MORALITY AND SOCIAL ORDER IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICA

Authors

  • Olatunji A. Oyeshile

Abstract

We cannot evade the fact that Africa is in dire need of sustainable development. Yet as the minutes of the twenty-first century tick away, we seem to be still far from the desirable development results. Many reasons account for this: bad leadership; ethnic conflict; political crisis; corruption; dearth of scientific and technological development; religious crisis and many more. All these reasons are interconnected. How? We cannot talk about sustainable development without a desirable social order. Then how do we achieve the desirable social order that will serve as the necessary condition for development in Africa? This work provides an answer by examining the role of morality in achieving the desired level of social order in Africa. It is our contention that if we internalize certain precepts of morality, some which are universal and some which are culturally based, then it would be easier to provide solutions to our problem in Africa. The state and those in leadership position have the task of providing an environment conducive to the application of moral values that will engender social order, and which can serve as the basis for sustainable development in Africa. And since morality strives at human wellbeing which presupposes the well-being of the moral agent and the others in society, then the proper appreciation of moral values and their application within the context of the larger society will be a valuable avenue for achieving social order.

Author Biography

Olatunji A. Oyeshile

University Of Ibadan, Nigeria

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2006): January - June 2006

Section

Articles

License

Consent to Publish and Transfer of Copyright
By publishing in Prajñā Vihāra, the author agrees to transfer and assign to Assumption University of Thailand as the Publisher of the Journal, the copyright to the Article in any form, including any and all rights, interests and claims related to it.

The author does retain the following rights:

  1. The right to make further copies of the published article for their use in classroom teaching.
  2. The right to reuse all or part of the published article in a compilation of his or her own works or in textbooks of which they are the author or coauthor.
  3. The right to make copies of the published article for internal distribution within their academic institution.
  4. All proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent rights.
The author must also guarantee that:
  1. The Article is his or her original work, and has not been published previously and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
  2. It does not contain any matter that is obscene, libelous, or contrary to law.
  3. They have obtained the necessary license or written authority and paid any and all related fees for the use and reproduction of text, tables, illustrations and other copyrighted work from the owners of the intellectual property rights, and can furnish the Publisher copies of the license/written authority and proof of payment of related fees upon the signing of this Agreement.
  4. They have the consent of the Co-Authors of the article upon the signing of this Agreement.
  5. In the event that they intend to republish, reprint or translate all or part of the Article in other publications, they will secure the prior written permission from the journal Editor.

Prajñā Vihāra adopts the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND) license