FAMILY IN MBITI’S PHILOSOPHY: CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE TO AFRICA

ABSTRACT

‘Family’ is a group of people who are closely related to one another either by blood, marriage or adoption. The family plays a foundational role in the formation of an individual’s character or personality as well as the provision of basic needs like shelter, clothing, food and security. John S. Mbiti described the family in Africa as comprising of the nuclear family, relatives, the living dead, unborn children, including servants and slaves. For Mbiti, what the Europeans call a ‘Family’ is what is described as the ‘Household’ or ‘the family at night’ in Africa. He describes the individual as a part of a whole, having a corporate existence and finding/knowing himself as he relates to and with others. As a result, an individual is raised from birth through stages and with collective effort so that at the end of the day, he is a responsible and credible member of the society. This work is meant to do a critical evaluation on John S. Mbiti’s concept of the family in Africa and review its relevance in contemporary Africa. Does Mbiti’s view of the Family in Africa still hold water? Is the individual in contemporary Africa as responsible and credible as the ‘individual’ portrayed in Mbiti’s social Philosophy? Does the family in contemporary Africa perform its formational role in contrast to that of Mbiti’s?