Title:
INTERROGATING HEGELIAN DIALECTICS ON AFRICA AND AFRICAN JURISPRUDENCE WITHIN PECULIARITIES OF SOCIO-POLITICAL CHALLENGES OF THE C21ST: THE HARD TRUTH

Authors:
Dr. Igonoh Joshua A ,Nigeria

Abstract:
Hegelian philosophy on Africa and African Jurisprudence has been in the eye of the storm for as long as its life-span, with critics arising mostly from Africa and foreign scholars with sympathetic disposition towards whatever Africa represents. By doctrinal approach, this paper found that some of Hegel’s dialectics deny rationality to Africans, implying inferior racial, religious, moral and jurisprudential considerations thus negating objective judgment. The paper however reasoned that toeing such conventional trend without assessing how attitude of Africans themselves tend towards justifying Hegelian position is a negation of balanced philosophical reasoning. The paper thus recommended the need for African leaders and philosophers to look beyond the otiose claim of “how Europe underdeveloped Africa” for an inward looking disposition that would wriggle Africa out of the grip of vices that have bound the Continent to her past, for proper placement in contemporary historical and jurisprudential evolutionary epoch.