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~ 9 ~ CHAPTER TWO BIOETHICS: AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE1 [This chapter was first published in the journal of the International Association of Bioethics (IAB), BIOETHICS, Volume Ten, Number Three, July 1996. It was written at the instigation of Peter Singer, editor of the journal, for a special issue, under the theme: The Prospect for ‘Non-Western’ Bioethics.] PRELIMINARY REMARKS In attempting to say something about an African perspective of Bioethics, one is haunted and daunted by the historically notorious question: “Is there such a thing as African philosophy?” on which western-trained African philosophers squandered nearly two decades in debates which often produced more heat than light.2 Given certain assumptions, the presumption that there is an African Bioethics 1 I wish to thank the German Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung for a fellowship award, tenable in Germany from October 1994 to June 1996, which gave me the opportunity of having first-hand experience of certain aspects of western culture that I would otherwise not have had. I am grateful to the Archives Section of the Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) for permission to consult P.M. Kaberry’s unpublished manuscripts and Fieldnotes and to E.M. Chilver for a stimulating discussion of these, started at Oxford on 21 November 1995, and continued by mail. I am also grateful to Wole Ogundele for allowing me to see the unpublished transcripts of his conversations with Ulli Beier. My use of the German version “Kamerun” in preference to the English “Cameroon” and the French “Cameroun” throughout this essay is quite deliberate and prescriptive for reasons fully expressed in my (as yet) unpublished paper : “Colonialism and Linguistic Dilemmas in Africa : Cameroon as a Paradigm”. 2 A good glimpse of the more formal content of these debates can be found in the following sources, among many others: Paulin Hountondji, African Philosophy: Myth and Reality, London, Hutchinson, 1983; Richard Wright, African Philosophy: An Introduction, Washington, D.C., University Press, 1979; H. Odera Oruka, Sage Philosophy: Indigenous Thinkers and Modern Debate on African Philosophy, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1990. See also my two-part article: “African Philosophy: Appraisal of a Recurrent Problematic” in COGITO: Summer 1992 and Winter 1992. The informal aspects of the controversy were, however, equally significant. ~ 10 ~ worthy of the serious consideration of thinkers, especially ethical enquirers, world-wide, may be daunting to substantiate. Such putative assumptions might, for instance, be that Bioethics is something only to be encountered in books and journals and discussed during lectures, conferences, symposia, etc. Given such and similar assumptions, the task of showing that traditional African Bioethics exists and is worthy of consideration by non-Africans may be as difficult as the task of demonstrating that traditional African Religion, for instance, exists and is worthy of similar consideration. In the latter case, the incredulous reaction might be: “Wonderful! Quite fascinating!! Could you kindly describe this African Religion for us, systematically and coherently? Who was its founder? What is its Holy Book or sacred script? Who is the head of the faith and who are its most authoritative theologians? What is the approximate membership of the faithful? How much would an average preacher realise on average from the “Collection” during a typical service? What architectural style is used in building its churches? What do the liturgical vestments look like and what are the main features of the liturgy itself?” To admit that none of such questions can be answered but continue to insist that there is such a thing as African Religion worthy of the careful attention of those who inevitably think of Religion in the above terms and categories, is to set oneself a task that requires great courage even if, in the case of Religion, a very promising point of departure might be to draw attention to the palpable fact that religion as conceived above has been the source and origin of some of the most irreligious and horrendous experiences of humankind. WESTERN CULTURE AND AFRICAN CULTURE By virtue of its technological advancement, western culture is today the dominant culture of the world. This domination has been greatly assisted by the intrusion, in the form of imperialism, colonisation and neo-colonialism, of the western world in non-western worlds. The scientific-cum-technological success of the western world has, furthermore, made it to consider itself and to be generally accepted as an infallible oracle on all other spheres and all other matters. The western point of view and western philosophies and practices are...

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