INTERDEPENDENCE OF PERSON AND COMMUNITY IN AFRICAN CULTURE: A CASE STUDY OF IGBO CULTURE

ANDREW  I. ISIGUZO

 INTRODUCTION: 

            The idea of interdependence of "Person and Community", rather than "Person in the community", is a reinvigoration of of Africsn can communalism which is the most cherished common heritage(today) that characterize the African in his being, and mode of life. Apart from providing him witha distributive mark of identity, asagainst the west, communalism has remained with him over the years, beimg a veritable 'insurance' in justice for his life, rigths and duties.

            The Igbo 1 culture  is being singled in this reseach among the African cultures because of the inher4ent values associated with the modes of life, our enquiry tries to go beyound its traditional expressions and exigencies; and applied in the contemporary time. Also the author can not but choose the culture he is most familiar with. In short this paper is an effort to synthesize the values of the African culture about mode of life of  the persn in relation to the community. It raises question about the duties and obligation of the community as complementary or not about the rights and responsibilities of the person. We shall discover the inherent spirity of collectivity in African culture as expressed in Igbo culture. It shows also that though the interdependency  expressed by the Igbo spirit of solidarity and subsidiarity2  weakened in the modern time yet the traditional Igbo man is aware of the fact the "nkem bu nkem nke anyi bu nke anyi". This is an indication of recorgnition of the communal spirit and solidarity inherent in African culture.  

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

UMVERSITY OF BENIN

1154 BENIN CITY

NIGERIA

NOTES

 1.  The Igbo tribe constitute one of the three major tribes in Nigeria with Hausa and Yoruba. Igbo people occupy a vast area of land on "the East of the River Niger". (F. A. Arinze, Sacrifice In Ibo Religion, Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1970, p.1) 

The area covers the whole of Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Abia states. There are also Igbo people in some parts of "Cross River state   such as (Old) Ogoja province and Rivers " (Loc cit)

On the West of the Miger, we coild find some people of Igbo enclave in the old Asba and ABOH divisons.(Nigeria Year Book (1979), published by the Federal Ministry of Information, Lagos, Nigeria, p.22. The belong to a langusge group known as the kwa, found  in the West and Central Africa. The  spoken language is Igbo with different dialects especially among the communities lying along the borders with the Efik, Binis, Ijaws, etc.

George F. McLean -- Civil Society and Social Reconstruction (Series I, volume 16) Chapter I. Philosophy and Civil Society: Its Nature, Its Past and Its Future /book/Series01/I-16/chapter_i.htm>