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Western Culture And Yoruba Ethics: A Philosophical Analysis
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1.5 CULTURAL RELATIVISM
Cultural relativism affirms that all values
are a functions or product of their culture and reflect the interest of
their society and culture. It is a fact of human experience as
conditioned by culture.
When we study society that is different from
one another. For example, in some of the Eskimos group, they think that
it is better to take their aged people to waste lands to be left to die
rather than keeping them alive in their old age to suffer.
This is
parricide, others are abortion, euthanasia, human –sacrifice and
cannibalism. These examples so given shows that, the rightness or
wrongness of human actions means different things to different societies
or even between individuals. That is, there can be no set of moral
codes or ethical codes. Everyone ought to accept as universally valid or
individual.
1.6 A BRIEF GENEOLOGY OF THE YORUBAS
The Yoruba
society or kingdom covers the present day Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Ogun
and some other parts of kwara – state and Lagos- state and also extends
to the present day republic of Benin. Yoruba society is usually taken
together as one entity because of the homogenous traces in their
language. Despite it’s many dialects, this language provides the main
evidence of a common origin and cultural heritage.
A second
point to a common origin of the Yoruba society is the existence over the
whole country of a cycle of myths and its people and the foundations at
‘’Ile-Ife, the worlds center of the first kingdom.
1.7 THE YORUBA POLITICAL CULTURE.
The
key political unit on which government was based in all Yoruba kingdoms
was the ‘’Town’’, ‘’Ilu’’ Each kingdom is consisted of many towns, but
that did not mean that there were many independent governments in each
town or kingdom’’4. The government of the capital served as the central
government of the kingdoms, while those of the subordinate towns served
as the local government units. Both at the central or local levels, the
system of government were monarchical, that, it was headed by an Oba
(king) who was entitled to wear a crown.
The Oba was divined and was
the political and religious head of his town. As head of the government,
the Oba was regarded as a divine king, and in theory he had absolute
powers of life and death over his people. His attribute was ‘’Oba,
alase, ekeji Orisa’’ --- king the ruler and companion of the gods. He
was also addressed as ‘’kabiyesi’’ an expression which is said to be
contracted from of the sentence ‘’ki-a-bi-o-ko-si’’. That is, there is
no question of anyone challenging or querying your authority.
In a
nutshell, the Oba, in theory, had the power of life and death over his
subjects and was as, a divine king not accountable to them for any of
his deeds.
When the Westerners came, the whole old Yoruba political
ethics changed and was viewed in different was. Some people believed
that the powers of these divine kings were withdrawn bit by bit under
the pretence of indifferent rule system, and that the king’s powers were
eroded completely after the western Europeans granted the Yoruba people
independence by the politicians who took over the chair of leadership
from them.
The former role of Obas and chiefs were alternated and
decline loyalty of all sorts. The moral or ethical implication of this
was obvious and still felt in the present political rulers and Obas
relationship among the contemporary Yoruba society. Other observers saw
these changes not as obstructive or a complete distortion in the old
system but as a sort of political re-organization which still revered
the old system and placed the Obas in post which they, by tradition
ought to occupy.
After all, they said, Obas throughout the Yoruba
land are still recognized as the chief priest in all religious and
ritual ceremonies.
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