Reflections on the Significance of Ethics to African Development Jimmy Spire Ssentongo 28th March 2014 A paper presented at the launch of Makerere University Human Rights Expo/ Fish Bowl Challenge Department of Philosophy It may sound a little of a truism to talk of the significance of Ethics to African Development, this is because the nexus appears to be as clear as obvious. But when we look around our society at various levels, starting with whatever unit we are closest to – and perhaps with ourselves, we realise that it is not about time for the ethicist to put down tools. Several times voices have come up questioning the relevance of the arts to Uganda’s development. In fact, it has even been suggested that such ‘useless’ courses like Philosophy are scrapped to create more room for the ‘sciences’. Such a mechanistic approach to development is partly responsible for some of the mess we witness today in Africa’s development trajectories – the failure to acknowledge that science without arts is potentially a monster. The reverse is also true. Indeed the two need each other. Nevertheless, I am not here to vindicate the Arts to which Ethics belongs. Rather, I will only try to reflect on implications of ethical gaps on development in Africa today and the role that ethics could potentially play in developing the continent in general and Uganda in particular. There is a lot going on in our society today that comes in handy to illustrate that deficiencies in ethical reasoning and behaviour come with high social and economic costs. One may argue, as some deontologists do, that we ought to do the right thing regardless of whether it is beneficial or not. I neither intend to dispute nor to engage with this argument here. Particularly because my focus is on the importance of ethics in fostering development, my argumentation is inevitably consequentialist. But this still may not preclude notions of duty for duty’s sake – for if that were practiced and in good judgement of ‘duty’ it could still lead to the development outcomes that this paper focuses on. I cannot proceed without explaining my understanding of development because some of the ethical challenges we face today basically come from the problematic meanings that we attach to the concept. I will explain my idea of development negatively, that is, by eliminating what I think it is not. Development is understood by some as accumulation of wealth regardless of the means used – and sometimes with little concern about the intricate social implications. Indeed, under the auspices of liberalism, some people have accumulated much more than they may ever need – sometimes at the expense of others. It has come to seem normal for some people to eat on the behalf of others, and without their permission! I find it rather strange that such realities are now part and parcel of a society which still proudly claims to be grounded on Ubuntu ideals. We often tell the West that the basic difference between our societies and theirs is that: while we are communitarian/egalitarian, they are individualistic. We are very quick to cite Mbiti’s depiction of traditional African society as grounded on the idea that: ‘I am because we are. Since we are, therefore I am’. But, with a few exceptions, a number of observations on our contemporary development trends make Mbiti seem to be describing either a foreign society or a generation long gone. Ubuntu has been reduced to a nice-sounding idea whose reality is limited to books and lips. Writing during the Apartheid era, in Some African Cultural Concepts, Steve Biko said: We believe that in the long run the special contribution to the world by Africa will be in this field of human relationship. The great powers of the world may have done wonders in giving the world an industrial look, but the great gift still has to come from Africa – giving the world a more human face. Forty years after Biko said the above words, has Africa given the world the ‘great gift’? Has Africa given the world a human face? Certainly not! We may not be able to give the world a human face when we are still at pain to give it to ourselves. The struggles for African independence were grounded on the ethical values of human dignity, autonomy, justice, and liberty. We were all agreed that it was unethical for one group of people to exploitatively impose themselves over others. Reading through the writings of the founding fathers of African nationalism, you get a sense that the post-independence project was to be grounded on ethical foundations. This is the spirit that characterised Nyerere’s Ujamaa, Nkrumah’s Consciencism, and Kaunda’s African Humanism. Fast forward, fifty years after ‘independence’, in Animal Farm style, our problems remain largely ethical in nature. We protested how we were being treated by other races, now it is how we often treat each other. Justice was our major concern then, justice is our concern now. We might want to note here that whereas Africa is one of the richest continents in terms of resources, it is home to the majority of the poorest people in the world. What explains this contradictory phenomenon? Contrary to the common claim that ours is a problem of resources, it is an ethical problem. Africa has turned into a theatrical scene seeming like a movie on theft. It appears like our ‘great gift’ to the world is a new form of governance, that is, leading by stealing and exploiting. Corruption has become a way of life at almost all levels of this society. Many of the supposedly free public goods and services are now only free for those who can pay for them. Many of our leaders at various levels no longer find shame in living lives of extreme pomp and luxury facilitated by public funds in a largely poor society. Whereas you are likely to find a minister in the West riding a bike (which I have witnessed in Holland), you will find ours in huge fuel guzzlers – and we often have to give them way. In Kenya now every Governor moves in a convoy! All this is indicative of an ethical crisis. Often concentrating on GDP figures without concern over distribution (‘Gross National Happiness’), we have produced a society with unsustainable glaring disparities between the rich and the poor. This is not only unethical on account of its inhumane character but also because it poses a risk for the rich – for some of the poor may not accept to live in misery while in sight of the abundance over the fence. Studies have already indicated that there is a strong link between income disparities and levels of crime in society. South Africa and America have been vivid examples. Many African countries ironically spend a lot of money on crime induced by inequality instead of addressing the causative inequalities! Though we often look at such phenomena from socio-economic lenses, they are fundamentally ethical issues. It is also increasingly becoming apparent that the development path we are taking is setting us against the limits of our planet. With the ever growing consumerist lifestyle - added to the fact that Africa has become a dumping ground for the West, we are producing waste at a rate higher than our soils can absorb, clearing forests at an unprecedented rate, and degrading wetlands to pursue what we still frame as ‘development goals’. One former Minister of Local Government was asked why many wetlands around Kampala were being degraded and he responded: ‘We should not ask what the city is doing in a wetland, rather we should ask what the wetland is doing in the city’. Certainly such human arrogance in dealing with nature has severe consequences; some for the current generation, others for generations to come. It is our ethical responsibility that we not only think of those living today but also those to come after us. Just as we may not have wanted to inherit an inhabitable planet, we ought to wish the same for those to come after us. Indeed we have done some work in conserving our environment, and that is commendable. But where we are not yet vigilant enough, let us keep in mind that our children might well ask: ‘what were our parents doing when all this was happening?’ Let us hear this question now. We do not need to look far beyond ourselves in search for answers to the above disturbing questions. The starting point is me/you as an individual. What have you done to change those things that stand in the way of the development of your continent, your country, your institution, or/and your local community? We are challenged by the African saying that: If you think you are too small to make a difference then you have not spent a night with a mosquito in a room. It is not enough to read through newspapers everyday trying to check if someone has made a change. It is the little things we do at individual level that make a cumulative effect of the general picture that we may not want to see. Ask yourself first: Am I the kind that reports to office at 10:00am only to leave a few hours after for lunch and come back to pick my jacket and close? Am I the kind that quite often never turns up to teach yet pick my salary without guilt? Am I the kind that will cause a storm if my salary is delayed by just a week yet not care if other staff go without pay for months? Am I the kind of student that hires mercenaries to write for me coursework and the dissertation to get undeserving credit? Am I not the image in the mirror that I want to break? If you are part of it, as George Bernard Shaw said, you have no more right to consume happiness without producing it. If you are one of those people who are still courageous and resilient enough to be ethical in our challenging circumstances, do not get tired – but do not accept to be abused. It would be worthwhile to pick a lesson from those around us that not only try to live exemplary lives but also to change what they find undesirable in their society. It is good to lament but that is not good enough. As in Gandhi’s famous saying: ‘Be the change that you want to see’. Certainly, due to some natural selfish human tendencies, it might be too idealistic to expect that the above will just come from individuals’ introspection and self-criticism – especially those of us who have been raised in morally crippling environments. As the saying goes, ‘it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men [and women]’. Some institutional measures that are not simply cosmetic will be necessary in creating an environment where there are personal prices to pay for unethical behaviour. We notice that one of the reasons as to why unethical behaviour (especially corruption) is becoming so deeply entrenched in our public service is because quite often one can get away with their misconduct. Penalties are rare and often selective! Many institutions for the promotion of ethics are in place and they could be doing some good work already, but considering the degree of injustice and theft we still witness, they are yet to make themselves felt. But this can only occur with increased awareness, social consciousness, and demand for accountability from below. The dynamics of how this can come about can be debated. One of the ways of contributing to this change that was initiated by the Department of Philosophy is by introducing the study programme in Ethics and Human Rights. Of course debate has been going on since ancient times if teaching Ethics can make people ethical – more so at tertiary level. But this should be viewed as one effort among many other necessary ones of which I invite you to contribute to. I thank you.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 15:51:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015