Abstract

The creeping globalization of Western institutions and ‘values’ has often come to mean their unchallenged, universal application and the imposition of specifically Western concepts on matters of life and death for many other peoples of the world. The enormously successful marginalization of other cultures by the West resulted in the well-known hegemony of power but perhaps, more importantly in the value hegemony that threatens the pluralism, freedom and variety that is natural to humanity and is itself a condition of world peace. In particular, the pervasiveness of the Western Philosophy and practice of war and peace is all but obliterating alternative contributions from worldviews and other cultures, more particularly the African. If now and again a respectful nod is made in the direction of Eastern Philosophies and the so-called world religions and ethical systems, Africa and its own ideas and institutions have always been quietly ignored and notably absent from the debate, no matter how decisive the outcome may be for the destinies of its millions. Not only does such negligence deprive global society of contributions of value, but Africa itself suffers from tile constant imposition of alien ideas that tend to prolong its suffering, perpetuate its unflattering image and delay its own moral development.