Abstract:
The social contract is one of the most influential political theories in Western
philosophy. Although the social contract theory is mainly associated with a number
of thinkers in the broad history of social and political philosophy, I am particularly
focused on the social contract theory proffered by two British philosophers, Thomas
Hobbes and John Locke. While the social contract theory has mainly been influenced
by these British philosophers, little has been done in terms of appraising its key
normative ideas from non-Western philosophical traditions. In this article, I examine
how the social contract theory might be understood differently from a non-Western
perspective, if values salient in African communitarian philosophy are properly
understood. As I attempt to establish how the African social contract theory can be
gleaned from African communitarian philosophy, I make comparisons and contrasts
between the social contract theory in the African tradition and the traditional social
contract theory in Western philosophy. I intend to make a novel interpretation of
the ideals of the former that are implicit in the African communitarian structure. I
seek to provide reasons why the African communitarian structure could be taken as
the normative basis for a plausible social contract theory in the African social and
political context.
