Lifemaking: Political Philosophy for Human Flourishing in African Perspective

Contents Acknowledgments Preface Vision I: The Child Lives Vision II: The Child Died Introduction Organization of Chapters Nigeria’s Problems and the Organization of Chapters 1 Lifemaking: Poetics of Politics in Traditional Africa Introduction Economy and Lifemaking The Political and Lifemaking Political Philosophy and Lifemaking Three Forms of Life and Their Political Implications Culture and Lifemaking: Elements of Participation and Separation in Life Communality and Lifemaking: Elements of Justice, Freedom, Power, and Ethics Justice and Freedom Power Ethics Concluding Remarks 2 The Philosophy of King Amakiri: Kalabari as a Political Narrative Introduction Gifts, Governance, and Political Imagination Amakiri’s Yam and Its Part Kalabari Citizenship: Between Fragment and Whole Indigenous Theory of Citizenship The Amakiri Apparatus Concluding Remarks: Sovereignty and Lifemaking 3 Amatemeso, Otherness, and Violence Introduction Notion of the Sacred and Amatemeso Amatemeso as Collective Belonging Amatemeso and Ritual of Politics Otherness and Ascent of Love: From Mother’s Mortar to Father’s Name Forms of Love The Movement of Love Ontological Violence and Amatemeso Concluding Remarks 4 Chiefs: Subjects to Freedom Introduction Arendt’s Philosophy of Politics Discerning a Space of Appearance in Kalabari Chieftaincy The Principle of Natality House System Meaning of Freedom Becoming a Chief Judgment, Decision, and Beingness of Chiefs Judgment and Decision in the Chiefs’ Sphere Forms of Fullness of Being Revealing the “Who” of a Chief Acting and Revelation of “Who” through Masquerades Concluding Remarks 5 Sediments of Life: On Poiesis of Social Immortality Introduction The General Role of the Drive for Legacy in Society Society: Religion and Organization Grounding of Ethics How the Drive for Legacy Shapes Ethical Behavior Why Kalabari Bother with Legacy? How Social Immortality Shapes Social Ethics Legacy and Its Political Erasure Concluding Remarks 6 The Excellent Self: Existential End Goal of Lifemaking Introduction The Executed God The Excellent Self Notes Bibliography Index