The Relevance of Secular Humanism to the Contemporary African Society
Author: Raymond N Osei (rayoseius@yahoo.com)
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Arguments for the existence of God.
The word God does not have an ostensible reference unlike words like John Mahama,
tables and chairs. It is an hypothesis that requires arguments for its demonstration. Of
the so called five classical proofs for the existence of God none stands up to close
scrutiny. (For those interested in these proofs consult John Hick, 1964, The Existence
of God, London:MacMillan)

Relationship between religion and moral behaviour. Studies available show that there
is no obvious relation between one’s religious belief and morally acceptable
behaviour. Indeed the most outrageous immoral and criminal acts are committed by
usually religious fanatics.
These days the media feature mainly the Islamic
fundamental sects such as Al Qaeda, Boko Haram etc. But note also that the USA is
most notorious for extrajudicial killings, renditions and torture - deeds that are
supported by the Christian driven Tea Party and other right wing organisations.
So you don’t need religion in order to be morally upright. (See, e.g., Journal of Global
Ethics Vol. 3 (1) pp. 69-86)

The African Context.
Most social scientists have come to the conclusion that the dominant mode of
production in many sub-Saharan African societies was communalistic. (Admittedly
there were a few societies that were emerging from communalism to quasi slave and
feudalist societies. Typical of communalist society is that the dominant mode of
production i.e. land (flora and fauna) was publicly owned. This concept of social
capital informed their human values: such as wealth sharing, solidarity and rejection
of greed or accumulation of excessive wealth by one family to the exclusion of the
rest. In this context the African universe consisted of an interplay of forces in which
each force was connected to the other in order to maintain global equilibrium. This
metaphysic forbids piling up too much weight in one section, since such a situation
would threaten the balance and lead to chaos. This is why the traditional society,
prior to the dawn of colonization, frowned upon individualism and production for
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profit (capital accumulation). This social attitude led to the emergence of African
socialism spearheaded by African independence leaders as a counterpoint to western
individualism and capitalism, the two evils that have been the bane of Africa’s
progress.

The fit between African social values and Humanist values
African societies have always treasured social values over individual values. Indeed
the human being is first and foremost a social being before becoming an individual.
The African person derives her identity from the social norms and practices that
nurtured and formed her identity.
Therefore to be a morally upright person in an African society is to share in and
conform to the principles of social accountability, solidarity and wealth sharing.
Much as in the African society the human being, i.e., social being, is at the centre of
narrative gravity (to borrow DC Dennett’s expression) so is the case with the social
and human centred valued canvassed by humanism. It is therefore not farfetched to
recommend humanism as a philosophy of life to an African.

The challenges for humanist activists in Africa are, in any view, two:
1. How to penetrate the religious mask in order to be heard
2. How to wean humanism of its western constructs and project it as an idea of
universal appeal.
Speaking of one, my take is that the adversarial approach to religion and faith based
beliefs might not yield the best results. If we can avoid the shock therapy about the
non-existence of God and rather project the social and human values championed by
humanism, it is likely to win greater number of converts. After all humanism and
religious believes can co-exist. To buttress my point Jim Herrick’s hand book on
Humanism has this to say:
Humanists believe in freedom of and freedom from religion. They wish an
end to religious power and religious control and religious privilege, but they
accept the right of the religious to practice their beliefs and to operate their
institutions (p.28).
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With reference to challenge two I think it is the burden of African humanists to
interrogate the values of excessive individualism both at the material and axiological
levels that the western construction of humanism is bringing to our shores. We should
rather project social ethics over individual rights, because social ethics recovers the
communal values that supervene on the traditional communalist mode of production.
Wealth should be shared and not monopolised by the few, whether in the form of a
powerful state or a powerful individual. When wealth is fairly shared the ice of
religious fundamentalism will thaw.
Thank you for your attention.
References
Journal of Global Ethics: Global Corruption and Religion:An Empirical Examination. Vol.
3(1) 2007 69-86
Jim Herrick, 2006, Humanism. An Introduction Rationalist Press Association
John Hick, 1964, The Existence of God, London: MacMillan
D.C. Dennett, 1991, Consciousness Explained, Boston: Little Brown.
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