JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY-4TH-EDITION (AQUINO)-2022 103 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 Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 2 Issue 1 2022-June ISSN: 2786-9792 105 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 Asuquo & Musa Kwasi Wiredu and the Africa Development Quagmire 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) 106 Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 2 Issue 1 2022-June ISSN: 2786-9792 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 107 Asuquo & Musa Kwasi Wiredu and the Africa Development Quagmire 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 108 Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 2 Issue 1 2022-June ISSN: 2786-9792 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 109 Asuquo & Musa Kwasi Wiredu and the Africa Development Quagmire 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 110 Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 2 Issue 1 2022-June ISSN: 2786-9792 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. 111 Asuquo & Musa Kwasi Wiredu and the Africa Development Quagmire 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 112 Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 2 Issue 1 2022-June ISSN: 2786-9792 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. 113 Asuquo & Musa Kwasi Wiredu and the Africa Development Quagmire References Kwasi Wiredu (2020). Language Matters! 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