African Existentialism: A Catalyst for Good Governance in Africa

Author

Abiodun Moses Jinadu

Abstract

 Africa's persistent governance crisis, marked by corruption, electoral malpractice, weak institutions, and recurrent instability, endures despite decades of policy prescriptions borrowed largely from Western liberal-democratic templates. This raises a fundamental problem: governance frameworks that are transplanted wholesale onto African soil, without regard for the lived, existential condition of the African being-in-the-world, tend to wither on contact with local realities. This paper argues that African Existentialism, understood as a fusion of classical existentialist categories such as freedom, authenticity, anguish, bad faith, and responsibility with indigenous African communal ontology such as Ubuntu, Igwebuike, and relational personhood, offers a more organic philosophical catalyst for good governance than imported models alone. The central thesis is that sustainable good governance in Africa must be grounded in an authentic existential consciousness that compels leaders and citizens alike to choose responsible freedom over bad faith, complicity, and fatalism. Employing the analytic, hermeneutic, and comparative methods proper to philosophical inquiry, the paper examines primary existentialist texts alongside recent African and Nigerian scholarship on personhood, ubuntu ethics, and governance failure. It finds that Africa's chronic instability reflects a collective existential bad faith, in which leaders evade responsibility and citizens surrender agency to resignation, and that recovering an authentic, communally answerable selfhood can catalyse transparency, accountability, and civic participation. The paper concludes that African Existentialism, properly indigenised, is a native resource capable of regenerating governance from within, and recommends its deliberate integration into political education and leadership formation across the continent.

Keywords

African Existentialism, Good Governance, Authenticity, Ubuntu, Bad Faith, Nigeria

Full Text:

Download Paper PDF

References

1. Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism Is a Humanism. Translated by Carol Macomber. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
2. Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. Translated by Justin O'Brien. New York: Vintage International, 1991.
3. Iyare, Anthony E. "Key Concerns in African Existentialism." In Handbook of African Philosophy, edited by Elvis Imafidon, Mpho Tshivhase, and Björn Freter. Cham: Springer, 2023.
4. Molefe, Motsamai. African Personhood and Applied Ethics. Bloemfontein: SUN Press, 2019.
5. Asouzu, Innocent I. Ibuanyidanda: New Complementary Ontology beyond World-Immanentism, Ethnocentric Reduction and Impositions. Zurich: LIT Verlag, 2007.
6. Afolayan, Adeshina, and Toyin Falola, eds. Pan-Africanism, and the Politics of African Citizenship and Identity. New York: Routledge, 2017.
7. Southall, Roger. "Polarisation and Transition in Africa's Democracies." Journal of Contemporary African Studies 37, no. 1 (2019): 1-16.
8. Tukur, Aminu. "Institutional Decay and the Crisis of Public Accountability in Nigeria." Nigerian Journal of Political Science 12, no. 2 (2023): 45-61.
9. Williams, David, and Emmanuel Sunjo. "Bureaucratic Inefficiency and Governance Failure in Sub-Saharan Africa." African Affairs Review 6, no. 1 (2024): 22-40.
10. Nzimakwe, Thokozani I. "Practising Ubuntu and Leadership for Good Governance." African Journal of Public Affairs 7, no. 4 (2014): 30-41.
11. Asiimwe, Joel. "A Literature Review on African Leadership and Ubuntu Philosophy." Human Resource and Leadership 3, no. 2 (2023): 25-33.
12. Patel, Mahmoud, Tawffeek A. S. Mohammed, and Raymond Koen. "Ubuntu in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Educational, Cultural and Philosophical Considerations." Philosophies 9, no. 1 (2024): 21.
13. Ugwu, Kingsley Anayochukwu, and George O. Abah. "The Concept of Authenticity in the Existentialist Philosophies of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Sartre: A Panacea for African Development." International Journal of Arts and Humanities 11, no. 12 (2023): 212-224.
14. Brookings Institution. "Governance." In Foresight Africa 2024. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2024.
15. Fagbadebo, Omololu, and Nirmala Dorasamy, eds. Public Administration, Governance and Scholarship for the Future in Africa and Beyond. Cham: Springer, 2021.
16. Bridoux, Jeff. "External Actors and Governance Reform in Fragile African States." Third World Quarterly 40, no. 5 (2019): 899-915.
17. Nicolaides, Angelo, and Sifiso Ndlovu. "An Assessment of Harambee as an African Notion towards Social and Educational Development in Kenya." International Journal of Educational Sciences 40, no. 1-3 (2023): 76-89.
18. Udah, Hyacinth, Sharlotte Tusasiirwe, Rugare Mugumbate, and Kathomi Gatwiri. "Ubuntu Philosophy, Values, and Principles: An Opportunity to Do Social Work Differently." International Journal of Qualitative Methods 23 (2025): 1-10.
19. Institute for Security Studies. "Africa Governance Futures." ISS African Futures, 2026.
20. Nilsson, Anna, and Mikael Svensson. "Negotiation, Trust, and Post-Conflict Governance in Africa." Conflict, Security and Development 23, no. 2 (2023): 145-163.
21. Barlow, Rebecca. "Resource Nationalism and Negotiated Sovereignty in Africa." Extractive Industries and Society 17 (2024): 101-112.
22. Carbone, Maurizio. "Responsible Negotiation and Africa's External Partnerships." Journal of Modern African Studies 62, no. 1 (2024): 55-74.