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Grounding African Political Theory on Afro-communitarianism: Arguments and Implications.
(2023) Adeate, Tosin Blessing.; Clare, Julia.
This thesis critically analyses Afro-communitarianism as a philosophical foundation for modern
African political theories and practices. The thesis links the reception of Afro-communitarian
political philosophy in modern African political philosophy with its long-standing tension between
community and individual as well as the conflict between rights and duty in modern African
political philosophy. The attempt to resolve this tension in literature has mainly focused on the
ideas of personhood. The thesis shows how development of the personhood approach to resolving
this tension was manifested in three senses, i.e. duty-based, rights-based, and Afro-communitarian
rejectionism. These three senses are both interrelated and independent discourses in African
political philosophy. The duty-based personhood approach holds that personhood is defined solely
by the structure of the community and not the self. It contends a notion of the self whose definition
of meaningful life is generated outside the reference to community dependency. According to this
approach, an ideal individual is a communal conformist, one that prioritises the duty to the
community over the self. As a result, this approach defends a political society where concerns of
rights, especially individual rights, do not matter.
Following this approach is the rights-based personhood response. The rights-based approach
responds to the lacunae in the duty-based personhood approach. Rights-based personhood
approach is also an independent position at resolving the tension in Afro-communitarian political
thought. This approach seeks to defend the compatibility of rights with Afro-communitarianism
and its equal status with communal obligation. It argues for certain features of humans that suggest
the partial dependency of the self on the community in the definition of human personhood.
Grounding on these features, the approach established the place of rights, autonomy, and freedom
in the Afro-communitarian discourse. However, what stands clear in this account of personhood
is the persistence of the community and its overwhelming nature in framing the functions of the
political virtues of rights, autonomy, and freedom believed to be individual properties. Rights only
matter to the extent of their coherence with communal values. It becomes apparent that the idea of
individual rights remains vague, especially in the face of specific human expression in
communitarian African societies.
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The conflicts between individual and community and rights and duty in the idea of personhood in
Afro-communitarian thought stirred up the third response and the third sense of the personhood
approach, which I refer to as Afro-communitarian rejectionism. Scholars in this camp suggest the
need to have a conversation on modern African politics without Afro-communitarian ideas. This
position rests on the claim that modern African philosophy will be influenced by diverse
orientations, which are sometimes incompatible with the ideas of Afro-communitarianism.
However, the challenge with this conception of personhood is that it ruled out the possibility of a
developed modern Africa profiting from the merits of Afro-communitarianism.
While the tension between the individual and community persists, the thesis argues that attention
should be given to the analysis of the community. In analysing the idea of community, the thesis
identified the various forms of community that undergird the various ideas of personhood in Afrocommunitarianism,
namely cultural community and community as self-interested individuals. The
first form of community is the Afro-communitarian notion of community. I show how the idea of
humiliation is inherent in the ideal notion of community in Afro-communitarianism and the
conception of self it informs. The question of humiliation is omitted in the various conceptions of
personhood. For Afro-communitarianism to ground modern African political ideas and practices,
its notion of the community must be non-humiliating. Achieving a non-humiliating community
involves a review of the norms of the cultural community. I attempt this review with what I call
the doctrine of cultural permissibility.
This thesis redirects Afro-communitarian debates by arguing for a shift to the community. The
thesis concludes that postcolonial African politics can only benefit from Afro-communitarianism
preoccupied with the desire for a ‘non-humiliating’ community that accommodates plural
conceptions of personhood. This thesis would provide nuanced views on the ongoing conversation
among Afro-communitarian theorists.
Ubuntu and citizen diplomacy: a panacea and tools for diaspora organisation engagement in curbing crime and conflict in South Africa.
(2023-12) Akpan, Udoh James.; Mkhize, Sazelo Michael.
Conflict is part of human existence as there is hardly any relationship that does not become tense. However, conflict can become violent if it is not managed by the parties involved, especially when they are from different cultures. A typical case is the perennial xenophobic violence that has bedevilled South Africa because of migrants from other African countries. This paper probed into the roles and efforts that diaspora organisations in South Africa are making in establishing a mutually beneficial relationship that can bring about peace and curb crime with the concept of citizen diplomacy and Ubuntu philosophy. Using a secondary data, the paper relied on text, websites and articles from Google Scholar and other search engines to aggregate literature to interrogate the subject matter. The paper used conflict theory to argue that, as long as groups exist and interact, they will always have struggles. The paper concluded that there was a need for an intentional approach for citizen and Ubuntu diplomacy, especially by African diaspora organisations by initiating and sustaining programmes that will look beyond conflicts by the group, and foster mutually beneficial friendship, and the foreign missions of the countries need to articulate the policy and support the efforts of the diaspora organisations.
Exploring Festac Town, Lagos residents’ observations on crime and the influx of unskilled migrants from Northern Nigeria and other illegal migrants from Sahel Region.
(2022-12-03) Akpan,, Udoh James.; Bello,, Paul Oluwatosin.; Mkhize,, Sazelo Michael.
In recent times, Lagos State, Nigeria, has been faced with a myriad of security challenges which is manifest in the increase of crime in Festac Town, a Lagos State middle-class suburb. These crimes are exacerbated by the influx of unskilled Nigerians from far northern part of Nigeria and illegal migrants from other African countries, particularly from the Sahel areas known as the G5 Sahel countries —Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad due to the many challenges faced by them which include chronic insecurity, lack of economic prospects, poor access to education, inadequate job opportunities and inadequate essential services such as water and electricity. Such incursions are believed to have significant security implications for Nigeria in general, and Festac Town in Lagos State in particular since most of these migrants more often unskilled and undocumented drift into the state, and then into Festac Town because of its economic opportunities. The activities of these unskilled and undocumented migrants have coloured how residents perceive them in the state. The objective of this study therefore was to explore the observations of residents of Festac Town, Lagos. Using a qualitative approach, a structured interview was done with participants in Festac Town. Mobilising the rational choice theory, the study explored and analysed the citizens‘ perceptions of illegal and unskilled migrants in the Festac area of Lagos State. The findings indicated, among others, that security concerns such as increase in crime, mostly violent crime, and political narratives like a ‖Fulani agenda‖ to take over Nigeria are significant observations that were found to shape citizens‘ views of undocumented and unskilled migrants from far northern Nigeria in their locality. The implications of the findings raise the need for an effective and unbiased policing approach; effective management of Fulani migrants from the North to the South of Nigeria, and other illegal migrants and their activities which will include handing illegal ones over to the Immigration Service; the rehabilitation of the skilled ones from Nigeria, and repatriation of the unskilled ones to their respective states of origin in collaboration with their home governments for resettlement and skill acquisition programmes.
Theft or norm? A tale of electricity theft in rural Kwaximba, eThekwini region of South Africa.
(2023-10-30) Akpan,, Udoh James.; Mbanjwa,, Thobile.; Mkhize, , Sazelo Michael.; Sibanyoni,, Ephraim Kevin.; Makheye,, Mandisa Samkelisiwe.
The focus of this study was on the investigation of the prevalence of
illegal electricity connections in KwaXimba. The study aimed to identify the root
causes of illegal connections and explore potential solutions to reduce their occurrence.
A qualitative research approach was adopted, and 20 participants were
interviewed from rural areas in KwaXimba. Thematic analysis was applied to the
data collected. The study revealed that illegal electricity connections were commonplace
in the community, with individuals making personal decisions to engage
in the activity. Some individuals inherited homes with pre-existing illegal connections.
The study recommends implementing an electrification program to reduce
illegal consumption of electricity and to prevent harm to vulnerable community
members such as children. Organizations such as Eskom and community safety
should work together to develop programs aimed at discouraging the normalization
of illegal electricity connections in KwaXimba and other communities.
The effect of metal sulfides on hole and electron transport buffer layers in organic photovoltaics: experimental and numerical device simulation investigations.
(2022) Adedeji, Michael Adepelumi.; Mola, Genene Tessema.
Organic solar cells (OSCs) are promising alternative renewable energy sources
that often suffer from insufficient absorption of solar radiation, short exciton lifetimes
and small diffusion length of their charge carriers. Several strategies are being
investigated to overcome these challenges in a move towards the commercialization
of this solar cell technology. Increasing the path-length of incident electromagnetic
radiation within the photo-absorbing layer of the solar cell, may elongate the time
that light spends within the solar cell, thereby increasing the light-matter interaction
time and consequently the photo-absorption within the photo-active material
of the solar cell. The process described may be accomplished if suitable plasmonic
metal nano-structures are added into the solar cell matrix. This intervention may
also enhance the collection of the photo-generated charge carriers.
The effects of metal sulphide nanoparticles incorporation in organic solar cells
were studied and presented in this thesis. The metal sulphide nanoparticles were
characterized and introduced into the hole- and electron- transport layers of fullerene
and non-fullerene electron acceptors based solar cells, to elicit improved photoabsorption
via the localized surface plasmon effects and facilitate better charge
collection at the electrodes. Devices were fabricated both in an ambient environment
and in a controlled environment (Nitrogen filled glovebox). The metal sulphide
nanoparticles were incorporated in the fabricated solar devices using both the conventional
and inverted device architectures. The power conversion efficiencies of
the devices improved significantly after the incorporation of these nanoparticles.
Device numerical simulation studies were also performed to reproduce some of the
experimental results with a view to further investigating the devices and discussing
their charge transport characteristics. The simulation results show improved charge
carrier characteristics from the metal-sulphide doped devices by way of improved
conductivity and shifted Fermi level offsets which were aided by the presence of the
metal-sulphides.
Asides from successfully achieving improved device performances in the investigations
and simulations carried out in this thesis, this thesis successfully demonstrated
the incorporation of nano-composites in non-fullerene acceptors-based organic solar
cells for the first time to the best of our knowledge.