Towards Subjectivity

Andrew Ratanya Mukaria: Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences JJEOSHS ISSN: 2618-1517 Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences (JJEOSHS) editor@jumugajournal.org submission@jumugajournal.org http://www.jumugajournal.org Volume 2, No. 1, 2019 Towards Subjectivity: A Paradigm Shift to “Identity” in Sub-Saharan Context Andrew Ratanya Mukaria, PhD, Part-time Lecturer (Church in Society) MF-Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society andrat2004@gmail.com, andrat2004@yahoo.com or amukaria@mf.no. Abstract This article examines the ambiguity facing contemporary sub-Saharan African society. It explores the traditional Africa community, which had values embedded but that are now disintegrating. Communities have turned into primarily one symbols of identification and refuge without adding many values and meaning. Some individuals (as I sight from a context I understand—Kenya) have held their communities for their own personal and selfish gains, mostly for politics and when accused of corruption. On political, social, religious, and ecological matters, and in terms of a societal way forward, this article explores individuality within the community. Keywords: Subjectivity, Communalism, Religion, Identity, Ubuntu, Urumwe. Introduction This paper aims to explore how subjectivity (individuality) may be embraced as a new framework overcoming the “deceptive neo-communalism” within the sub-Saharan African context. The paper considers how individuality might be a constructive factor within the context. Sub-Saharan Africa is on the rise; however, it is also a context facing ambiguity and an identity crisis. Robert Schreiter and Knud Jørgensen propose that a paradigm is a kind of model or framework that helps individuals or a context to know who they are, where they are, and what to do. A paradigm grows out of a context due to needs and the demand to respond to rising issues.1 Since the independence of all sub-Saharan African nations, the context is experiencing expansion in terms of the transport sectors, education, industrialization, and a religious boom. The expansion has, 1 Robert Schreiter and Knud Jørgensen (eds.), Mission as Ministry of Reconciliation (Edinburg: Regnum Books International, 2013) 1|P ag e Andrew Ratanya Mukaria: Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences however, led to challenges to most fabrics of the society, whether they be cultural, religious, socioeconomic, and political. Kwame Bediako has shown in his work this ambiguity; how Western Christianity and colonialism contributed to the ambivalence, the very genesis to the identity crisis within the sub-Saharan Africa context.2 Per Bediako, contemporary Christianity in Africa had its origin from the West, arrived in Africa shaped by Western ideologies, and was clothed in Western cultural garments. These are factors that not only generated a religious conflict but also created a socio-cultural conflict outside the religious beliefs and cultural systems. Furthermore, their effects are felt by most fabrics of society. Bennett Odunsi states that, Besides the failure of the political leadership, religious leaders who ought to be the moral conscience of the society have likewise failed in their responsibility to offer much-needed leadership to the Nigerian society, especially ethical leadership in the face of the enormous challenges of corruption and its consequence in this society.3 Odunsi presents a non-coherent sub-Saharan society in terms of leaderships, disseminating as far as the grassroots. The non-coherency ideology has taken every basic element of society in practices and conduct. This ideology also connotes beliefs and worldviews, justifying the mindset and conduct in both the private and public spheres. The context is suffering an absence of the indigenous markers, and it needs guidance in order to reconcile with itself. The context is held in its pre-colonial glory, memories of its colonial struggles, and in its post-colonial willingness to compete with modernity. The current state has therefore eroded any sense of social-cultural cohesiveness. What is building up is competitiveness, individualism, corruption, greediness, and overt materialism. There is poverty, gender imbalances, culture relativism, ethnic nationalism, politics of patronage, and environmental degradations, to name but a few. The new forms of challenges are expressed in many ways within this context. They are visible at both personal and communal levels in a perplexing manner. These challenges should be addressed in a more integrative way, using a constructive-practical approach. A contextually relevant strategy on reconciliation on the social, political, economic, and cultural areas is necessary. However, the question of reconciling with an identity is not a new phenomenon. It is something which has been mentioned by several African scholars in different subjects. This issue is central to the sub-Saharan Africa way forward. Theoretically, this study is addressed from an African philosophical perspective and methodologically, it relies on the available written literature and from the indigenous knowledge related to the phenomenon. “Identity” in Contemporary sub-Saharan Africa Identity is not only a challenge for sub-Saharan Africa but is also experienced by the entire world today.4 However, it is a big issue, mainly in the non-Western world or the emerging nations (the formerly colonized ones). Social scientists, such as Clifford Geertz and Robert Bellah have argued that the social changes that occurred in new nations in the non-Western world before and after 2 Kwame Bediako, Theology and Identity: The Impact of Culture upon Christian Thought in the Second Century and in Modern Africa. (Oxford: Regnum Books International, 1999). 3 Bennett Odunsi, “The impact of leadership instability on democratic process in Nigeria,” Journal of Asian and African Studies XXXI, no.1–2 (1996), 66. 4 In this case, I will dwell on this issue because it is a challenge to Africa/Kenya society, a challenge to Christianity in Africa, and a challenge to constructive eco-theology in Sub-Saharan Africa. 2|P ag e Andrew Ratanya Mukaria: Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences independence are the source of an identity crisis.5 The crisis can be associated with the modernizing effects, coupled with the historical dynamics of dominations of the West in these nations.6 Asa Hilliard argues that the effects of the dynamics are the destructions of the history and narratives of the African people.7 African cultural, religious, and social ways of life have been suppressed by the Western and Arabs ones. Westerners and Arabs have been acquired as the new competing norms of the sub-Saharan African people. In turn, they have destroyed the unity embedded, creating harmonious living between sub-Saharan people and their nature. This harmony has helped them prevent inside erosion and outside exploitation of Africans. A growing number of African theologians have also attempted to handle the issue of “identity”. I identify with Kwame Bediako, who in the preface note of his book “Theology and Identity” states that, Whilst the book seeks to make contribution to the understanding of modern Christianity, it seeks to do so by situating twentieth-century African Theology within the organic tradition of Christian Theology as a whole. Accordingly, the book attempts to remove African Theology from the historical limbo in which it has often been held, caught between African “non-Christian” beliefs and values on the one hand, and Western “Christian” ideas on the other. By focusing on the problems of forging Christian identity in the context of the religious pluralisms of the second century of the Christian era and modern Africa.8 Bediako thus engages the issue of identity in the context of religious pluralism within modern sub-Saharan Africa. Another sub-Saharan African scholar who has tackled the issue of identity is the environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. Maathai addresses the issue of identity from the political and socio-cultural milieu. She contends that, for sub-Saharan Africa to make any progress, it must first face its past and address it. In her book, the Challenge for Africa: A New Vision, she analyses how its colonial history was a disastrous period for the continent, and how most problems that Africa faces today stem from the colonial past. She further discusses how subSaharan Africans under colonialism lost their identity as well as cultural and social norms that were disregarded as barbaric and uncouth. These issues have resulted in social decay, political and leadership crises, tribalism-ethnic nationalism, and environmental degradation. To Maathai, the identity crisis has opened paths for the exploitation of natural resources in sub-Saharan Africa by the West and East because a lack of self-identity has left sub-Saharan Africa both physically and psychologically scarred.9 5 Geertz, Clifford, and Robert Bellah, 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 255-310. 6 Clifford, and Bellah, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. 225-310. 7 Asa Hilliard, Dynamics of Domination: 6 steps Arab and Europeans used to Establish Dominion over black People, in (http://www.africanamerica.org/topic/dynamics-of-domination-6-steps-arabs-and-europeans-used-to-establishdominion-over-black-people). (December 18, 2014). 8 Bediako, Kwame, Theology and Identity: The Impact of Culture upon Christian Thought in the Second Century and in Modern Africa. ix. 9 Wangari Maathai, The Challenge for Africa: A New Vision. (London: William Heinemann, 2009), 4–5 3|P ag e Andrew Ratanya Mukaria: Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences In this article, I do not assume that pre-colonial sub-Saharan Africans’ worldviews were homogeneous. However, the Ubuntu philosophy10 was a shared integrated phenomenon; an aspect that tied communities. In Ubuntu, as Chad N Gandiya opines, “my life and health are always connected with that of others in the community.”11 This, in general, is the definition of what it means to be human in the sub-Saharan African context. The rising individualism and westernization of the sub-Saharan African context have limited this definitive philosophy. Through this philosophy, I do not intend that sub-Saharan Africans should embrace all that is past. My argument is that there is a need of contemporary philosophy for self-identification in all that entails the moral and ethical aspects of Ubuntu. That is the values of love, care, hospitality, and respect for one another.12 Daniel K Lapsley and Darcia Narvaez argue that the development of self-identity is related to moral personality, and lack of it leads to its opposite.13 Indeed, the development of identity is the foundation of moral personality, moral integration, emotion, and behavior. It is widely believed that organizing self-identity is crucial to the formation of a moral foundation in which an individual, or an organization, approaches issues. The existence of the sub-Saharan African community is no doubt that of communalism. Communalism defined sub-Saharan Africans social and political philosophies; it defined what it means to be human. The philosophies revolved around an African universal recognition of human worth and around a unifying worldview that encompassed the entire cosmological foundation of African society. Sindima refers to this concept as the bondedness of life. He claims that it has already been eroded by Western mechanization of the concept. For him, the answer to identity lies in going back to communalism (African communalism). This is where he presents communalism as being rooted in the African’s cosmic vision; a view shared by many African theologians and philosophers.14 Ubuntu, as mentioned above, is a Bantu word of South African context. It means that a person is a person through another person. In Swahili (Bantu language) this word is Utu— we can state “Mtu ni Utu” (a person is a personality). In my language, Kimeru (a Bantu language) is Umuntu. John Mbiti’ presents, “I am because we are; and since we are, therefore I am”.15 Personal/individual identity within an African context has always been understood in terms of his or her community. Identity was a sense of communalism rather than individualism. Mbiti discusses this philosophy, In traditional life, the individual does not and cannot exist alone except corporately. He owes this existence to other people, including those of past generations and his contemporaries. He is simply part of the whole. The community must therefore 10 Munyaradzi, Felix Murove (2009) African Ethics: An Anthology of Comparative and Applied Ethics University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. 11 Chad N Gandiya, “Mission as Healing: Reconciling Spirit and Body”, in Kirsteen Kim (ed), Reconciling Mission: The Ministry of healing and reconciliation in the church worldwide, ISPCK/UCA: Delhi, 2005, 30. 12 Chad N Gandiya, 2005. 13 Daniel K Lapsley and Darcia Narvaez, Moral development, Self, and Identity. (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. publishers, Mahwah: New Jersey, 2004), 21 14 Sindima, Harvey, “Community of life: Ecological Theology in African Perspective” in Liberating life: Contemporary Approaches to Ecological Theology, edited by Charles Birch, William Earkin, and Jay B. McDaniel. (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1990), 137. 15 John, S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy. (Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 1999), 108 4|P ag e Andrew Ratanya Mukaria: Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences make, create, or produce the individual; for the individual depends on the corporate group…whatever happens to the individual happens to the whole group, and whatever happens to the whole group happens to the individual. The individual can only say “I am because we are; and since we are, therefore, I am. This is the cardinal point in the understanding of the African view of man.16 Furthermore, Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes Ubuntu in the following manner, Africans have this thing called Ubuntu… the essence of being human. It is part of the gift that Africans will give the world. It embraces hospitality, caring about others, willing to go extra mile for the sake of others. We believe is a person through another person that my humanity is caught up, bond up and inextricable in yours. When I dehumanize you, I, inexorably dehumanize myself. The solitary individual is a contradiction in terms and, therefore, you seek to work for the common good because your humanity comes into its own community, in belonging.17 The philosophical concept of “communalism” has been discussed widely in the contemporary academic discourses. However, there has been less acknowledgement that within the sub-Saharan Africa context, there was also a sense of individual identity that was envisaged in the communality. In my Ameru community for example, a phrase such as, “Mtu umutane nuura uri into biawe” (an initiated person is one who received his properties)18 did exist. The phrase encouraged individual responsibility and ownership, thwarting laziness (however, within the domain of the community). I agree that in an African context, the individual identity is/was defined within the wider context of the community. It is necessary to acknowledge Sindima and colleagues' view, but at the same time, I draw a line of difference to the meaning of “communality” as it might be understood today, a challenge which might make it impossible to have a true and authentic African identity for the contemporary society. The philosophy of identity in sub-Saharan Africa was intersubjective, with both an objective and subjective standpoint. The identity of an individual within African society is neither “I” nor the “you”; rather, the ontological primacy of a sub-Saharan African identity is understood as it is laid in between the “I-YOU”. No one stated this better than Dion Foster. …One would be able to show that in the African worldview it is neither the “I” (individual) nor the “Thou” (community) that takes ontological primacy. Rather the ontological primacy is focused on the hyphen, the “between” of the I-Thou.19 Some of the challenges being experienced by contemporary sub-Saharan African society are due to the erosion of African ontological primacy. Most individuals have been left in a deluded ambivalence. They yearn for the most intrinsic value that defines the self in the traditional society, but equally, they are craving for what the contemporary modern society has to offer. They are in the mix—not Africans enough and not able to fit within a Western tag. The contemporary sub16 John, S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy. (Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 1999), 108 Desmond, Tutu, No Future without Forgiveness: A Personal Overview of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. (London: Doubleday Publishers, 1999), 22. 18 This is a common saying in my community, the Meru of Kenya. The message was passed to an initiate to build a responsible character of self-reliance and -defendant. A translation is “a circumcised person is someone who owns or works hard. 19 Dion, Foster, A generous ontology: identity as a process of intersubjective discovery-an African theological contribution’ HTS Theological Studies, Herv. Teol. Stud. Vol 66 n.1 Pretoria Jan. 2010. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222010000100023. 17 5|P ag e Andrew Ratanya Mukaria: Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences Saharan African society ought to define the philosophy of identity, which can be discussed under the term “self” on a more subjective ground. This is an approach that will create a foundation where individuals’ consciousness will generate more responsibilities of their doing/undoing, within the objective understanding of communalism. I identify the prevalence of unquestionable “communalism” in society as the main barrier to the process of a subjective becoming and personhood consciousness. I also argue that a lack of “individuality” is the root of some of sub-Saharan Africa’s challenges and failure of the continent’s self-sufficiency. I argue so because communalism in modern sub-Saharan Africa is being abused. Dictatorship, greed, corruption, and laziness are today thriving within the philosophy of communalism. What I mean here is that most dictators and corrupt individuals when interdicted, turn to their communities as a shield, rather than taking responsibilities of their “own” deeds and actions, and all the consequences that come with them. Ultimately, it is the society that ends up suffering. The misusers of the philosophy normally come to their communities and claim that “they are persecuted, they are lacking, they are fighting for them, and the community will at the end accommodate; for to be, is to be part of the community.”20 The “us” within my view is failing to address the socioeconomic, political, and theological challenges that are being experienced in sub-Saharan Africa. On the contrary, this view of “us” is becoming more a catalyst on “feeding” demagoguery. Thus, the sub-Saharan African philosophy of identity ought to adopt an “I” concept as the “prima facie” to philosophical thinking21 because it is “I” that can be put into focus, subjected to learning, built to self-worth, and guided to moral questioning and personal accomplishment. Additionally, it is “I” who can be led to self-worth for “us”. “I” can also be led to repentance and individual salvation. The modern-day sub-Saharan African philosophy of identity should be that of “I”, emerging and accountable to “us”. The contemporary “neo-communalism” has generated an “ethno-community” nationalism; basically, falling to abuses and impunity. “Neo-communalism” has also promoted tribalism and bad ethnicity. Perhaps, this is my “meta-perspective” due to the requirement for a kind of perspective because human beings are not only rational (thoughtful) but also emotional. Sometimes, the emotions tend to override the rationality part and pull them to places or actions they never intended. In most sub-Saharan Africans societies today, the tribe is more important than the “nation” in which he or she lives. For example, a Kenyan will think of him/herself as a Mumeru, a Luo, or a Kikuyu (these three are all Kenyan “tribe” names) before identifying as a Kenyan. Many problems result from this kind of thinking; some of these issues have to do with a lack of nationalistic communication, national pride, national cohesion, and to some extent peaceful co-existence.22 In such a context, patriotism has been challenged, and so is the commitment to the nation’s agendas. No tribe wants another tribe to dominate the government of the nation. Political support is done within ethnicity. Natural resources have been misused to benefit only a few individuals and 20 This philosophy in Kenya has gained the name, particularly within social media, of Mtu wetu syndrome (our man/woman disease…meaning we have to defend because he/she is our own). 21 When I use the term “I”, it should not be equated with the Western individualism mentality, rather this is an “I” that advances and grows from “we”…Where “we” will still hold the “I” accountable for its actions because it was in the African context. 22 The term “nation” here is used to mean “country”, which has many tribes. Tribes too can be seen as a “nation” with all markers which define a nation, or culturally existed as a nationality. 6|P ag e Andrew Ratanya Mukaria: Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences immediate communities, with short-term gains at the expense of nations’ suffering. Loyalty is to the tribe, rather than to the country. This issue has resulted in conflicts, with thousands being killed and dislocated from their homes, as witnessed in the 2007–2008 Kenya post-election violence. Therefore, this study explores “I” as a philosophy of “self”, an approach towards the sub-Saharan African philosophical dimension. I choose “I” because attempting to reconstruct “communality” past is not doing any good to the postmodern sub-Saharan African society. Neo-communalism has created ambivalence, dissidence, and hegemony. I am identifying with some few African scholars who have taken this path. However, I still hold that the African way of organizing and cognitively engaging the world should be derived from the strongly restrictive indigenous sociocultural milieu. Nevertheless, I do not fail to note the influence of Western culture upon African culture and values. Thus, we cannot characterize this influence as a norm of true African identity. We got our African “romanticized” past, influenced by the colonial effects, subsequently leading to the “cultural complexity”.23 The “self” cannot be purely free of ambivalence in a “globalized” world. It must embrace both local and global identities.24 Nyasani argues critically against this African social milieu and how these socio-cultural orders are detrimental to individual thoughts and action when he states that, ... (individuals) are merely received but never subjected to the scrutiny of reason to establish their viability and practicability in the society…Maybe, it is because of the lack of personal involvement and personal scrutiny that has tended to work to the disadvantage of the Africans especially where they are faced with a critical situation of reckoning about their own destiny and even dignity (grappling with ambivalence) (italics my own).25 Why “Self” as a new form of “Identity”? In the 1960s, cultural relativism came to dominate the social sciences, and civil rights emerged at the top of America’s socio-political agenda. Both historical movements were welcome and necessary for the emergence of increased respect for the individual and his/her humanity. There was equally an acknowledgement and respect for cultural diversity in a rapidly shrinking global community. The changes were significant and very much required improvement over the narrow Eurocentric hegemonic approaches that preceded them. The reference to “cultural relativism” is in a view that group culture (communalism) and individual personality (self) are elements of postmodern society that cannot be neglected even in the sub-Saharan African society today. I agree with everyone who states that our solution will be found only when we embrace the past. However, I am not in agreement with all that individualism holds. Rather, I concur with any African scholar who states that we should embrace the present as it concerns our past and about 23 This is a theory here coined concerning the cultural identity of contemporary sub-Saharan African society. The contemporary society is held in a state of “cultural complexity”, neither Westernized nor Africanized. 24 Globalization is an ambivalent phenomenon in two senses: first of all, in that it produces the coexistence between global and local, unification and fragmentation, homogenization and differentiation, cited from, Durba Chattaraj, (https://www.academia.edu/15438656/Durba_Chattaraj_2015_._Globalization_and_Ambivalence_Rural_Outsourci ng_in_Southern_Bengal._International_Labor_and_Working-Class_History_87_pp_111136._doi_10.1017_S0147547915000022) (on 25th January 2015). 25 Nyasani, J.M. The African Psyche. Nairobi: University of Nairobi and Theological printing press ltd, 1997), 63–69 23 James E. Lassiter, African Culture and Personality: Bad Social Science, Effective Social Activism, or a Call to Reinvent Ethnology? In African Studies Quarterly, The online Journal for African Studies in (http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v3/v313al.htm). (17th July 2013). 7|P ag e Andrew Ratanya Mukaria: Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences cultural advancement gains. In this case, I agree with scholars such as, Kenyan social commentator Mwiti Mugambi, who pragmatically argues that the future of sub-Saharan Africa can be forged from accepting and mending the sociocultural present. For Mugambi, it is only from aggressively addressing the practical problems found within African nations (cultural groups) that improvements can be made and not hiding in the African past. Mugambi asserts that, Colonisation and westernisation have brought a permanent and irreversible change in Africa… As long as we continue talking Africanisation and “going back to our roots” yet we remain quiet on the reality of modern society, we will sound foolish, out-dated and out of touch with reality… What African writers and scholars should do is deal with the issues that are affecting our society such as violence, corruption, (ecologically degradation-my own) and rising costs of basic needs, rather than waste time on the issue of “Africanness”… (T)he effects of Westernisation are here to stay and the faster we adapt to living with them the better for us and the generations to come.26 Non-association with the sub-Saharan African past is also not a way forward. However, the subSaharan African cultural values and beliefs should never be just accepted; rather, they should be reviewed and challenged within the modern lenses regarding human rights and various issues affecting society. Whichever the approach, there is a need for a counterbalanced strategy about the issues affecting the society, while recognizing the differences and conflicts that may be due to changes that have occurred without enhanced due diligence to contextualization. Regarding “self,” according to Thomas Kochalumchuvattil, the self in sub-Saharan Africa is cosmic and is built upon communitarian features within the African context. An individual is conceived to be part of the cosmic vision while representing the visible and invisible constituent parts of the universe. This is where life, in its totality, is conceived of as one the “great chain of beings” that are ontologically related to each other. For Africans, the interactions and intercommunications between the visible created order and the invisible world of God—spirits and the ancestors are only possible when human beings become the ontological mean between entities acting above and below them, meaning that “self” is only interpreted as a “complex whole”. …this stems from the very essence of the African cosmic vision which is not one where the universe is understood as something discrete and individuated but rather, it is conceived of as a series of interactions and interconnections. This general cosmic vision is particularly applicable in coming to an understanding of the relationship between self and community.27 The above view demonstrates that to understand an African person and the cosmology, we begin with “us”, a community.28 The sub-Saharan African epistemological view is a collective mind, starting with “us” and reflected in “I”. The “I” is the one which is expected to act responsibly to the betterment and existence of “us”. Hence, there can never be “us” without “I” and/or “I” without “us.” In looking to the “self” in defining human identity, and about the social ethics, the self is important in the subject form to address challenges and issues affecting the sub-Sharan African, Mugambi, Mwiti S.” Forget your past, thank colonialism!”, The people, people’s digest, January 23–29, (1998), III. Kochalumchuvattil, Thomas. “The Crisis of identity in Africa: A call for Subjectivity”, Kritike Volume 4, no.1 (2010) 108–122. 28 The understanding of community in African view is all that is the past-generation ancestors, God and spiritual world, nature, and the living. 26 27 8|P ag e Andrew Ratanya Mukaria: Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences particularly with respect to the socio-economic, political, theological, and ecological issues. “I”, as in the case of the Mau Forest Complex degradation and corruption responsible. “I” should be addressed in person and not as part of the wider community. In incorporating George Ainslie theory of the will and deliberation,29subjectivity concept influences and shapes an individual on issues including inwardness, passion, responsibility, and character. Nevertheless, according to the theory, individuals also need the society/community to thwart self-destructive behaviors.30 Furthermore, Kierkegaard in his work shows that existing as a responsible individual human being is the first condition in achieving authentic selfhood.31 It is easier to address an individual than to address a community or a crowd because an individual can take responsibility for their deeds and actions. Martin Buber, following a similar thought, states that, The person has become questionable through being collectivized… The collectivity receives the right to hold person who is bound to it in such a way that he ceases to have complete responsible, the collectivity becomes what really exists, and the person becomes derivative… Thereby the immeasurable value which constitutes man is imperiled.32 I stated earlier that the “collectivization” philosophy has rendered sub-Saharan Africa bankrupt in tackling many socioeconomic, political, and theological issues through the abuse by the culprit who attempts to use their communities as a shield. Paulo Freire suggests that the individual forms themself rather than being formed.33 Subjectivity (Individuality): the paradigm Communality has been praised in Africa and counter-posed to the individuality34 (with the understanding of “individualism”, viewed more as a Western concept). Embracing the communality/communalism is good, but in this case, I advocate for “post-communalism”. I argue that communalism is hindering the continent in making any economic, social-political, and religious progress. This might be a controversial statement, particularly given that some African scholars have identified communalism as the main foundation of the African way forward, admonishing “individualism”. I stand with them because in this case, I am not advocating for “individualism” as it is understood in the Western cultures, rather “individuality”, which is an aspect of communality. I make a distinction between “individuality” and “individualism” from Peter Critchley quote building from Marx’s writing, Marx enables us to distinguish between individuality on the one hand as the full realization of human powers, and individualism on the other as egoistic monadic and as making the individual “the plaything of alien powers”35 Humans manifests themselves in individuality, through the development of their personality and talents, in which an individual becomes different from others. At the same time, individuality 29 George Ainslie, Breakdown of Will, (Cambridge University press: Edinburgh, 2001). George Ainslie, 2001. 31 Søren Kierkegaard, The Point of View for My Work as an Author. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1939), 122. 32 Buber, Martin, Between Man and Man. (London: Rutledge Classics 2002), 80 33 Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (New York: Continuum, 1970 34 I am advocating for individuality and not individualism. Individuality is a concept that will stand for the aggregate qualities of a person that distinguishes that person from the rest. The interests of an individual are different from those interests of the community. 35 Peter Critchley, Individualism and Individuality, cited from, (https://www.academia.edu/787997/Individualism_and_Individuality)(22nd January 2015). 30 9|P ag e Andrew Ratanya Mukaria: Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences encourages a man/woman to develop his/her intensely social character by participating in life together in a community, acknowledging a moral law and promoting the common good. The more specific, richer, and stronger the personal life is, the more intense the social life. Thus, individuality results in stronger communities. Individualism, on the other hand, is a deformation of individuality by which a human makes him/herself the center of an enclosed world of personal self-interest that tends to disregard the social character of his/her role in the community. Individualism is a total detachment from the community.36 Nevertheless, the conceptual communality I disagree with is that form which has been so detrimental in sub-Saharan Africa advancement and progress; a form that has cemented ethnonationalism and cultural fundamentalism, with a strong emphasis on identification and devotion to one’s ethnic group at the expense of others.37 It is that form which is based on the assumption of common identity—a belief that people belong to a specific group because they share history, language, culture, and historic space, restricting them to embrace the differences and qualities displayed in others, determining its membership strictly based on loyalty to every cultural norm, even those norms that might be dehumanizing. This kind of communality identity is demeaning and damaging if all that is needed is adhering to a status quo. That being the case, many evils have been witnessed in sub-Saharan African due to individuals’ self-elevation based on one’s own ethnic/cultural identity to be a man/woman, or cultural identity to be human at the expense of other parties, including nature. The current crisis, be it politics, ecological, or social, are related to some of the above factors, where individuals of power abuse their strong communal identity as shields against their evils. For any positive development or any change to be realized, and in this case, I am particularly keen on reconciliation to human challenges related to political, social and environmental activities in Kenya, a call for the development of subjectivity is necessary. This will be an essential and valuable methodology in addressing the human ecology.38 Through the process of “individuality,” I suppose a process of reflection and self-criticism on any action taken by an individual. The collectiveness of the “evils” as it has been seen, is not helping in any way. A single individual is the most decisive for emphasizing to a larger scale for a better and progressive society because the individuality that I am talking about cannot be detached from the community. It is an approach emphasizing the importance of an individual. I am not departing from the communal concept, but I hold that for any real development in subSaharan Africa, the community should not be the starting point, but rather an individual should be. In socio-ecological perspectives, we see that it is through an individual that a community exists. A person is the simplest cell of a community. In instituting and maintaining the communal lifestyle and reducing any damage, it is a person who is called to responsibility. This individual is governed by wider community norms and values, which regulate the entire issue. From the Ameru communal understanding, I bring the concept “Urumwe”, which holds both “individuality and communality”. In Urumwe, an individual encourages person determination and transformation, while the community upholds togetherness in terms of kinship, clan, or John Horvat II, Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society: Where We’ve Been, How We Got Here, and Where We Need to Go. (Hannover: York Press, 2013),74 37 Ethnonationalism and Cultural fundamentalisms are hegemonic and ethno-conceptualized beliefs in ones’ cultural superiority. In doing so, it has enacted violence against self and others. 38 Human ecology means culture, power and sustainability. 36 10 | P a g e Andrew Ratanya Mukaria: Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences ethnicity. Urumwe brings an individual, community, and their environment together. The Urumwe concept shows that it is through relationship that we build an identity: a relationship that is not limited to humans. In Kimeru, Umwe means “one”; thus, this word represents an individual, whereas “Uru” means “relationship” to a kinship or a clan. Urumwe, therefore, indicates togetherness and a symbol of communality. The diagram below contains my conceptual thinking to this approach. Individual Community Ecology Conceptual thoughts of individuality in communality—Urumwe. “Urumwe” self-determination Ecology is the wider circle in this figure, comprising both the community and individual existence. An individual is the epicenter of that relationship, a determinant factor to both community existence and ecological. This individual can be a human, animal, tree, or even inanimate things. If either party is taken away, ecology, community, or the individual, all become venerable and exposed. The key responsibility within the cell is an individual, who can be considered as the simplest unit, or the constructive cell of the existence of the circle. The community should promote attitude, behavior, and beliefs within an individual. These factors then will prevent any damage to the existence of the circle as seen above. An individual is an important member because they can be taught new skills that will better their relationship with the wider unit, leading to an improved communality and creating an understanding of inside-out and outside-in. This is a conceptual understanding of how an individual is influenced by/or relates with a wider community and how the community relates with/influences an individual. It is a person who holds values, attitudes, motivations, and intentions towards life and goals. These attributes, even though more subjective, do not simply emerge by mere believe; rather, they emerge from experiences of being part of the whole—from outside to us or inside to the community. The outside-in means that we are shaped by the communities we come from. For example, if one grows up in a community where overconsumption is justified, or corruption, then the person 11 | P a g e Andrew Ratanya Mukaria: Jumuga Journal of Education, Oral Studies, and Human Sciences embodies a conceptual attitude that shapes an attitude or a feeling that consumption is part of their happiness or corruption is justifiable, respectively. The inside-out indicates how we respond to the community from a subjective point of view. For example, if one resists corruption, or overconsumption even though it is one of the “norms” within a community, that conceptual attitude is developed from “self” and an inner response against some detrimental communal dictates. This attitude may include an inner struggle between two opposing forces—one within us to maintain the status quo, and one from the outside us. Within the Kenyan context, I view the Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai as a perfect example of a person who stood in both divides towards saving the environment. She was bruised, chained, harassed, jailed, but stood her ground against all forces. She used indigenous values and wisdom to thwart pressures, but additionally, she had a personal “jihad”39 against contemporary society. Self-determination against all odds was her zeal for the ecologicalcommunity-individual existence. To embrace “individuality” is to be free, while still not holding other captives. The neo-communalism, as noted earlier, creates ethnic divisions, resulting in the failure of an amalgamated society, and is teaming up and dealing with the current challenges. Bibliography Bediako, Kwame (1995). Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion. 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