The Death of Philosophy and the Decline of Civilization in Africa
By Emmanuel Ariech Deng, Juba, South Sudan
Thursday, 15 May 2025 (PW) — In regions plagued by conflict and corruption, the quiet disappearance of philosophy – rational thinking, moral reflection, and wisdom – has gone largely unnoticed. Yet its absence is more than academic. It marks the beginning of national failure, continental decline, and potentially, the collapse of human civilization.
Today, in many parts of Africa and beyond, philosophy has all but vanished from our political debates, religious teachings, schools, and public institutions. In its place, we see unchecked greed, shallow populism, and an alarming disregard for ethics and reason. This isn’t just a cultural shift; it is a dangerous unraveling.
Where philosophy once served as a compass for society, guiding leaders, inspiring revolutions, and shaping moral norms, its decline has opened the floodgates for fraudulent leadership, the erosion of public trust, and the abandonment of values rooted in tradition, spirituality, and community. We are witnessing the rise of artificial power structures sustained by scandal, manipulation, and brute force.
It is tempting to celebrate the many visible signs of progress, highways, high-rises, digital technology, global trade. But we must ask where are these advancements leading us if the moral and philosophical foundations beneath them are crumbling?
What we face is not just a technological revolution, but a spiritual and intellectual vacuum. Humanity is accelerating toward a future it barely understands, with tools it cannot ethically govern. Without philosophy, we risk entering a new age of conflict, one defined not by armies and borders, but by ideological warfare, environmental collapse, and moral confusion.
Some will argue this is alarmist. But history teaches otherwise. The same loss of moral clarity and philosophical grounding preceded the tragedies of World Wars I and II. Today, the warning signs are all around us: rising authoritarianism, the erosion of truth, deepening inequality, and the global failure to respond to humanitarian crises with empathy and foresight.
Is this the deliberate work of policymakers who have lost their way? Or are we all complicit, distracted by comfort, mesmerized by technology, and disengaged from the deeper questions of meaning, justice, and purpose?
In Africa, especially, the death of philosophy has left a void. It has distorted our revolutions, weakened our institutions, and robbed our stories of the moral clarity needed to engage the world. Values that once held our societies together, respect for women, care for the vulnerable, reverence for nature, honesty, and spiritual fear of God, are being pushed aside in favor of profit, power, and personal survival.
But this is not irreversible. We must revive philosophy not as an academic exercise, but as a civic necessity. Our leaders, educators, and thinkers must return to the pursuit of wisdom, not just data, not just slogans. We must restore the moral imagination of our societies. Otherwise, no amount of industrialization or innovation will save us from the consequences of losing our philosophical soul.
If we are to survive the 21st century with any dignity, we must confront the spiritual and intellectual crisis at its heart. Not with despair, but with courage, curiosity, and conviction. Only then can we reclaim our place in the global story, not as victims of a failed civilization, but as authors of a renewed one.
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