Personalism in the cultural area of the Africa.

Abstract

More than ever, in our times, the theme of the human being is the centre of debate. Every culture, each philosophical school seeks to reveal the mystery of man and to give sense and value to human activity. Thus personalism has taken different shapes many times in the history of philosophy. The present paper describes an African example taking as its guide the social personalism of the Bantu and the Mossi.

For the Bantu there is no dichotomy between being and Vital Force, which animates that which exists and subsists. For according to them, without this Vital Force one cannot imagine a conception of being. Everything that exists has its Vital Force. Any effort directed at diminishing or destroying the Vital Force of a person is a fault, which must be punished, not only by society but also by the forefathers in the other world. On the contrary, to contribute to enforcing the Vital Force of man is from nature and is something to be praised.

The Mossi, wishing to express at one and the same time the richness and ambiguity of the human person, have established an anthropology which is based on four elements: “sigre”, ancestral Vital Force, which is inherited from ones forefathers; “kinkirga”, a celestial, personal and immortal Vital Force; “siiga”, a terrestrial Vital Force that is a bridge between sigre and kinkira; E “yinga” Body, carnal structure where these three forces of life are united to constitute the person, which expresses itself ambiguously in society. Putting life as a first principle and placing the emphasis on the action of a person in society, African vitalistic philosophy has elaborated a social type personalism.