Most people of Igbo extraction are worried at the alarming rate of social ills bedevilling the Igbo nation. These social evils which debauch authentic Igbo socio-cultural communal ethos include violent crimes like kidnapping of fellow Igbo brothers and sisters for ransom, hired assassinations, armed robbery, political thuggery, etc. These socio-cultural eddies not only pose security risks to people but also paralyse socio-political, religious and economic activities in Igbo land. These crimes are dialectically opposed to the authentic cultural values of Ndigbo who traditionally are known for their rich cultural values and high morality with regard to the sanctity of life and the primacy of the common good arising from Igbo republican spirit. One is left wondering why and what has changed to bring about these various cycles of moral decay which have battered our social system and our noble cultural values. This book written from the backdrop of the increasing crime rate in Igboland examines the agents of social transformation that has impacted Ndigbo beginning from inter-tribal trading, colonialism, including the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War up to the forces of globalization. It argues that the agents of social changes has not destroyed Ndigbo’s cultural values but has affected Ndigbo’s attitude toward life. It proposes Ndigbo’s moral integrity based on the conept of ezindu (good life) as the foundation of Ndigbo’s common meaning or cultural value. This book therefore, creates an awareness of the impact of modernity on Igboland and proposes a response based on Ndigbo’s cultural value, one that promotes moral integrity as a panacea to forces of secularization. It identifies the social evils which afflict Igboland and traces the problem to the breakdown of authentic cultural values of the people. It will establish a theoretical framework for analysis by locating the causes of this breakdown with a cultural dis-valuation arising from distortion in the dialectic of Igbo communities as a result of lack of integration with the forces of secularization. These unleashed greed and various forms of self-interest to the detriment of the common good. The way forward, I will argue, lies in attending to the integrity of cultural values that inform the everyday life of the people. This will be the task of those creative minority who by paying attention to the superstructural cultural values responsible for arts, science, philosophy and the human sciences will re-create cultural values responsive to the malaise of modernity in the various forms it is influencing the Igbo nation. This, in itself, will demand moral integrity rooted in authentic cultural value and greater responsibility on the part of the superstructure of culture. Christianity as the dominant religion in Igboland must be prepared to impact the life and value of Ndigbo positively and integrate Ndigbo’s cultural values in her ministry of evangelization.

The study of Christianity in the non-Western world reveals a demographic shift in the center of Christianity from the Northern Hemisphere to the South. But the contradictory aspect of the massive African conversion to Christian faith is the grinding poverty level in Africa. This condition raises important theological and ecclesiological questions that demand urgent answers. Therefore, the research objectives of this book are to examine African Catholicism's involvement in human promotion and to seek a new way of theologizing Christianity that moves sub-Saharan African peoples to action against the massive injustices that keep them poor. Drawing on Africae Munus, the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of the Second African Synod (2011), and Bernard Lonergan's notion of culture, African Catholicism and Hermeneutics of Culture argues that to truly be "the spiritual 'lung' of humanity," African Catholicism must appropriate the Christian message to transform African attitudes and personhood and so foster a self-reliant commitment to integral African development.

Where today is a specific, original and stable basis for a Political order to be found? What does the human dignity mean in the midst of the general crises of values? In the face of the ambivalent achievements of modernity and enlightenment, do the values of Christianity which until now have been regarded as the objective norm fail in its contact with the primal culture and the culture of the African communities? Where in this classes are the weakening and strengthening and specific challenges of this African People? This field of conflict must not only be described, but above all to ask about new opportunities to get out of the crisis of the value of human dignity in the Igbo society of Southeastern Nigeria. Ezenwas work seeks and aids understanding, using the facility of examining the subject of dignity in Igbo culture to throw light that casts much farther than the subject matter, begging for further inquiry into other complementary aspects of the culture. In other to achieve this, interdisciplinary research was needed.

This first comprehensive study of the Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-1970) through the lens of gender explores the valiant and gallant ways women carried out old and new responsibilities in wartime and immediate postwar Nigeria. The book presents women as embodiments of vulnerability and agency, who demonstrated remarkable resilience and initiative, waging war on all fronts in the face of precarious conditions and scarcities, and maximizing opportunities occasioned by the hostilities. Women’s experiences are highlighted through critical analyses of oral interviews, memoirs, life histories, fashion and material culture, international legal conventions, music, as well as governmental and non-governmental sources. The book fills the gap in the war scholarship that has minimized women’s complex experiences fifty years after the hostilities ended. It highlights the cost of the conflict on Nigerian women, their participation in the hostilities, and their contributions to the survival of families, communities and the country. The chapters present counter-narratives to fictional and nonfictional accounts of the war, especially those written by men, which often peripheralize or stereotypically represent women as passive spectators or helpless victims of the conflict; and also highlight and exaggerate women’s moral laxity and sensationalize their marital infidelities.

Most people of Igbo extraction are worried at the alarming rate of social ills bedevilling the Igbo nation. These social evils which debauch authentic Igbo socio-cultural communal ethos include violent crimes like kidnapping of fellow Igbo brothers and sisters for ransom, hired assassinations, armed robbery, political thuggery, etc. These socio-cultural eddies not only pose security risks to people but also paralyse socio-political, religious and economic activities in Igbo land. These crimes are dialectically opposed to the authentic cultural values of Ndigbo who traditionally are known for their rich cultural values and high morality with regard to the sanctity of life and the primacy of the common good arising from Igbo republican spirit. One is left wondering why and what has changed to bring about these various cycles of moral decay which have battered our social system and our noble cultural values. This book written from the backdrop of the increasing crime rate in Igboland examines the agents of social transformation that has impacted Ndigbo beginning from inter-tribal trading, colonialism, including the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War up to the forces of globalization. It argues that the agents of social changes has not destroyed Ndigbo's cultural values but has affected Ndigbo's attitude toward life. It proposes Ndigbo's moral integrity based on the conept of ezindu (good life) as the foundation of Ndigbo's common meaning or cultural value. This book therefore, creates an awareness of the impact of modernity on Igboland and proposes a response based on Ndigbo's cultural value, one that promotes moral integrity as a panacea to forces of secularization. It identifies the social evils which afflict Igboland and traces the problem to the breakdown of authentic cultural values of the people. It will establish a theoretical framework for analysis by locating the causes of this breakdown with a cultural dis-valuation arising from distortion in the dialectic of Igbo communities as a result of lack of integration with the forces of secularization. These unleashed greed and various forms of self-interest to the detriment of the common good. The way forward, I will argue, lies in attending to the integrity of cultural values that inform the everyday life of the people. This will be the task of those creative minority who by paying attention to the superstructural cultural values responsible for arts, science, philosophy and the human sciences will re-create cultural values responsive to the malaise of modernity in the various forms it is influencing the Igbo nation. This, in itself, will demand moral integrity rooted in authentic cultural value and greater responsibility on the part of the superstructure of culture. Christianity as the dominant religion in Igboland must be prepared to impact the life and value of Ndigbo positively and integrate Ndigbo's cultural values in her ministry of evangelization.

A 2023 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title Beauty in African Thought: A Critique of the Western Idea of Development investigates how the concept of beauty in African philosophy and related qualitative social sciences may contribute to a richer intercultural exchange on the idea of development. While working within frameworks created in post-colonial and arguably neo-colonial times, African thinkers have reacted against the mainstream view that restricts the meaning and scope of good development to economic growth and western-style education. These thinkers have worked toward a critical self-understanding of the potentials inherent in cultural, spiritual, and political traditions since pre-colonial times. Edited by Bolaji Bateye, Mahmoud Masaeli, Louise Müller, and Angela Roothaan, this collection explores branches of thought from wisdom or oral traditions to political thought and philosophy of culture. This book is urgent reading material for any policy maker, scholar, or student wishing to attend to the voices of African(ist) thinkers who search for alternative approaches to global questions of development in a time of climate change and increasing socio-economic inequality.

This book explores in depth Ikpu-ala as a social justice value in the Igbo social justice system. The traditional social justice concept of ikpu-ala provides an important conceptual framework through which adult Igbo Christians can engage in a critical and conscious theological reflections upon how they can make the Igbo Christian community fully authentic and faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a process that will highlight the total transformation of the Igbo society, which began with the arrival of the missionaries in 1885. This reflection is based on the Igbo experience and understanding of Omenala, the Igbo moral code, in which the world of the material and the spiritual, while occupying distinct domains, nonetheless remain deeply intertwined. In this book, the author explores that for the Igbo community, the reality of theology has evolved as a distinct from of experience that is deeply connected with tradition for the sake of praxis (Don Browning, 1995). Consequently, the author not only sees Ikpu-ala as authentic Igbo social justice value but also considers it as something that can be integrated into the Christian social values without either destroying Igbos longstanding cultures or traditions. The author highlights two key lessons from the Igbo integration of ikpu-ala into Christian social justice: (1) that the Igbo Catholic Church should engage the Igbo culture and traditions in a theological interactive reflections for the incarnation of the Word among the Igbo Catholics, and (2) that Ikpu-ala, with its theological values, can assist the Igbo Catholic Church in the sacrament of reconciliation and so transform the twenty- first century Igbo Catholic into an integrated and authentic Christian.

Achievement seems to be a first-class value in our world today. With the ongoing global debate on what constitutes identity, can we include achievement as one of the constituents? In the Igbo/African identity, the achievement instinct is basically innate. The ethics of this phenomenon needs an evaluation, aimed at improving the status quo. What is the plight of the Igbo/African "achieving" in the face of modern capitalistic tendencies? What has become of the many other values in her identity, which has been her pride as a race? How is her religiosity (which is inseparable from daily living) affected by "modernity" and its new trends of the achievement ethos? These are some of the issues that are addressed in this book with the conviction that theology, achievement and identity are continuity.

An inclusive and innovative account of religious ethical thinking and acting in the world. Rather than merely applying existing forms of philosophical ethics, Religious Ethics defines the meaning of the field and presents a distinct and original method for ethical reflection through comparisons of world religious traditions. Written by leading scholars and educators in the field, this unique volume offers an innovative approach that reveals how religions concur and differ on moral matters, and provides practical guidance on thinking and living ethically. The book’s innovative method—integrating descriptive, normative, practical, fundamental, and metaethical dimensions of reflection—enables a far more complex and nuanced exploration of religious ethics than any single philosophical language, method, or theory can equal. First introducing the task of religious ethics, the book moves through each of the five dimensions of reflection to compare concepts such as good and evil, perplexity and wisdom, truth and illusion, and freedom and bondage in various theological contexts. Guides readers on understanding, assessing, and comparing the moral teachings and practices of world religions Applies a disciplined, scholarly approach to the subject of religious ethics Explores the distinctions between religious ethics and moral philosophy Provides a methodology which can be applied to comparative ethics for various religions Compares religious traditions to illuminate each of the five dimensions of ethical and moral reflection Religious Ethics: Meaning and Method will help anyone interested in the relation between religion and ethics in the modern world, including those involved in general and comparative religion studies, religious and comparative ethics, and moral theory.

Africa’s unique and diverse culture, embedded in age-long business practices, presents an interesting proposition for advancing indigenous knowledge and building sustainable structures. Casebook of Indigenous Business Practices in Africa is a collection of case studies across Northern, Eastern, Central, Western and Southern Africa.