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The present article considers the socio-political conditions and the character of the Greek Orthodox Church's missionary activities, taking Nigeria as a case par excellence of the hopes and tensions inherent in the project. As such, the analysis touches only lightly upon the subject of Eastern Orthodox presence in Africa in general, as that would have meant an extended study of the relationship between the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the various Greek immigrant communities, and the multiplicity of local Christianities. The latter are discussed from the point of view of the Church hierarchy in Greece as well as in Nigeria. For this reason, the article is meant as an introduction to the issue and should be complemented with ethnographic material from Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swiss psychologist, and erstwhile discipline of Freud, Carl Gustav Jung was excommunicated from the psychoanalytic movement in 1913 for delving into the occult and for challenging Freud's sexually based notion of the libido. He went on to develop his own psychological method - analytical psychology - in which 'Africa' was decisive. For Jung, Africa and its inhabitants represented the 'primitive', the unconscious, 'the other', which then enabled him to conjecture about the nature of the European psyche. Jung's visits to Tunisia and Algeria in 1920, and Kenya and Uganda in 1926, were, in effect, fact finding missions to enable him to consolidate his theories. These theories were premised on a polarization between the European and 'the other', where the dualisms of 'civilized' and 'primitive' societies were mapped onto the conscious and unconscious, respectively. Nevertheless, his autobiographical ruminations in Memories, Dreams, Reflections (published just after Jung's death in 1961) and his theoretical writings show that he found these African environments to be problematic, troubling and difficult to comprehend: the African surroundings are depicted as unnerving, disease-ridden, or swarming with hidden threats and would not sit comfortably with his theoretical postulates. This essay not only considers the shortcomings of Jung's realizations of Africa, but also questions the ramifications of such notions within Jungian thinking, when taking into account the imbrication of Jung's theories in contemporary imperial discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on how the religious challenges facing Christianity in the first two centuries are reemerging in the modern world. Assessment of the present situation as Christianity meets other faiths; Challenge of cultural complexities; Ten-point proposal for safeguarding Christianity in Africa.

In this paper, the author attempts to explore some of the problems connected with the formulation and application of international biomedical ethical guidelines, with particular reference to Africa. Recent attempts at revising and updating some international medical ethical guidelines have been bedevilled by intractable controversies and wrangling regarding both the content and formulation. From the vantage position of relative familiarity with both African and Western contexts, and the privilege of having been involved, in the revision and updating of one of the international ethical guidelines, the author reflects broadly on these issues and attempts prescribing an approach from both the theoretical and practical angles liable to mitigate, if not completely eliminate, some of the problems and difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article, which is divided into three parts, first considers the debate around the universality of human rights focusing on family law in patrilineal African countries. It begins with a consideration of the discussions surrounding the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 before moving on to look at the positions of those who advocate a universal understanding and application of human rights norms and those who contend that universalism is no more than a fig leaf for western inspired values. The second part of the article argues that the whole cultural relativism v universalism debate is really about gender issues and in particular cultural justifications found in personal laws for discriminating against women. It considers and critiques frameworks advanced for reconciling global standards with local values. Finally the article advances the argument that the global/local debate in human rights is mirrored in discussions which have emerged between northern and southern feminists over priorities and strategies for challenging patriarchy. To see whether the two groups are really as far apart as the literature sometimes seems to suggest, the article examines African originated human rights instruments touching on issues of gender, and notes that they appear to reflect a universalist construct of values found in international human rights instruments emanating from the United Nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the issue of identity, primarily (though not exclusively) in relation to Africana women. The author argues that female identity in Africa today has been both negated and fractured, and that this fracture comes about through the "globalization of woman" and the universalization of both the experience of women and of female "identity." She goes on to argue that the ghost of universalism continues to hover over our conceptions of woman, especially the Other woman (that is, the non-white, non-heterosexual, non-middle class woman), despite the postmodern call for the acceptance of difference. According to the author, African female identity has been negated and fractured not only through various cultural practices, but also through colonialism, neo-colonialism, and imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay presents extensive and multi-aspect comments on the views of Professor Michael H. Mitias, one of the co-founders and former presidents of the International Society for Universalism. These factors have made it very difficult for the citizens of African countries to show the desired interest and commitment to global technological developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the opposition between linguistic relativism and linguistic universalism, regarding the utilization of language in African literature. Relativists regard the use of African languages as indispensable in the quest for an authentic African literature. For them, language is the reservoir of people's culture, or the medium that structures perceptions in culturally bound ways. Pitted against the relativist position, is linguistic universalism, that regards language as a malleable tool in the service of the transcultural creative mind. Proponents of this view reject the idea that literature is African, only if it has been composed in an African language.

How can one begin to address the question of the universalism of certain twentieth-century French philosophers and humanists when it comes to Africa? How can one explain that Lévinas, the theoretician of alterity, Merleau-Ponty, who worked on the question of intersubjectivity and was critical of Stalinism, and Weil, who fought against alienation, also produced questionable writings when it came to the colonial liberation of African subjects? How can one explain the humanism of these French philosophers and their connections to earlier historical models (primitive mentality, cultural and social hierarchies) and more contemporary anthropological and sociological works? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]