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Kasoma's Afriethics

2009; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 71; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/1748048509102179

1748-0493

Fackson Banda,

Anthropological Studies and Insights

This article reappraises Kasoma's ethical framework of Afriethics. By locating Afriethics within the wider sociopolitical context, it demonstrates the extent to which Kasoma's religious, professional and scholarly outlooks coalesced in the formulation of Afriethics. The study rationalizes the ethical orientation in terms of its underlying epistemological and ontological framework of cultural relativism. It concludes that Kasoma's Afriethics is heavily influenced by the rhetoric of African cultural exceptionalism. The reappraisal establishes, first, how Afriethics seems to downplay Africa's complex media history. Second, its overreliance on the doctrine of African exceptionalism robs it of its analytic objectivity. Third, its theoretical grounding is not sufficiently explored in terms of normative media and social theory. Fourth, its appropriation as praxis seems to disregard the interpenetrated nature of African and western media cultures. The study concludes with a call for greater dialogue about the practicality of Afriethics in a globalizing African media context.