TOWARDS AN AFRICAN THEORY OF JUST WAR

Abstract

From 1957 when the first independent country emerged in Africa till date, Africa has fought over a hundred wars1. These wars which have been both inter-state and intra-state wars, sometimes called civil wars, provoke philosophical questions on the meaning and notion of war in African thought scheme. Were these wars just or not within an African conception of war- that is the means, manner and method of fighting war within the African experience? If the idea of just war were advanced through the African worldview, what principles would define it? What alternative and fresh values would be suggested by the theory? This article sets out to address these questions. To do this, the work will attempt to articulate an African theory of just war by mapping out what it would look like if it were informed by the norms, values, and micro-principles that characteristically drive philosophical enquiry in an indigenous African context. The work will draw from narratives about wars that have been fought in traditional African society as well as oral texts to achieve its position, which is roughly that a just war in African thought is war fought to protect the corporate harmony of a people who are bound and bonded together through land, the resources, and other symbols and traditions that make them distinct.