African Ethics, Respect for Persons, and Moral Dissent

This paper examines the ethic of respect for dignity within African relational ethics. Following an introduction to African relational ethics (in Section 1), Section 2 introduces two ways of respecting dignity associated with two strands of African communitarianism: strong and moderate. Section 3 tests each version by considering a challenge case involving an oppressive social structure, the Osu caste system in Igboland (Southeastern Nigeria). It argues that both strong and moderate communitarianism are compatible with respecting the dignity of moral dissenters who oppose the Osu caste system. The result is somewhat surprising: while it is generally held that moderate communitarianism is compatible with respecting dignity, it is often thought that strong communitarianism is not. The final section (Section 4) considers and replies to objections. It concludes that an African relational framework lends strong support to respecting dignity in the case of moral dissent.