual is also contributing to the life and quality of his community and so can say 'we are, therefore I am, and since I am, therefore we are'.⁽⁷⁶⁾

DEATH AND LIFE

The End of Death is Life

Contrary to the popular view that the end of life is death, the Ewe of West Africa believe and affirm that the end of death is life. This same view of the relationship between death and life is stated by the father of the lost son when in the Bible he said, "For this son of mine was dead, but now he is alive, he was lost, but now he has been found" (Luke 15:24). Jesus was referring to this understanding of the relationship between death and life when he said, "I am telling you the truth: a grain of wheat remains no more than a single grain unless it is dropped into the ground and dies. If it does die, then it produces many grains." (John 12:24, also see chapter 11:25).

The new idea in the passage quoted above, which can be added to the conception of life as an offspring of death, is that the absolute beginning of life is power which may be compared to the power in a seed. Life begins as possibility or potentiality which has the power to realize its inherent capability. The seed concept of the origin of life implies that life is a sleeping power that has to be released and harnessed for creative and productive living. This sleeping power which forms the absolute beginning of human reality is referred to as Se by the Ewe and as Okra by the Akans of Ghana. Se is the seed of life, expressing itself as the beginning creative power or energy.

This Ewe conception of the absolute origin of life in death is not influenced by any Christian or extraneous teachings. It is an original and indigenous concept which so far has not been explored: it is one of the fundamental points of convergence of the indigenous African and the Christian religious awareness.

God as the Seed of Life

The Ewe conception of death as the seed of life comes out clearly in the Ewe word for both death and seed which is ku. This means that as seed is the beginning possibility and enabling power of a plant, so death (ku) becomes the seed of life, i.e., the enabling beginning power of life. To illustrate the point further, as a mango tree is "dead" or "asleep" in the mango seed (ku) so the human life is "dead" or "asleep" in its beginning life, which the Ewe call ku--i.e., death, and has to be awakened. In other words, life always begins as "dead potens" i.e., as sleeping and potential power which has to be released to become a realized capacity.

As indicated above, the Ewe call this enabling beginning power which is "asleep," Se. This is the basic Ewe name for God, that is to say, God as Se is the enabling power of life with which every individual is endowed. Se, as an enabling power, is referred to as ku, i.e., death, when it is unreleased and uncultivated; it becomes agbe, i.e., life, when it is released and cultivated. The Ewe therefore primarily conceive of God as Principle where principle is used as the Origin or Primary Source of all life. The terms "Father" (Fofo - Ewe) and "Mother" (Dada or No - Ewe) are used metaphorically to represent God as Principle or Origin. God is therefore both Father and Mother called Mawu-Lisa where Mawu is the female principle and Lisa is the male principle.

These two principles are united in Se as the seed power of life. Life and death then are not antithetical, but rather two complementary forces which are joined together as Se but remain two. To the Ewe mind, then, there is no question of life confronting and overcoming death. So far as the Ewe are concerned you cannot have life without death. Any time you pray for life you are also praying for death, because, as one Ewe name puts it, "Agbeziodeku" meaning "Life and death are insolubly coupled together." Conflict is then eliminated in the Ewe conception of the relationship between life and death; complementarity, balance and reciprocity are the principles that unite them.

The Meaning of Life

Let us return again to the seed concept of the origin of life. As seeds sprout into living plants by breaking the bonds of their beginning seed life so also human life springs up and out by breaking the bonds of death. Life has to be freed from its own sleeping enabling power to realize the fullness of its splendor through the cultivation of its potential.

Life, then, has no a priori meaning. It starts as a sleeping enabling power and acquires meaning through existence, where existence is used in its original Latin sense of ex-sistere: going forth or coming into being through a process. The Ewe refer to human existence conceived as a process of releasing and developing the imprisoned enabling power of life as amenyenye, which means `to realize being in space and time through the process of struggle'. As a pregnant woman has to labor to bring out her new baby, so human life has to struggle to acquire meaning. To the Ewe then to be is to be engaged in the process of becoming. One Ewe proverb puts it this way, "There is no resting place on the journey of life" (Dzudzo mele alifo o).

Meaning, then, is given to life in the process of living, which is characterized by making choices. Life's decisions, however, are made in the light of life's master purpose, called in Ewe du. This is given to both individuals and nations in a dispensation from God, called Fa (Daryll Forde, African Worlds, p. 225. 1970). The main content of the individual's du may be summarized as the realization of creative humanity. Where life is seen as possibility it always has unlimited meaning and its success depends upon the individual's ability to see "the sign" of life that is coiled in the heart of death.

Finally, to the Ewe physical death is neither a threat nor an annihilation, but a transformation and communion of the individualized and personalized se with what the Ewe call Segbo, i.e., the Big and Supreme Se, for the sake of rejuvenation and rebirth of a new being. This cycle continues ad infinitum.