Living Together in Unity and Interdependence: Reviving the African Spirit of Altruism and Benevolence

How can we live together in peace? This article reflects on the need to develop an ethic of social responsibility that values and enhances solidarity. It is a response to the proliferation of violence in many African communities and seeks to argue against egoism (individualism) which it considers the root cause of much political and socio-economic insecurity across the continent. It maintains that a way of addressing this situation is the development of an altruistic mindset. The article thus attempts to combine traditional African cultural and religious narratives with comparable principles within the Christian tradition in order to explore the importance of altruistic action in the contemporary African context.