Social Philosophy in Selected African Languages and Proverbs

In this chapter, African social philosophy is discussed as reflections on the origin of African societies, their ways of life, and the expression of social relations and interests as manifested in their collective social structures and worldviews of Africans. The chapter identifies the African social philosophy from their languages, wisdom sayings, or proverbs; and the nature of African social philosophy in general and the nature of social bonds, social justice, and social upbringing. Some of the findings are that society is constituted of predictable and unpredictable natures; the basis of social bondage is personal security and satisfaction of its members’ needs; society is a network of bonded relationships; social welfare is not the product of its leaders, but of the many insignificant members; social benefits should be distributed according to needs; personal needs should be balanced with social needs in the distribution of social benefits. Conclusively, the chapter found out that: a good society is where justice, which takes what is truly right and wrong for what they truly are; unjust action affects all, culprits as well as the other members of the community; true justice protects current as well as future interests of society; just competitions require matching competing abilities; to translate a temporal benefit into an entitlement is not just, to mention some of them.