African Studies

Ayant constaté qu’il n’y a aucune autre présentation accessible en ligne du linguiste africaniste et du sociolinguiste que fut Gabriel Manessy, j’ai jugé utile de diffuser ce petit texte qui, dans un volume d’Hommage’ qui lui fut consacré, présente un minimum d’information sur le parcours de cet éminent collègue disparu en 1996.
Robert Nicolaï

Although many scholars refer to “the Yorùbá of Southwest Nigeria” as a “tribe”, I argue here that “the Yorùbá” are not, and never were, a tribal group. Rather the hallmarks of “Yorùbá” are to be found in a unique set of religio-philosophical beliefs on the basis of which the Yorùbá organize, regulate and moderate their day-to-day lives. I refer to these religio-philosophical beliefs as “practical beliefs” because they are not just about faith; these beliefs also explicitly (but often implicitly) guide and govern practical conduct.

It has become fashionable for scholars of religion writing through the medium of European languages to employ the use of the term, “African Traditional Religion” (ATR), to refer to the autochthonous religions of Africa. It is my considered view that this is incorrect. In addition, it seems that the use of this term “ATR” seems to diminish from the value of the indigenous religions of Africa as authentic religions. Some scholars even use the term “ancestral religion”. Both of the terms seem to imply that the indigenous religions of Africa are not real religions in the full sense of the word.

This paper provides a philosophical assessment of two institutions and their practices: the institution of traditional medicine and the ethical issues generated by its practice; and, the institution of contemporary African philosophy and the relevance of its practice to African societies. Taking one contemporary African society as an example, I argue that the metaphysical assumptions implicit within the practice of medicine provide new insights into the relationship between morality and religion. These assumptions also provide new guidelines on how to make philosophy more relevant to contemporary African societies.

This paper examines the roles of culture in the principles of biomedical ethics. Drawing on examples from African, Navajo and Western cultures, the paper maintains that various elements of culture are indispensable to the application of the principles of biomedical ethics.

by Catherine Obianuju Acholonu & Sidney Louis Davis

ABOUT THE BOOK

"Eden in Sumer on the Niger" provides archeological, linguistic, genetic, and inscribed evidence of the West African origin of mankind, language, religion and civilization. It provides multidisciplinary evidence of the actual geographical location in West Africa of the Garden of Eden, Atlantis and the original homeland of the Sumerian people before their migration to the "Middle East". By translating hitherto unknown pre-cuneiform inscriptions of the Sumerians, Catherine Acholonu and Sidney Davis have uncovered thousands of years of Africa's lost pre-history and evidences of the West African origins of the earliest Pharaohs and Kings of Egypt and Sumer such as Menes and Sargon the Great. This book provides answers to all lingering questions about the African Cavemen (Igbos/Esh/Adamas/Adites) original guardians of the human races, Who gave their genes for the creation of Homo Sapiens (Adam) and were the teachers in the First Age of the world.

Because of the focus on the impact of “brain drain,” discussions centered on the African academic diaspora often fail to highlight the expansive and innovative relationships between institutions of higher education across Africa and African academic diaporans. Recent initiatives, specifically the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program, seek to build on existing and develop new relationships to promote academic exchanges and collaborations to internationalize and strengthen the capacities of African universities.

A paper on the phenomenal success of the UCKG in South Africa post-apartheid. In it, I try to account for the church's growth and attraction not in terms of macro-economic factors but local ones and ultimately describe a less than hopeful Christianity.