NASARA JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY

The debates about human identity focus on whether it is stable or not. Various models have been proposed about Thow human identity is formed and this seems to depend on different situations. One school of thought holds that human identity is fixed and always stable while another embraces the formation of human identity that involves a gradual process and that situations, either challenging or humanitarian could lead people to alter their identity as a strategy to survive or as a means of expressing their humanity. The objective was to understand if human identity is stable irrespective of circumstances that may suggest a modification. Should the understanding of human identity be fixed or should it be understood in terms of a process? A hermeneutic method was applied on one of Lucky Philip Dube's songs (Love Me) in order to respond to the preoccupations of this paper. The result of this research reveals that the instinct to survive (which we called situation) is responsible for the formation and change of people's identity. This work, therefore, recommends the mastery of the notion of situation identity as a means of comprehending how identities change. It uses the lived experiences of Nigerians to survive or their celebrations to explain situation identity, and then concludes by affirming that situation identity has a positive aspect which expresses our humanity.

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