GOD AND MORALITY IN AFRICAN THOUGHT

Résumé

The ideation of God, a basic human concept, due experiences and curiosity is universal and peculiar to various cultures and ages. African people like other peoples of the world have their unique conception of God, his nature and attributes. For them, God, despite his various names in different ethnicities, is the ultimate being, the source of being and all moral dictates. Notwithstanding the fact that Africans formed their concept of God from time immemorial, some thinkers are of contrary opinions. They argue that Africans had no such sophisticated reasoning capability until the coming of colonization and Christianization of Africa. Beyond this, there is a worrisome universal wave of neglect, religious indifference and abandonment of both God and moral laws. To Africans who are simply identical with their worship of God, this wave of religious indifference has started growing to a worrisome extent. Thus, this essay is concerned with demystifying God in the African context, his nature and prime of place in human affairs. The article will analytically interpret God from Afrocentric perspective. Who is God? What is his nature? Can Africa's retrogression be attributed to deviation from traditional ethical codes? To do this to this topic, the method of analysis and exposition will be adopted in this research. The finding of the essay reveals that God enjoys a privileged position as the Ultimate Being among Africans. Everything shares a spark of God - the life force.