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Abstract 

This paper seeks to give a critical analysis of  Kwasi Wiredu's thought on the African 
development project, with a view of accessing to what extent his philosophical 
prescriptions can aid Africa in realizing holistic development. This task finds significance 
because the crisis of postcolonial African States is anchor on the choice of pathway that 
Africans can follow in achieving holistic development, modernization and progress. The 
challenges that confront the African development project are perennial and hydra-
headed, such that placed the current developmental state of Africa in a quagmire. Using 
the expository and analytic method, the paper identify Wiredu's thought as titling towards 
cultural hybridity and heterosis which entails that the blending of  positive elements in 
African, western and non-western cultures into a 'whole' that can be used for self-
definition of Africans, in order to forge a pathway for more holistic development, 
modernization and progress. The practical application of this principle is that Africans 
must imbibe the scientific and technological mode of thought that is predominate in 
western culture; adopt inclusive education and redefine African moral values in the light 
of contemporary African experience. This paper agree with Wiredu submissions but add 
that self-definition can only be possible after self-retrieval. It is only a self that is aware of 
its identity that can define it in relation to the other. Self-retrieval is an exercise in self-
criticism that is necessary to disentangle the African self from the cultural, 
epistemological and spiritual hegemony of the west. African intelligentsia and the 
political class must lead in this exercise of self-retrieval.   

Keywords: Africa, Development, Kwesi Wiredu, Philosophy, hybridity 

INTRODUCTION 
Kwasi Wireduis a Ghana-born distinguished African Philosopher who has contributed 
immensely to the development of philosophy asa discipline across Africa. His 
contributions to the development of African Philosophy is very significant. As a 
philosopher, he has been involved for decades with a project he terms “conceptual 
decolonization” in contemporary African systems of thought (Osha, 2021).This paper 
seeks to give a critical analysis of Wiredu's thought on the African development project, 
with a view of accessing to what extent his philosophical prescriptions can aid Africa in 
realizing holistic development. This task finds significance because the crisis of 
postcolonial African States is anchor on the choice of pathway that Africans can follow in 
achieving holistic development, modernization and progress.
The challenges that confront the African development project are perennial and hydra-

KWASI WIREDU AND THE AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT QUAGMIRE: 

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Gabriel ASUQUO and Augustine Ibrahim MUSA



104

headed, such that placed the current developmental state of Africa in a quagmire. This 
condition has aroused the inquisitiveness of philosophers of development like Kwasi 
Wiredu who believes that the thrust of the various crises which have compounded the 
seemingly perennial issue of underdevelopment in Africa is due to the fact that the end of 
colonialism in Africa and other Third World countries did not mean the end of 
imperialism and dominance, rather, it has assumed a more subtle yet complex form. The 
thrust of this problem is that Africans have, on the one hand, lay off their cultural, moral 
and traditional heritage and values in pursuit of western thoughts and 
innovations/inventions. This has led to a new form of psychological dependence often 
called “neocolonialism” in which Africans see nothing African as good or at most 
commensurate to those of the West. On the other hand is cultural nationalism, a kind of 
orientation which postulates a unique African world outlook or personality devoid of any 
Western enculturation. 

All these Wiredu observes as counter-productive, and has left African economic systems 
floundered alongside African political institutions. Therefore, to achieve the African 
project development, there is an urgent need to blend the positive aspect of our culture 
with those of other cultures that are constructive, such science-oriented mode of thoughts 
that are existentially beneficial so as to meet the demand of contemporary African society 
(Wiredu, 1980). This paper appraise this Wiredu's position as titling towards cultural 
hybridity but argues that a synthesis of both African culture and the cultures of the other, 
can only be productive, if Africans engage critically with the project of self-retrieval, in 
order to disentangle the African self from the precarious web of cultural hegemony. This 
self-retrieval will give the African the opportunity to be aware with what is positive in its 
culture and what is positive in the cultures of the other, in order, to know what to choose 
and what to exclude for progress. The drive for progress should be the guiding axiom for 
Africa's development.

The drive to attain progress is not limited to philosophical discourse alone, but a holistic 
drive wherethe entire communities and cultures usually aim to improve upon their 
institutions and practices in order to remain relevant.  In fact, Wiredumaintainsthat even if 
a societies loses the momentum of growth and “various habits of its thought and practice, 
and becomes anachronistic (within the context of development of the society) the solution 
is notdiscarding society; what you do is to “modernize” it” (Wiredu, 1980, p.1).For Africa 
to achieve development of its own, Wiredu posit that development must be seen as a 
continuing historical process in which all peoples, Western and non-Western alike are 
engaged (Wiredu, 1980, p.43).

CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION 
African
In trying to deal with this concept there are two perspectives that have been identified. 
According to Blocker, the word “African” means “in the style of” but they can also mean 
"within the geographical area of” (Blocker, 1991, p.198).There also appears to be a third 
sense which is “a person of”. The term African in the sense of it, means anything from or 
pertaining to the continent of Africa: People who are native to Africa, descendants of 

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natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of 
Africa; it could be ethnic groups of Africa, or even African diasporas. Thus, for the sake of 
this work, when we speak of Africa, we speak of a relation to, or characteristic of Africa, 
of its people, language, culture, geography, etc.

Development
The definition of the development is a phenomenon undergoing improvement processes. 
Etymologically, the word development is from the Latin word “dis” which means “apart” 
and from the French word “voloper” which means “unwrap”. The Oxford English 
Dictionary gives as its third meaning, “to unfold more fully, bring out all that is potentially 
contained in”. Thus, from the above meaning the term “development” can be defined as 
“unfolding the potential”. Max Weber(cited in Wolfgang, 1985, pp.20-23), combining his 
idealistic and materialistic views, understands development as a process of 
rationalization, immanent potentially to all societies and cultural circles.

Development According to Agbanusi (2012) is therefore a change from one stage to 
another. With regards to society, it is a change from one social level to another. The 
common wish of man is to pilot society to a higher or more advanced level with regard to 
economy, education, culture, politics, science and technology. These are among the areas 
of life which progress willculminate into national development (p.84). But Development 
is not only restricted to the concept of modernizationwhere supposedly, there are chains 
of industries, good road networks beautiful urban development and so forth. If all these 
are achieved andyet, the greater mass of the populace still remains mal-
nourished,illiterate, unemployed, unhealthy and generally poor, it means that such 
acountry is not yet developed. Or if there is the presence of infrastructuraldevelopment 
and yet there is no discipline and respect for the rule of lawin the polity, such a country is 
still not developed (Albert, 2012, p.33).It is in this context of development that we shall be 
unveiling Wiredu's thoughts on African Development project.

Quagmire 
According to the Macmillan Dictionary, quagmire is a situation that is so difficult or 
complicated that you cannot make much progress. Thus it can be seen as an awkward, 
complicated, or dangerous situation from which it is difficult to escape. Such situations 
are usually unpleasant or even embarrassing as is the case with the African project of 
development.

AFRICAN UNDERSTANDING OF DEVELOPMENT
The understanding of development in Africa is summed up in the views expounded by 
ethnophilosophy and professional philosophy. While ethnophilosophy thinks that the 
rehabilitation of African traditions conditions the drive to successful modernization, 
especially after the disparaging discourse of colonialism, professional philosophy is of 
the opinion that success depends on the exchange of the traditional culture for modern 
ideas and institutions (Kebede, 1999, p.32). For Kwasi Wiredu, the process of 
modernization entails changes not only in the physical environment but also in the mental 
outlook of the African peoples, manifested both in their explicit beliefs and in their 

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customs and their ordinary daily habits and pursuits. Since the fundamental rationale 
behind any changes in a world outlook is principally a philosophical matter, it is plain that 
the philosophical evaluation of our traditional thought is of very considerable relevance 
to the process of modernization in Africa (Wiredu, 1980). Other sees the synergy of the 
two schools of thought plausible. However for Kebede (1999), development would 
require a competitive spirit urging Africa not so much to copy the West as to objectify 
itself through mundane conquests (p.54).In other words, retrospective will, rather than 
exclusively forward-looking attitude, is the way to change.

WIREDU ON THE DEVELOPMENTAL CHALLENGES IN AFRICAN
One of the major challenges that have confronted the project of development in Africa is 
the challenge of self-definition. These challenges arose as a result of the transition from 
the traditional to the modern which has created a situation of uneasy co-existence 
between elements of two disparate social orientations. For the sake of this essay we shall 
concentrate on the two that Wiredu have discussed thus far: linguistic Nationalism and 
cultural nationalism.

Linguistic Nationalism
Language is a veritable tool in the development of any form of literature and philosophy 
in the world.Besides, it is a fact that when the language, religion and culture of a people 
are destroyed or taken away from them, such people are left without any value of self-
worth/esteem or self-identity. It is the impacts of these three historical problems or issues 
that Kwasi Wiredu attempt to tackle or address through his project of Conceptual 
Decolonization.Obvious of the impact of this power relationship that weakens the 
development of literature and philosophy in African languages, Wiredu (1996) was 
encouraged to imagine other ways to open up African languages even if this implies to use 
English (p.20).While he seeks to promote the establishment of African language to 
explicate the western philosophical concepts and thought, he however acknowledged 
some shades of limitation in carrying out this exercise.As such, hecautions of what is 
called “linguistic nationalism” when he writes that Africanphilosophers, trained in 
European languages, are “constantly threatened with mental de-africanisation,unless 
consciously and voluntaries to their own languages” (Wiredu, 1996, p.137).

What Wiredu (1996) is saying here is that the promotion of Self Identity ( by means of 
language), is not a matter of challenging Western hegemony in favor of a purely 
Afrocentric perspective, but rather of being done with a unilateral approach to express the 
world. His aim is to promote other ways of perceiving it than those given by English 
language and its concepts. This is made possible first of all, by identifying our differences 
and thereafter, engaging in a dialogical cross-cultural evaluation.

As we start, we must be aware of the differences: we must investigate 
thedifferences. But when we have brought the differences to attention, we 
can thenwork on cross-cultural evaluation… in the program of 
decolonization, Ienvisage two stages: first, to elicit the differences, but 
second, to use what I call theindependent considerations, i.e. 
considerations that are independent of thepeculiarities of a particular 
language or culture, to make cross-cultural evaluations (Wiredu, 2000)

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Such an ambition nevertheless requires finding a common communication 
instrumentotherwise intercultural dialogue would be jeopardized. It was this insistence 
on the dialogical aspect of decolonization that needs to be undertaken that strangely led 
Ngugi wa Thiong'o (2000) to reconnect with English. Although he always uses Kikuyu 
for his novels, he nevertheless favored English to begin his memoirs. Thus, he employs 
the metaphor of the bridge to express this point of view:

the really important thing is to see connections. It is only when we see real 
connections that we can meaningfully talk about differences, similarities, 
and identities. So the border, seen as a bridge, is founded on the 
recognition that no culture is an island unto itself. It has been influenced 
by other cultures and other histories with which it has come into contract. 
This recognition is the basis of all the other bridges that we want to build 
across our various cultural borders. The bridges are already there, in 
fact. The challenge facing, say, teachers of English literature, of African 
or of Asian literature, is to recognize and find those bridges and build on 
them (p.124).

From the above discourse we know that promoting African languages does not mean, 
according to Wiredu (1996) and Wa Thiong'o (2000), limiting oneself to a national or 
even ethnic scale. On the contrary, it is a means to reform international relations so that all 
cultures can meet and enter into dialogue. English can be a strategic tool to make this 
conversational ideal attainable. Due to its hegemonic status today, it is a vector capable of 
building bridges between the various cultures of the continent and re-establishing Pan 
African ideals.

Cultural Nationalism 
The challenge of self-definitioncannot be met through a program of cultural nationalism 
which postulates a unique African world outlook or personality. Neither can it be met 
through a desire to show the Europeans what we were before the advent of colonialism. 
Wiredu (1996, p.46) observes that such a call for a cultural renewal and revival by the 
African Nationalist, as popularized by ethno-philosophers and nationalists like Leopold 
Sedar Senghor who proposed an African mindset and an African philosophy 
fundamentally different from western philosophy, does not allow for a proper 
appreciation of the limitations of traditional culture, particularly in the areas of 
technology, welfare, architecture and medicine. The consequence of this is the continued 
reliance on modes of thought and conceptions of nature which are of doubtful value in the 
struggle toliberate ourselves from poverty, want and the hazards of nature (Oladipo, 1996, 
p.80). For Wiredu (1996, p.41), a program of culture nationalism can be 
counterproductive. A program that would be a suitable answer to the challenge of self 
–definition must involve a kind of analysis that would identify and separate the backward 
aspects of our culture from those aspects that are worth keeping. This involves blending 
the positive aspects of our culture with aspects of other cultures that are constructive, for 
example, the science-oriented mode of thought that are existentially beneficial. In the 
words of Wiredu (1996, p.60), to borrow from another culture does not necessarily imply 

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a belief in the overall superiority of that culture. No culture is perfect; every culture is 
striving towards perfection, absorbing ideas from other cultures in order to become better.
Although Wiredu (cited in Oladipo, 1996, p.81) believes that there are aspects of African 
culture that should be jettisoned, he recognizes that there are aspects that are worth 
keeping, for example, the sense of solidarity and community which informs traditional 
methods of social relations and the humanistic orientation of traditionalethical thinking. 
Wiredu's emphasis is that traditional cultures are insufficient for the African project of 
development today. There is an urgent need to appreciate the positive aspects of our own 
culture with others so as to meet the demand of contemporary African societies. What 
readily comes to mind is the question, how can this blend take place without Western 
dominating and assimilating African culture? This danger is already evident in 
globalization, which some refer to as neo-colonialism.Wiredu is calling for hybridity and 
cultural heterosis through multiculturalism and cross-cultural engagements.

According to Wiredu (cited in Oladipo, 1996, p.43), the African project of development is 
one of modernization. This involves in a broad sense, the cultivation of rational enquiry 
regarding life, and more narrowly, the application of the results of modern science for the 
improvement of the conditions of life. As he sees it, the challenge is how the human and 
natural resource of African are to be harnessed to achieve this goal of emancipating 
African from poverty, want and the hazards of nature. The cultivation of a rational outlook 
on life is one in which ideas, claims, and theories are not imposed, but truly tested against 
observable evidences and facts. According to Hountondji (2005), to be better applied, 
“traditional” knowledge should be tested again and again by the people themselves, re-
appropriated in a way that makes it possible to make the indispensable linkage with 
ongoing scientific and technological research in order to help knowledge (p.535).  This 
will help to curb the dogmatic and authoritarian mentality to which Wiredu (1980, p.44) is 
completely opposed. Hence, he observes: to develop in any serious sense, we in Africa 
must break with our old uncritical habits of thought; that is to say, we must advance past 
the stage of traditional thinking.

WIREDU'S PRESENTATION OF DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
The quest for development, according to Wiredu (1980), should be views as a continuing 
historical process in which all peoples, Western and non-Western alike, are engaged. This 
is because development cannot be seen in any absolute sense.The Western world is 
developed in a relative sense, namely in the area of scientific and technological 
sophistication. These are only some aspects and not core development. What is required is 
to balance technological achievements with promotion of human values. Thus, for 
Wiredu (cited in Oladipo, 1996, p.88), well-rounded development is one in which 
technical advancement and the promotion of human values are mutually reinforcing. In 
short, this conception of development shows that the challenge of development in African 
is not one that can be defined simply in terms of the results of scientific and technical 
application, but also in doing all of this, while simultaneously promoting human well-
being (Wiredu, 1998).

Therefore, Wiredu (1993, p.8) calls for social institution and conditions which can protect 

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the society against the “the moral inclemency of aggravated individualism,” which is a 
way of life in the west. For him, Africans will have to play a role in modern society similar 
to that which was played by communalist societies in the enlargement of human 
sympathies (Wiredu, 1993, pp.10-11). It is rightly said that there is a need for a blend of 
technical development with the virtues of traditional communalism. But how can this be 
realized without one being sacrificed for the other?How the technical can develop along 
with the humane without the latter being overshadowed? (Ogbenika, 2020, p.65). The 
problem of how this can be achieved yearns for an answer in the midst of contemporary 
exigencies. However, Wiredu (1993) is distinguished for his idea of development as 
necessarily entailing 'the infusion of humanistic values into the complex actions and 
reaction involved in our utilization of knowledge for practical purposes.

WIREDU'S ASSERTION: FACTORS CRUCIAL TO AFRICA'S 
DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Kwasi Wiredu has identifiedthe following factors as crucial to the African project of 
development: science andtechnology,education, culture and morality

Science and Technology in Development
Wiredu (1993) recognized science and technology as agents of human development, 
basically from their ability to empower nations; and the realization that Africa's scientific 
and technological underdevelopment was an important factor in the success of 
colonialism. As such science and technology is the type of knowledge, Wiredu (1993, 
p.17) submits, that is necessary for action and survival. Unfortunately, it is monopolized 
in the hands and heads of non-Africans. Besides, one of the major obstacles to the 
development of science and technology in Africa is the non-literate nature of traditional 
African culture, and the foundation of many aspects of that culture in superstition. There 
is also additional problem of the mechanics, as well as the politics and economics, of 
technological transfer, which colonialism delayed. How does Wiredu think African can 
improve their ability to develop these factors in ways that can be beneficial to them?

Education in Development
The answer to question above shows where education becomes crucial. The desired 
change from “an unanalytical, unscientific attitude of mind… the most basic and 
pervasive anachronism afflicting our society (Wiredu, 1980, p.15)”, will be a long 
process; and the principal agency will be education. It is not just any kind of education, 
but one that is efficacious in propagating a rational, analytical and scientific orientation. 
Wiredu (1980) suggests:

Starting from fairly early stages, our education needs to be given a considerable 
methodological component. Our children should be initiated early in life into the 
discipline of formal and informal logic and not into the methodology of rational 
thinking (p.15)

This kind of training will adjust beliefs to rational evidence, and enable minds to be 
capable of logical analysis and be fully aware of the nature and value of exact 

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measurement. For Wiredu (1993), 'the kind of knowledge that is need is not {only} the 
hard sciences with their technical rationality, but rather the softer parts of the social 
sciences and philosophy with their humane rationality (p.22). In other words, discipline 
and due consideration for the dignity of the human person would help in the humane 
application of the resources of science and technology. The relevance of philosophy is 
noted because fundamental ideas about our society are required for an adequate 
understanding of our problems in the first place. This is before any talk of solving it. The 
social sciences like history, economics, and anthropology, are also important because the 
empirical assumptions of these disciplines are directly relevant and infact essential for 
any fruitful treatment of the problem (Wiredu, 1993, p.22).The interdisciplinary 
dimension of knowledge is needed for a more emancipatory pedagogy.

In dealing with the necessary type of education or training needed, it is not only particular 
forms of knowledge that are necessary but also wisdom. Here, Wiredu (1993) thinks that 
there is agood reason for respectfully seeking the co-operation of our traditional sages, 
philosophic or otherwise. He asserts that this kind of wisdom can be imbibed through the 
process of socialization. Human wisdom is important, but is it sufficient to comprehend 
the abundant wealth of knowledge that reality has offer? What about metaphysical 
wisdom? Hence, education for development should be the guiding philosophy of 
education and it should be inclusive of both the hard and the soft sciences.

Culture in Development
The general belief about culture is thatit is the totality of a people's way of life. It has wide 
ranging characteristics and it is a complex phenomenon. Wiredu (1980) on his part 
conceives culture to mean more than art, song and dance…. Culture of a people is their 
total way of life, and this is seen as well in their work and recreation as in their worship and 
courtship; it is seen also in their ways of investigating nature and utilizing its possibilities 
and in the ways of viewing themselves and interpreting their place in nature (p.10). There 
are a lot of things involved in talking about the culture of a people: the manner in which 
they house and clothe themselves; their method of conducting war and arranging peace; 
their systems of statecraft, of education, of rewards and punishment and the way they 
regulate personal relations generally. What are the ideas underlying their cultural values 
and practices?The constitutive elements of a culture are of two broad types: contingent 
and constitutive elements. The contingent elements have no essential bearing on 
questions of either human well-being or truth or falsehood (Wiredu, 1992, p.65). These 
include procedures, customs and usage such as language, fashion, dance, music, 
recreation and style of courtship, to mention but a few. According to Wiredu (1992), these 
are contingent in the sense that adopting one of their forms rather that another often makes 
no objective difference to human well-being or to one's beliefs about the world…. There 
cannot be any compelling reason to change such elements of a culture in favor of foreign 
ones. To do this is to engender a diminution of cultural self-identity.

A culture need not be exclusive or nationalistic for it have its own identity and uniqueness. 
In other words, the healthy development of a cultural identity should respect other 

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people's traditional values and not ignore developments in other cultures. While 
maintaining its most valued heritage, a culture should be open to the incorporation of the 
best elements of other cultures. In this connection, Wiredu (1992) holds that, a culture can 
shed many of its traits and gather foreign accretions without losing its identity. It is within 
the context of identity that the society can grow. A society where there is a cultural crisis 
cannot thrive and experience progress. As such cultural crisis result due to the loss of self-
identity and authenticity. There is an intrinsic connection between culture and 
development because development is nothing but the 'de-enveloping' of something 
internal driving to find expressions in the external. This “something internal” is the self 
which can be objective in society, nation or the state or subjective to the individual. 
Though the 'self' is not a fixative and static entity but it is always in the process of 
becoming. Hence, development is the drive of the self towards immanent self-becoming. 
Therefore, Africa's development can only become authentic, if it starts from those things 
that are constitutive of authentic African selfhood or culture before integrating those 
things that are foreign to it.   

The importance of culture in this sense then is how the positive aspects of foreign cultures 
can be integrated and incorporated into our own to achieve progress and development in 
African. As Wiredu (1980) affirms, there are 'elements of both particularity 
anduniversality in culture' (p.200). But for him, 'culture peculiarities are accidentals. 
What defines the human species are the universals of culture…. And the basis of these 
cultural universals can be found in the fundamental biological similarity of all human 
beings (Wiredu, 1980, p.201).Thus, Wiredu is a Universalist by virtue of his 
demonstration that culture nationalism cannot lead Africans anywhere in the search for 
anidentity and their struggle to meet the challenge of development. Onah (2002) seems to 
agree with Wiredu that there are many difficulties inherent in the nationalist approach to 
philosophy, for instance, their unwritten and pre-scientific nature (p.69). In this regard, he 
opines that 'any philosophy that as a matter of principle avoids all forms of self-criticism 
will invariably become stagnant and even dogmatic. Culture is dynamic and the culture in 
which contemporary African philosophy is nurtured must be contemporary African 
culture. Else, it will not be able to rise to the demand of the contemporary African society.

bThe way forward, according to Wiredu (1980 ), lies in the readiness and willingness of 
Africans to create the conditions for a wider exchange of cultural values. He recommends 
that trans-cultural acculturation will introduce more and more diversity and, by the same 
token, more and more unity and richness into the lives of all people, as the different 
cultures of the world get to know one another more and more. In other words, one can 
expect more and more cultural unity among human kind.' The process he believes must be 
mutual and have a give and take character. For example, if African enjoy western classical 
music, some Westerners too, enjoy African music, such cross-cultural acculturation does 
not harm with side. This is in sharp contrast with, say, those forms of commercial 
globalization that bring great profits to some western companies but little to the third 
world.

Morality in Development
Morality as Wiredu (1995) sees it, is on its objective side, and essential to human kind. 

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Herein lies the universal obligation of moral rules. It is so because 'a certain minimum of 
harmonization of interests is indispensable to any tolerable form of human social 
existence (p.35).No society without morality can survive. Morality in the minimal sense 
is simply the observances of rules for the harmonious adjustment of the interest of the 

b
interest of the individuals to those of others in the society (Wiredu, 1992 ).In a more 
profound sense it 'involves not just the de facto conformity to those requirements of the 
harmony of interests, but also the conformity to those requirements which is inspired by 
an imaginative and sympathetic identification with the interests of others, even at the cost 
of possible abridgment of one's own interest (Wiredu, 1992b, p.193). In this, altruism is 
essential. It is in this way that morality is universal to all human societies. Since the 
individual must take responsibility of his own personal actions, to be moral is personal. It 
is not just personal, but also social morality is social in the Akan Society, because of their 
communal experience of human existence. It is the socialization in the broad context of 

b
the lineage that is the true source of morality in its Akan conception (Wiredu, 1992 , 
p.204).

The pattern of moral life in the wider community context is a reflection of the pattern of 
conduct inculcated at the lineage level. This implies that a communalistic orientation in 
morality will naturally bring about harmony in the society. This is typical of the Akan and 
African way of pursuing an ideal through consensus rather than majority vote. On this, 

bWiredu (1992 ) pointed out that 'a thoroughgoing, consensual approach to social issues 
can be expected to lead to corresponding procedures in other areas of social life too 
(p.204).

Wiredu (1998) observes with distress that the complexity in our urban areas in Africa has 
made the traditional ethos come under most severe strains from science and 
industrialization, as the remote and immediate causes respectively (p.21).This 
complexity of societal life and industrialization has made inroads not only in the 
communalist ethics but also basic morality itself. To allow these complexities of 
contemporary societal life to affect the very foundation of ethics would amount to 
insupportable defeatism to the force of humanly created circumstances.Since morality is 
important in the life of any society, it should be put at the service of the gains of 
development without weakening the foundations of ethics. As Wiredu (1998) puts it; 
since the ethics of a culture is a more important aspect of it, we may reformulate our 
problem as being concerned with how to exploit all the resources of the modern world for 
the benefit of our society without jeopardizing the strong points of our culture. Moral 
education will, of course, have a major role to play in fighting against the social and 
political ills in Africa, but moralism alone will not solve the problem. As Kudaje (1992) 
has said

If contemporary African is to experience real development, then African 
must aim at the moral development of her people. Not only is moral 
development justifiable in its own right, but it is a necessary condition for 
all aspects of development (p.30).

Apart from moral development, what are the other things needed to nip these multifarious 

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social and political problems from their foundation?

EVALUATION/CONCLUSION

This work has undoubtedly given an exposition and analysis of Wiredu's views on 
development in Africa. For him, the African project of development has two main 
challenges: self –definition anddevelopment. The challenge of self-definition is 
identified in blending the positive aspects of African culture with other cultures, while 
that of development is found in the cultivation of a rational outlook of life, scientific and 
technical advancement.These can be properly achieved through an effective formal 
education in science and technology, along with other disciplines like philosophy and the 
social sciences. Furthermore, Wiredu holds that thorough understanding of the 
foundations of a culture and its morals, the trans-cultural acculturation, and empathetic 
harmonization of human interests will bring further advantages to the process of 
development. However, the point of concern here is to what extend this trans-cultural 
acculturation can stretch without avoiding enculturation or westernization of African 
culture? This a very germane question that is beyond Wiredu's prescriptions. The 
plausible answer can be found in self-retrieval of the constitutive elements of African 
cultural strong points. Following blending of two culture whose ontology are at pairs of 
opposite can only lead to an outcome of the dominate one overwhelming the residual one. 
Consequently, we can only have the reinforcement of imperialism in another guise. This 
is the implication of Wiredu prescription. No wonder, Wiredu sees contemporary African 
culture as the elements to form that synthesis. There cannot be contemporary without 
traditional, hence, the traditional must be given expression in the contemporary.
More so, the next question should be: what possible infrastructure can be put in place in 
order achieve this development project, since, one of African's problems hinges on 
implementationand not just good policies? Bearing in mind the need for harmonization of 
both our indigenous values, resources, customs and philosophy with the developing 
world, how does Africa sought to promote her unique identity in terms of development in 
the face of a competitive western world? These and other questions are still unanswered in 
Wiredu's prescriptions.

Nevertheless,Wiredu holds that a consideration of the concept of development from this 
point of view must take into account the social and political dimensions of life towards 
which philosophers must address themselves. And that the African Development project 
will require a holistic approach, for the drive to attain progress is not limited to 
philosophical discourse alone, but a holistic drive where the entire communities and 
cultures usually aim to improve upon their institutions and practices in order to remain 
relevant.  There are no doubt that Wiredu's suppositions, if critically evaluated and 
employed, have the momentum to propel the Africandevelopment project to a 
significantly enhanced level, if Africans through the intellectual and political class 
engage in self-criticism that will form a self-definition that will be the basis for a unique 
African identity that will makes Africans to be aware of what is positive in the culture of 
the other in relation to them.

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