IGWEBUIKE AS THE OPERATIVE CONDITION OF AFRICAN ECO-SPIRITUALITY

While there are a few papers written on African eco-spirituality, there is hardly literature that discusses its operative condition in a profound manner in relation to the African worldview. The questions, therefore, looming at the horizon of this research is: what is the operative condition or underlying principle of African eco-spirituality? By operating condition, it is meant that which animates from within and differentiates African eco- spirituality from other eco-spiritualities, and, therefore, gives it its identity, or makes it unique in relation to other thoughts on eco-spirituality. The operative condition defines the nature, shapes, determines the direction, and the end of thoughts on African eco-spirituality. The operating condition of African eco- spirituality can also be referred to as the spirit of African eco- spirituality. It is strongly connected to the African worldview and cannot be discussed outside of this parameter. This explains why it is able to animate, determine, shape, define and direct. The concept of African worldview used in this work in relation to the operating condition of African eco-spirituality, is the African theory of the universe, which include the manner of conceiving the world and the place of humanity in this world in relation to other realities. The African worldview forms a ‘life system’ that the African holds on to consciously or unconsciously which serves as an interpretative framework for the interpretation and conception of reality as a whole. Worldview is, therefore, at the center of the African thought and expressions, and stands as the operative condition of reality: the human action and thought. Since there is a co-relation between Igwebuike and the African worldview, this work understands Igwebuike as the operative condition of African eco-philosophy. For the purpose of this study, the philosophical and complementary approaches were employed.

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